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Myanmar’s army authorities detained extra writers, teachers, and public intellectuals than every other nation final yr, because it sought ruthlessly to stamp out the resistance to its February 2021 coup.
Based on PEN America’s newest Freedom to Write Index, launched as we speak, Myanmar’s junta detained at the very least 26 writers in 2021, and now sits third on the earth behind solely Saudi Arabia, which at present has 29 writers in detention, and perennial index-leader China, with 85.
“The surroundings free of charge expression in Myanmar dramatically worsened in 2021 because of the February 1 coup,” the report states. “Along with detentions, which usually have been adopted ultimately by authorized expenses and sentences below Myanmar’s restrictive legal guidelines, writers and public intellectuals have additionally confronted violence, threats, and surveillance, all of which have served to relax expression and the power to put in writing freely.”
The annual PEN index presents a rely of the writers, teachers, and public intellectuals who had been held in jail or detention in some unspecified time in the future throughout 2021. It contains any occasion by which a author was focused due to their work, and jailed for greater than 48 hours.
Globally, at the very least 277 writers had been in jail or unjustly held in detention in reference to their writing, their work, or associated activism, PEN mentioned, up from 273 final yr. In final yr’s index, Myanmar was recorded as having eight writers and public intellectuals in detention, inserting it in tenth place.
These figures aren’t shocking, given the ferocity of the Myanmar army’s crackdowns on dissenting opinions, however they provide additional compelling proof of the extent to which the nation’s permitted areas free of charge expression have contracted. Because the report notes, the army’s crackdown has prolonged to “broad restrictions on free expression and the power to entry and share info and commentary, notably on-line.”
“Widespread and prolonged web and communications shutdowns, coupled with elevated surveillance and the ramped up use of legal guidelines criminalizing on-line exercise, had been additionally used to silence influential voices,” it added.
This marks a pointy distinction with the scenario simply 15 months in the past. Throughout Myanmar’s anomalous decade of reform between 2011 and 2021, the federal government abolished the nation’s system of “purple pen” pre-publication censorship, and the press flourished after years below the heavy hand of army rule. New publications appeared by the dozen and teachers, artists, and writers had been emboldened to sort out points that had been as soon as seen as politically untouchable.
When the army seized energy on February 1 of final yr, overthrowing the civilian authorities led by Aung San Suu Kyi and the Nationwide League for Democracy, writers, intellectuals, and filmmakers had been among the many most vocal critics. Writers’ teams and different artistic artists additionally performed an necessary position within the Civil Disobedience Motion that was shaped within the quick wake of the coup. Consequently, they had been “focused for arrest and authorized expenses – and in some instances, they’ve been killed – for his or her civic activism and for uplifting others to affix the motion.”
Others had been arrested preemptively because of their lengthy monitor information of help for democratic rules and opposition to army rule. Amongst these was Maung Thar Cho, a professor, poet, and political satirist who, in accordance with PEN, was arrested simply hours after the army coup and charged with spreading “false information.” He was subsequently sentenced to 2 years imprisonment with onerous labor and, in accordance with PEN, is at present being held in Insein Jail in Yangon, “present process durations of solitary confinement and denied entry to ample medical care.” Additionally arrested within the first hours after the coup had been the filmmaker Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, beforehand detained in 2019, the singer-songwriter Noticed Phoe Khwar, and the writers Htin Lin Oo, Maung Thar Cho, Mya Aye, and Than Myint Aung.
As I’ve famous earlier than, the junta has additionally focused the press, detaining greater than 100 journalists throughout its menacing crackdown on anti-coup protests. About half have since been launched, however the advocacy group Reporters With out Borders claimed in December that 53 journalists are nonetheless in custody.
“In Myanmar and in nations throughout the globe, writers and public intellectuals are being imprisoned for the ‘crime’ of exercising their freedom of expression and, in lots of instances, for utilizing the ability of the written phrase to battle again in opposition to authoritarianism,” Karin Deutsch Karlekar, the director of PEN America’s “free expression in danger” program, instructed The Guardian in reference to the report’s launch.
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