Myanmar: Release Media Workers Jailed for Peaceful Journalistic Activities

On World Press Freedom Day, Amnesty International calls on the Myanmar authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all media workers imprisoned in connection with their peaceful journalistic activities […]

Resources for call for action on Sunday 3 May World Press Freedom Day – #FreeUnity5

PLEASE DO NOT SHARE TILL SUNDAY 3 MAY Graphic of the Unity Five in .jpg which can be posted on the Ministry of Information’s Facebook page. Right click the image and choose “save image as” Twitter and Facebook messages to post on the Ministry of Information’s Facebook page: Journalism is NOT a crime. #FreeUnity5! http://bit.ly/1DMoL4b […]

Journalists Silenced in Myanmar – Free the Unity Five

Journalists critical of the authorities in Myanmar pay dearly for their stories. Five journalists at the Unity newspaper paid with their freedom. On World Press Freedom Day we remind the government of their promises to foster a free press and demand freedom for the ‘Unity Five’ […]

ASEAN Governments Must end the Clampdown on Freedom of Expression

As the ASEAN People’s Forum (APF) is held this week in Malaysia in parallel to the ASEAN Summit of Heads of State, we call on governments across Southeast Asia to end the clampdown on freedom of expression and to halt the use of repressive laws to silence dissenting voices […]

Myanmar: End Clampdown on Student Protesters and Supporters

Authorities in Myanmar must end their on-going clampdown on student protesters and their supporters, said Amnesty International today […]

Myanmar – “Buddha bar” guilty verdict another blow to freedom of expression

The conviction and prison sentence handed down today against two managers and the owner of a bar in Myanmar for displaying an image of the Buddha wearing headphones should be overturned immediately and is a chilling indication of the growing climate of religious intolerance in the country, Amnesty International said […]

Amnesty International Oral Statement on Myanmar to the 28th session of the Human Rights Council

Amnesty International has submitted two written statements on Myanmar to this Council’s session , one of which focuses on extractive industries […]

Following Vicious Student Crackdowns, EU Must Stop Training Thugs

Burma has once again been in the international headlines for all the wrong reasons. Rather than making headlines for, say, realizing a sustainable peace settlement between the Burma authorities and the country’s various ethnic nationalities, or blazing a trail with genuine political reforms in the lead-up to supposedly historic and seminal general elections, Burma has reverted to type. On 10 March 2015 police launched a violent and cold-blooded crackdown on student activists in Letpadan, Bago Region, brutally assaulting students, monks, ambulance workers and journalists, and arresting scores more. Their “crime” – protesting against the undemocratic National Education Law. The same day, another group of protestors was forcibly dispersed in Rangoon. Their “crime” – protesting against the violence in Letpadan.

The grim details tell a shocking story of callousness, cruelty and chaos: medical workers beaten by police through the open doors of ambulances as they attended to the wounded; journalists attacked and arrested for recording police violence, despite wearing press badges to identify themselves; students hit with batons and stamped upon even after they had been detained; monks arrested merely for supporting the student protestors and giving them sanctuary in the Aungmyay Beikman monastery in Letpadan; and protestors dragged out of houses where they had been sheltering from the violence and arrested by police going around the local area door-to-door […]

Myanmar: Violent Police Crackdown Against Protesters Must End

The violent police crackdown on largely peaceful protesters in Myanmar amounts to unnecessary and excessive use of force and must end immediately, Amnesty International said […]

Myanmar: Scrap ‘Race and Religion Laws’ that Could Fuel Discrimination and Violence

Myanmar’s parliament must reject or extensively revise a series of proposed laws that would entrench already widespread discrimination and risk fueling further violence against religiousminorities, Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said today […]