Myanmar freelance reporter Kyaw Lin Naing is being detained on charges of criminal incitement, a charge Myanmar’s military regime has used broadly to stifle independent news reporting since staging a democracy-suspending coup in 2021.
Kyaw Lin Naing was arrested on October 12, 2023, while reporting on a land use dispute between a local villager and military authorities at Yangon Region’s Kyauktan Township, according to an Ayeyarwaddy Record report and data compiled by the Detained Journalists Information Myanmar private Facebook group, which CPJ reviewed.
Kyaw Lin Naing’s arrest came in the wake of the military’s February 1, 2021, democracy-suspending coup and subsequent protests. Since then, the military junta has engaged in an ongoing crackdown on Myanmar’s independent media, detaining and sentencing dozens of journalists. He was not included on CPJ’s 2023 census because CPJ was not aware of his arrest at the time.
He was being held at Yangon’s Insein Prison in late 2024, according to the news report, DJIM data and a database compiled by the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners. The Ayeyarwaddy Record report said that Kyaw Lin Naing received emergency medical treatment while in detention but did not elaborate.
The Myanmar Ministry of Information did not reply to CPJ's emailed request for comment sent in late 2024 on Kyaw Lin Naing's arrest, legal status, health, and situation in detention.