Lwin Than Htike, a reporter with the local Burma VJ news outlet, is serving a three-year prison sentence for incitement, a charge Myanmar’s military junta has used broadly to stifle independent news reporting since staging a democracy-suspending 2021 coup.
In the late afternoon of September 1, 2023, Lwin Than Htike was arrested at his home in Yangon, according to Burma VJ editor Aung Htun, who communicated with CPJ via messaging app, and a database compiled by the Detained Journalists Information Myanmar private Facebook group, which CPJ reviewed. Lwin Than Htike’s Burma VJ colleague, Aung Chan Thar, was arrested on the same day.
On May 15, 2024, a court inside Yangon’s Insein Prison convicted and sentenced him for violating Article 505(a) of the penal code, a broad provision that criminalizes incitement and false news, according to Aung Htun, who communicated with CPJ via messaging app in late 2024, and DJIM’s database.
Burma VJ is a multimedia network of citizen and professional journalists that covers politics, conflict, and human rights in Myanmar. Lwin Than Htike, also known as Than Htike, covers politics, human rights, and conflict for the independent news organization.
The military junta has engaged in an ongoing crackdown on Myanmar’s independent media, detaining and sentencing dozens of journalists in the wake of the coup and subsequent protests.
Lwin Than Htike was being held at Yangon’s Insein Prison and allowed regular family visits as of late 2024, according to Aung Htun. He suffered from chronic back pain throughout the year, the Burma VJ editor said.
The Myanmar Ministry of Information did not reply to CPJ’s emailed request for comment in late 2024 on Lwin Than Htike’s conviction, sentencing, health, and situation in prison.