Myanmar journalist Wai Wai Lwin, a reporter with the local Bago Weekly Journal, has been serving a 10-year sentence on terrorism charges since August 2022. Myanmar’s military regime has used terrorism charges broadly to suppress independent journalism since seizing power in a 2021 coup.
Wai Wai Lwin was arrested on December 27, 2021, at the Tharrawaddy District Court, while taking photographs of a political prisoner, according to the Independent Myanmar Journalists Association (IMJA), an exile-run press group, and a family member who communicated with CPJ via messaging app and requested anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Authorities seized her mobile phone and accused her of association with an anti-military People’s Defense Force group after finding journalistic communications discovered on the device, the family member said. Police later raided her news agency’s office in Bago City, forcing the independent outlet to shut down.
On August 1, 2022, a Tharrawaddy Prison Special Court sentenced Wai Wai Lwin to 10 years in prison under Section 50(j) of the Counter-Terrorism Law, which criminalizes providing material support to designated terrorist organizations, according to IMJA and the family member.
As of September 2026, she was being held in solitary confinement and suffering from heart disease, neurological issues, and chronic back pain without access to adequate medical treatment, the family member said.
The family member said Wai Wai Lwin’s health had deteriorated sharply in 2026, and that prison authorities had blacked out sections of her letters home to obscure her health condition. Her family had initially kept her case confidential, hoping for lenient treatment and an early release through amnesty, which she has so far been denied, the family member said.
She is the wife of freelance journalist Nyein Chan Wai, who was detained in May 2021 on charges of terrorism and criminal incitement.
Myanmar’s Ministry of Information did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request in September 2026 for comment on her conviction, sentencing, and allegations that she was not receiving adequate treatment for serious health issues.