Win Htut Oo, a journalist with the exile-run Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), was shot and killed by security forces during a raid on a house that he had been living in since July in Myanmar’s southern Mon State, according to news reports and DVB chief editor Aye Chan Naing, who communicated with CPJ by email.
Freelance reporter Htet Myat Thu, who contributed to the local Than Lwin Times, also died in the early morning attack by about 30 security forces on his family home, along with two members of the anti-junta Kyaikhto Revolution Force armed group, those reports said. The insurgents are one of several armed groups resisting the military government since it took power in a 2021 coup.
DVB subeditor Chan Chan told CPJ that sources close to Htet Myat Thu’s family said that the military received a tip off that resistance fighters were at the journalist’s house. Fear of the military is widespread and it is not safe for reporters to talk to rebels in public spaces in Mon State.
When the soldiers arrived, Htet Myat Thu opened the door and was shot in the hand, she said. The journalist and one insurgent were arrested, tied up, questioned at an interrogation center, and then shot dead, Chan Chan added.
Win Htut Oo and the second armed group member were killed on the spot, without resistance or questioning, during the raid, she said.
Htet Myat Thu was a well-known journalist in the area, who was previously shot in the leg and arrested while reporting on an anti-coup protest, Chan Chan told CPJ. Win Htut Oo was a close, childhood friend who sometimes used to live in Htet Myat Thu’s house, she added.
Kyaikhto is a relatively small area and it was common knowledge that Htet Myat Thu had connections with resistance force members who often visit the villages, Chan Chan said. Three other people in the house at the time of the raid survived, according to The Associated Press.
Both reporters’ bodies were cremated without being returned to their families, according to a U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Asia report.
Win Htut Oo began working as a citizen journalist for DVB in 2022 and had been a staff reporter covering news in Mon State for over a year at the time of his death, editor Aye Chan Naing told CPJ.
Myanmar’s Ministry of Information did not respond to CPJ’s emailed requests for comment on Win Htut Oo’s killing and whether he was deliberately targeted for his work.