Zaw Ye Htet, editor-in-chief of the local Dae Pyaw online news publication, has been held in pretrial detention under undisclosed charges since November 2022.
Zaw Ye Htet, also known as Zaw Min Oo, was detained on November 19, 2022, after attending a military junta press conference held by Deputy Minister of Information General Zaw Min Tun in the capital of Naypyidaw, according to news reports and a database compiled by the Detained Journalists Information Myanmar (DJIM) private Facebook group, which CPJ reviewed.
Win Oo, a reporter with the local NHP News, was also detained after the press conference, the reports said.
The detentions 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.
Zaw Ye Htet was still in detention in late October 2023, according to a database compiled by the local rights group Assistance Association of Political Prisoners and DJIM’s data, which CPJ reviewed late in the year. CPJ was unable to determine where he was being detained.
The Ministry of Information did not reply to CPJ’s October 2023 emailed request for comment on Zaw Ye Htet’s legal status, whereabouts, and health.