Kyaw Min Swe, a journalist, has been arrested for uploading a black picture on Facebook to mourn victims of an airstrike sanctioned by the Myanmar military that killed at least 180 people, majority of whom were civilians.
Security operatives secretly picked up Mr Swe at his residence in Yagon on April 11 and did not disclose his arrest until last week.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the editor’s arrest may be in connection to his newly uploaded Facebook profile picture, a black square, that signified the deaths of more than a hundred people after the nation’s military brutally struck Pazi Gyi village with warplanes.
Speaking to The Associated Press, witnesses narrated the villagers’ ordeal in the hands of the Myanmar military, popularly known as Tatmadaw. The soldiers had come in fighter jets including Mi-35 helicopters to unleash destruction and chaos on villagers.
Those who had tried to escape were gunned down by the military men who had an aerial view of the village.
The military took responsibility for the attack but insisted resistance groups were the targets.
The RSF has condemned the journalist’s arrest, asserting a black picture in social media should not warrant arrest.
“Kyaw Min Swe’s arrest is emblematic of how, in a country that submits journalists to the most abject form of terror, you can end up in prison for posting nothing more than a black square, the most basic form of journalistic comment,” a statement by Daniel Bastard, head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk, said.
“The desire to erase any allusion to their atrocities is one of the characteristics of war criminals,” Mr Bastard added.
Mr Swe faces a three-year jail term if found guilty of violating Section 505A of the penal code which criminalises any publication of content deemed hostile to Myanmar military.
