Bangkok, November 12, 2025—Myanmar authorities must immediately drop charges against AAMIJ News, release its freelance contributor Myat Thu Kyaw, who has been in prison since January 2023, and stop harassing independent media covering election-related news, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

On November 10, Myanmar’s military government filed charges against exile-run AAMIJ News for violating the Election Protection Law, which was passed in July, according to a statement from the news agency and its editor, Htet Arkar, who communicated with CPJ via messaging app. The law punishes anyone who threatens, obstructs, abuses, or severely hurts election commission personnel, candidates, or voters with prison terms ranging from three years to life.

“Targeting journalists with criminal lawsuits and imprisonment for their news reporting is a blatant and grotesque attack on press freedom,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Myanmar’s junta must drop the election law charges against AAMIJ News, free journalist Myat Thu Kyaw, and allow the media to cover election-related news without fear of retaliation.”

The lawsuit stems from AAMIJ News reporting on November 6 that alleged an election candidate was involved in illegal drug trafficking, the AAMIJ statement and Htet Arkar said.

He told CPJ that freelance contributor Myat Thu Kyaw was arrested on January 13, 2023, while covering news in Yangon, and was sentenced to three years in prison for criminal incitement on July 31, 2023. On January 28 this year, he was convicted under Myanmar’s Counterterrorism Law and sentenced to an additional five years and six months.

Htet Arkar said that the journalist’s family initially kept his case private hoping for leniency, but decided to go public after his second conviction. He said Myat Thu Kyaw was beaten and stabbed with a knife during military interrogations and is currently being held at Yangon’s Insein Prison.

Myanmar’s Ministry of Information did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment on the election law charges or allegations Myat Thu Kyaw was abused during interrogations. 

Myanmar is consistently ranked one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists, with at least 32 currently behind bars, according to CPJ’s research.