New York Times, Richard C. Paddock, 13 December 2017: “Arrests of Reuters Reporters in Myanmar Add to Fears About Press Freedom”
Article Summary: Two Reuters reporters arrested on December 7th, 2017 for attempting to obtain information via official government documents covering recent military campaign of killings, rape, and arson in Rhakine State in West Myanmar. Premise of charges is violation of Official Secrets Act (c. 1923, colonial hangover, protects information that is ostensibly essential to national security, prevents journalist access without explicit permission), since 80-90% of government documents are considered protected under this broad legislation.
The article states that prior attempts to change Official Secrets Act to allow greater press protection measures (c. 2014) were blocked by Home Affairs Ministry, which is controlled by the military. The article also summarizes additional cases where journalists were arrested under a variety of similar colonial-era laws such as unlawful association and more Official Secrets Act violations, highlighting and emphasizing the main purpose of the article, indicating a negative trend in press freedom in Myanmar.
Analysis: I drew three observations from this particular article, most of which we have already discussed in class. The first is the broad nature of the Official Secrets Act, which enables authorities to arrest, harass, and prevent journalist coverage of embarrassing actions on the part of the state. The second is the amount of influence held by the military in domestic politics, with the primary example being the Home Affairs Ministry blocking any alterations to the Official Secrets Act allowing for greater protections for journalists. The third observation is less explicit in the article but is probably critical to both a lack of legal accountability and military influence in domestic politics, the lack of a truly independent judiciary.
Help received: New York Times article (link provided), Microsoft Word grammar and spelling check, prior readings and class discussions on Myanmar readings and Freedom House reports.
Levi C. Harmon