Pacific Media Watch

8 November 2016

BURMA: ‘Let media in if there is nothing to hide’, says CPJ

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Al Jazzera have been reporting from Sittwe, the capital of the Rakhine State. They spoke to those living amongst the violence who said the military have been carrying out extrajudicial killings, sexual violence and abuse against villagers. Image: Al Jazeera
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9763

BANGKOK (The Committee to Protect Journalists/Pacific Media Watch):The Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ) senior Southeast Asia representative, Shawn Crispin, said that if the Myanmar government truly has nothing to hide, media should be allowed to report freely in the Rakhine state.

 

Numerous accounts
Crispin's statement comes after numerous accounts of journalists being obstructed and harassed by military officers, when they have attempted to report on human rights abuses committed by the military, in the country's northern Rakhine state.

 

Allegations against the military have included the burning of village houses and sexual violence.

 

“The best way to prove or disprove allegations of human rights abuses is to allow independent media to probe the accusations,” Crispin said in a CPJ report.  

 

Read the full story on Asia Pacific Report.

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