Human rights

No one will stay in the eastern parts of Mone Taing Pin anymore, where locals claim that dogs howl without provocation, putrid odours materialise and vanish, and shadowy figures are spotted only to disappear before they can be identified. In May, the military massacred nearly 30 people in ...

Abortion is a global health issue, impacting individuals and families regardless of ethnicity, income, social status or nationality. Yet there is no worldwide legal standard for the practice of terminating a pregnancy. Lawmakers and governments hold sway over access to abortion, or its abolition. In the ...

Vietnam has a long way to go before it can realize its goal of joining the UN Human Rights council, according to the Vietnam Human Rights Network (VNHRN). The pressure group points to Vietnam’s treatment of journalists, who the government says are protected from all ...

Nearly 6,000 people have fled their homes and approximately 25 have been killed in Kachin and northern Shan states by Myanmar’s regime forces from November 2021 to April, according to the rights group Kachin Women’s Association of Thailand (KWAT). KWAT’s “New Threats from the Air” report ...

Thai activist Porntin Say Yom and her neighbours fought more than 10 years to shut down a gold mine in northeast Thailand’s Loei province. “We successfully closed the gold mine because we came together as a group to defend our rights,” Yom said.  But in late May, ...

Myanmar authorities should immediately and unconditionally release journalist Maung Maung Myo and stop jailing members of the press for reporting the news, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. Around 6 p.m. on May 10, Maung Myo, a contributor to the local Mekong News Agency, was traveling ...

It has been more than a year since Myanmar’s military seized power in a putsch that sent thousands fleeing the country. Among them were scores of media professionals who took up refuge here in Thailand. Some have since moved on or resettled elsewhere, but others stayed ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen acknowledged challenges faced by journalists and media agencies, reaffirmed the government’s support for the sector, and urged continuous capacity building among them. Mr Hun Sen made the point in his open message to during the 29th World Press Freedom Day on May ...

A court in Insein Prison last week indicted freelance journalist Soe Yarzar Tun under Section 52a of the Counter-Terrorism Law, which carries a prison sentence of up to seven years, lawyers have told Myanmar Now.  The reporter was detained in Bago Region’s Thone Sel Township on ...

A total of 135 journalists have been arrested in Myanmar since the Feb. 1, 2021, military coup that overthrew civilian rule in that country, according to a local press freedoms group. Among those arrested, 109 were men and 26 were women, while three other journalists were ...