Myanmar has quickly gone from imprisoning a single reporter to ranking as one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in a special mid-year survey. His arrest is emblematic of the crackdown on the press since Myanmar’s military deposed de facto democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a February 1 coup and rounded up dozens of members of the media.

Video footage of the attack has been viewed over 2.5 million times on Facebook, where Kyaw Myat Hlaing, a video reporter with the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), livestreamed the late-night assault that resulted in his March 1 arrest. When Myanmar security officials arrested journalist Kyaw Myat Hlaing for his news coverage of anti-military protests in his hometown of Myeik, they shot their firearms into his house before launching their raid. Within a few months of the February military coup, the country has become one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists. Myanmar’s junta has effectively criminalized independent journalism, arresting and charging journalists, closing news outlets, restricting access for international reporters, and driving journalists underground or into exile.

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