On April 17, Myanmar’s military junta released journalist Shin Daewe, ending her detention that began in October 2023 over the purchase of a video drone.
Following her release from Yangon’s Insein Prison, Shin Daewe expressed her joy, but also lamented how many more people were still trapped within the prison’s walls.
“I am the happiest,” Shin Daewe said. “Whether it’s me or one of the others, we all just wanted every day to see our families. I am lucky today, but I have many friends who are not as lucky as me. I ask everyone to pray for them too.”
In October 2023, Shin Daewe was arrested in Yangon as she was retrieving a video drone she ordered online for a new documentary, according to a report by Voice of America (VOA) that quoted her husband Ko Oo.
Ko Oo also told VOA that Shin Daewe was interrogated by police for almost two weeks before being jailedr in Yangon’s Insein Prison. There, she was tried by a secret military tribunal without any legal representation.
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On Jan. 10, 2024, Shin Daewe was sentenced to life in prison under section 50(j) of Myanmar’s Anti-Terrorism Law, which enables life sentences for anyone funding terrorist activities, reports claimed.
At the time, observers believed that the sentencing was part of the junta’s plan to clamp down on criticism, using long sentences to quell resistance.
In January 2025, Shin Daewe’s sentence was dropped from life to 15 years as part of a wider prisoner amnesty before she was fully released on Apr. 17 this year.
“The news of Shin Daewe’s release from detention comes as a welcome relief,” Bay Fang, president of RFA, said in a statement. “Shin Daewe suffered enormously and unfairly for her work to bring uncensored journalism to people in Myanmar.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) expressed in a statement its “immense relief” for Shin Daewe, her loved ones and the larger journalism community in Myanmar.
“It must be made clear that she should never have been arrested, nor subjected to mistreatment,” RSF said. “We now call on the Myanmar regime to immediately release the 40 journalists still detained in the country.”
Accolades of a journalist behind bars
Since 2010, Shin Daewe has created many documentaries covering Myanmar’s many issues, from the 2007 Saffron Revolution to the crises plaguing the junta, including environmental issues and the junta’s armed conflict on civilians, news reports said.
Previously a reporter for the local media group Democratic Voice of Burma since 2007, she was also a contributor to Radio Free Asia’s (RFA) Burmese Service since 2010.
In 2023, she made an RFA video report on the rapid erosion along the country’s Ayeyarwady River, caused by “industrialization, deforestation and the effects of climate change.”
This report earned Shin Daewe both a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation in 2024, and a Wallis Annenberg Justice for Women Journalists Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation.
She also won a silver medal at the Kota Kinab International Film Festival for her 2013 documentary “Now I Am 13,” which chronicled the life of an uneducated teenage girl. It also won her the Best Documentary Award at the Wathann Film Festival a year later.
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More prisoners still waiting
However, Myanmar’s military junta is still making efforts to shut down criticism of its regime.
Allegations surfaced on Jan. 28 that Myanmar journalist Myat Thu Kyaw was brutally assaulted while imprisoned in Insein Prison, leading to calls for the government to release him, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) wrote.
Nay Myo, who spoke to CPJ, claimed Myat Thu Kyaw suffered “serious injuries to his eyes, face, and arms,” being repeated at a prison hospital.
Another journalist, Sut Ring Pan, was sentenced to 10 years on Dec. 2 last year under Section 50(j) for her news reporting, as stated by the exile-run Independent Myanmar Journalists Association (IMJA).
On Apr. 27, the junta ordered the shutdown of three news agencies — Khonumthung, Chin World and Nowadays News.
