Switzerland said Saturday its diplomats are in touch with local authorities over the arrest of a Swiss man in Myanmar, who faces accusations of harming the "dignity" of Buddhism.

Didier Nusbaumer, 52, was arrested on August 8 for writing and directing a film "which could harm the morality and dignity of Buddhist monks," the country's military said in a statement Friday.

Swiss diplomats stationed in Myanmar are in contact with authorities over Nusbaumer's situation, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said in an email to AFP.

The foreign ministry "is aware of the case... the local Swiss representatives are in contact with the relevant authorities," she said.

Religion is an important part of daily life for many across Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where crimson-robed monks walk the streets every morning and prayer halls regularly blast chants on loudspeakers late into the evening.

The roughly 75-minute film entitled "Don't Expect Anything" had been posted to a Buddhist YouTube and TikTok channel in July, Friday's statement from the Myanmar military's information office said.

In the film "a young woman used rude and insulting words against the culture and tradition of Buddhists by harming the good virtues of monks," it added, without giving details.

The junta also said that thirteen others involved in the film who had "acted without care... to downgrade the morality and dignity" of monks were also arrested.

In 2016 a court jailed a Dutch tourist for three months with hard labour for insulting religion after he unplugged an amplifier relaying a late-night Buddhist sermon.

AFP