Statement of Mizzima

19 October 2021
Statement of Mizzima

Statement of Mizzima

19 October 2021

Mizzima welcomes the decision of the military junta to release 5,636 people jailed for protesting against the military coup of February 2021, which overthrew a democratically elected government.

The prisoners are being released on the occasion of the Thadingyut festival. While we welcome the move we point out that the release of these political prisoners comes after the military rulers were excluded from a regional meeting and international pressure.

Mizzima is happy that journalists and staff of Mizzima and those who have been associated with the media house are also being released, including Daw Thin Thin Aung, co-founder of Mizzima. She has worked tirelessly in the process of nation building ever since the national uprising in 1988 and she had resigned from Mizzima due to ill health.

At this stage, we are awaiting news on Than Htike Aung, former editor of Mizzima.

While welcoming the release of more than 5,600 people from jails, detention centres and interrogation cells we would like to point out that the arrests and detentions were in the first place illegal and denial of basic human rights standards.

We welcome especially the release of journalists and media persons working with Mizzima, DVB and other media outlets. We hope their release will be followed by a lifting of the ban on the media houses so journalists are able to report from the ground. We believe that a free media is a pre-condition for nation building.

We would like to thank all those inside Myanmar and globally who have been fighting for the release of Daw Thin Thin Aung and other journalists detained by the Myanmar military regime.

We reiterate our demand for the repeal of the ban of Mizzima media house and other media houses and that the other political prisoners be released and a conducive political atmosphere be created so that we can truly build Myanmar into a inclusive and vibrant democracy.