WORLD BRIEFS
Myanmar junta arrests two more journos
YANGON, Myanmar—Myanmar junta authorities have arrested two journalists in night raids, their outlet said on Wednesday, as the military cracks down on independent media. Since toppling Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in 2021, the military has waged a sweeping and bloody campaign against dissent, and at least 170 journalists have since been arrested, according to the United Nations. Local outlet Dawei Watch said two of its employees were arrested from their homes in the southern city of Dawei around midnight on Dec. 11. It said their families had been told by the military the two had been arrested for their reporting, and that their laptops and phones had been confiscated. The military had not told their families where the two were being held, the statement said. Two journalists and a web designer from Dawei Watch were arrested and briefly held last year, before being released without charge. The junta has arrested more than 25,000 people since it seized power, according to a local monitoring group. —AFP
Thai lawmaker jailed for insulting monarchyBANGKOK—A court in Thailand sentenced an activist-turned-lawmaker to six years in prison on Wednesday for insulting the powerful monarchy and related offenses, over social media posts deemed defamatory of the crown. Rukchanok Srinok, 29, a parliamentarian with the progressive Move Forward Party, was found guilty over two posts made in 2020 on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, according to a court statement. One accused the government of using COVID-19 vaccine distribution to promote the monarchy’s image, which the court considered defamation. Another was her sharing of a graphically worded post on X, made by another user, that the court said had displayed “great malice” toward the king. Thailand’s lese-majeste law is one of the strictest of its kind in the world, protecting the king, queen, heir and regent from criticism and carrying a jail sentence of 15 years for each perceived insult to the monarchy. At least 262 people have been charged with insulting the monarchy since 2020, according to data tracked by Thai Lawyers for Human Rights advocacy group. —REUTERS
