Myanmar has been named one of the world’s worst countries for impunity in the murder of journalists by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Myanmar ranked 10th on the 2024 Global Impunity Index released Wednesday, only slightly better than Afghanistan and just ahead of Pakistan.
Asia was the most represented region on the index, with Afghanistan ranked sixth, the Philippines ninth, and Pakistan 12th. The Philippines and Pakistan have appeared annually since 2008, according to CPJ.
Haiti topped the list of countries letting journalists’ murderers go unpunished amid “a weak-to-nonexistent judiciary, gang violence, poverty, and political instability”, the CPJ said. Israel jumped to second as it escalated targeted killings of reporters in its war in Gaza, it added.
Myanmar first appeared on the annual ranking of countries where killers of journalists habitually get away with murder in 2022. That year Myanmar ranked eighth, moving down to ninth place in 2023 and now 10th.
The CPJ pointed out that three more journalists were killed in Myanmar in 2024, bringing the total to eight since the military takeover in 2021.
Htet Myat Thu, a well-known journalist who had previously been shot and arrested while reporting on an anti-coup protest, was killed in a raid on his family home this year, along with Win Htut Oo, a close childhood friend working for the exiled Democratic Voice of Burma.
Myat Thu Tan was killed while in detention for critical posts on Facebook, the report said.
“Murder is the ultimate weapon to silence journalists,” CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said. “Once impunity takes hold, it sends a clear message: that killing a journalist is acceptable and that those who continue reporting may face a similar fate.”
The Myanmar junta has crushed the independent media by banning outlets, raiding media offices, and targeting journalists with arrests and killings over the past four years. The country is also the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists after China.
According to the Independent Myanmar Journalists Association (IMJA), a total of 177 journalists have been detained and 53 remain in custody.
Increasing numbers of journalists have been forced into exile, where they continue to document atrocities and human rights violations inside the country and keep the world and their own population informed of what is going on in every corner of Myanmar.
