MIN AUNG HLAING
Chairman of the State Administration Council of Myanmar since 1 February 2021
Predator since 2011
Myanmar, 140th/180 countries in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index
PREDATORY METHOD: Terror
Gen. Min Aung Hlaing had chomped at the bit for ten years, since becoming armed forces commander-in-chief in 2011. That was the year the then military junta disbanded after ruling with an iron hand for nearly half a century and allowed a free and dynamic press to begin developing. But this army general never ceased to keep a close eye on the media and oversaw censorship and disinformation. In fact, he played a central role in the dissemination of fake news and hate speech in the run-up to the genocide of Myanmar’s Rohingya population in 2017. Using his networks within the police and courts, he managed to censor all independent reporting on this subject.
In the light of his dominant role in the political and media domains for ten years, the coup that he carried out on 1 February 2021 was only a partial surprise. With the military back in power, Myanmar found itself overnight in the same situation as under the previous junta, when the media were subject to prior censorship and journalists were arrested by the truck-load, tortured and locked in dog cages. Since staging the coup, Min Aung Hlaing has subjected the media to a rapidly expanding crackdown in which all independent outlets have been closed, dozens of journalists have been imprisoned, and complete control is now exercised over what the press reports. Terror is back.
FAVOURITE TARGETS: Anyone covering the horror
FAVOURITE TARGETS: Anyone covering the horror
While just armed forces commander-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing already demonstrated the extent of his ability to create problems for the media. The highest profile case was that of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, two Reuters reporters who paid a high price for managing to investigate a massacre of Rohingya civilians in 2017. The victims of political and judicial machinations, they were sentenced to seven years in prison just for doing their job. This decision, taken by a single man, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, despite widespread international condemnation, had a devastating effect on the entire journalistic profession, which could now clearly see what the price was for tackling stories he regarded as off limits. Nonetheless, after the 2021 coup, journalists heroically covered the protests against the junta for weeks. Arrested and tortured, they were among the first victims of his horrific repressive apparatus.