Mratt Kyaw Thu

Mratt Kyaw Thu (Burmese: မြတ်ကျော်သူ; born c. 1990) is a Burmese journalist, focusing on political reporting. He has worked for EFE since 2018.[1]

In this Burmese name, the given name is Mratt Kyaw Thu. There is no family name.
Mratt Kyaw Thu in 2021

Career

He began his career at Unity Weekly Journal in 2010. He previously worked as a senior reporter at the Frontier Myanmar, The Myanmar Times and Mizzima.[2][3][4] He won the 2017 Agence France-Presse Kate Webb Prize for his coverage of ethnic and religious conflict in Myanmar’s borderlands, despite risk of prosecution or injury.[5][6][7]

2021 Myanmar coup d'état

Mratt Kyaw Thu's name came further to attention of the military junta following a March interview he conducted with a general who had defected and joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM).[8] On 5 April 2021, he was charged and issued an arrest warrant under section 505 (A) of the penal code by the State Administration Council for speaking out against the military coup. Along with several other celebrities, he was charged with calling for participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and damaging the state's ability to govern, with supporting the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, and with generally inciting the people to disturb the peace and stability of the nation.[9][10][11]

Mratt Kyaw Thu escaped Yangon to villages in ethnic armed areas near the border and fled to Thailand. He was able to fly to Germany via Bangkok. He has spent four weeks in a detention centre at Frankfurt Airport. Germany refused to grant him asylum and he left for Spain.[12][13][14]

References
  1. "Myanmar journalist to seek asylum in Spain". The Straits Times. 2021-06-01.
  2. "Frontier journalist Mratt Kyaw Thu receives AFP's Kate Webb Prize". Frontier Myanmar. 6 February 2018.
  3. "The Myanmar journalists risking their lives to report on the Rohingya's plight". The National. 3 August 2018.
  4. "Singapore brands face Myanmar boycott for 'supporting the dictatorship'". Coconuts. 17 February 2021.
  5. "Myanmar reporter wins award for 'dangerous' work on ethnic conflict". Coconuts. 19 December 2017.
  6. "Right time to speak, but she failed to provide solutions: Myanmar journo on Suu Kyi's Rohingya address". ANI News. 19 September 2017.
  7. "Myanmar journalist receives AFP's Kate Webb Prize". Mizzima. 6 February 2018.
  8. "'I'm a Fugitive Forever' Journalist Tells VOA After Fleeing Myanmar". VOA. 29 June 2021.
  9. "ရုပ်ရှင်သရုပ်ဆောင် ခါရာ၊ အဆိုတော် သားငယ်နှင့် ဂျာနယ်လစ်များအပါအဝင် နောက်ထပ် အယောက် ၂၀ ကို အမှုဖွင့်". DVB (in Burmese). 5 April 2021.
  10. "အမှန်တရားဘက်မှာ ရပ်တည်ခဲ့တဲ့အတွက် ဂုဏ်ယူမဆုံးဖြစ်ကြောင်း မြတ်နိုးအေး ပြော". The Irrawaddy (in Burmese). 6 April 2021.
  11. "53 journalists detained, prosecuted since military coup". Burma News International. 8 April 2021.
  12. "RSF asks Germany to let Myanmar journalist Mratt Kyaw Thu apply for asylum". RSF. 2021-05-31.
  13. "Journalist Mratt Kyaw Thu arrives in Madrid after escaping Myanmar". La Prensa Latina Media. 2021-06-01.
  14. "Escape from Myanmar: How reporter Mratt Kyaw Thu fled to safety in Spain". The Economic Times. 8 June 2021.


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