Two freelance journalists reportedly killed with guerrillas in army raid on home in southern Myanmar

BANGKOK (AP) — Two freelance journalists in the strife-torn nation of Myanmar were killed, one allegedly after being captured, when security forces raided the home of one of them in the southern state of Mon, colleagues and media reports said Friday.

Win Htut Oo, 26, a freelancer working for DVB — the Democratic Voice of Burma, an online and broadcast news agency — and Htet Myat Thu, 28, were the latest journalists to be killed by the security forces of the ruling military, which seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. DVB described the two as close friends.

At least five other media workers have been killed and others tortured while in detention, according to colleagues who keep a tally of killings and arrests.

“The killing of journalists Win Htut Oo and Htet Myat Thu is an atrocity against the free press and must not go unpunished,” said Shawn Crispin, Southeast Asia representative of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, in an emailed statement. “Myanmar authorities must ensure swift and full justice for the country’s independent journalists who are being killed simply for reporting the news.”

Myanmar is one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists, according to the France-based group Reporters Without Borders, and ranks near the bottom of its 2024 World Press Freedom Index, placing 171st out of 180 countries.

Khin Yupar, head of DVB’s Citizen Journalist Network program, told The Associated Press on Friday that Htet Myat Thu’s house in Letpya village in in Mon state’s Kyaikhto township was raided by about 30 members of the security forces at 9 a.m. on Wednesday while their friends who belonged to the Kyaikhto Revolution Force were making a visit.

The group is