The ethnic Arakan Army (AA) detained a female journalist from the Border News Agency (BNA) in Rakhine’s Maungdaw Township on Saturday, the news organization said on Monday.
Mudra, a 31-year-old female journalist, was arrested while reporting on the lack of educational equipment at a school in the ethnic Mro village of Thihoaye, in AA-controlled Maungdaw, BNA Editor-in-Chief Kaung Myat Naing told The Irrawaddy.
BNA is a Rakhine-based agency covering national news, with a focus on Rakhine State.
The agency said the reporter was taken from her residence in Maungdaw by a member of the United League of Arakan/Arakan Army (ULA/AA) at around 11 am on Saturday.
She is currently being interrogated at the ULA/AA Intelligence Office, it added.
“Yesterday, they [ULA/AA] allowed her father to visit her. They said she was detained because of an interview she conducted at the Mro village,” Kaung Myat Naing said.
Mudra’s report on the lack of education provision in Thihoaye village, a community of Mro displaced by conflict in Rakhine, was published by the BNA on September 8. The poverty-struck villagers are raising money to hire teachers for their children, despite the absence of a school, according to the BNA report.
The news agency said its mission was to serve as a platform for the voices of religious and ethnic minorities in Rakhine state.
AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha could not be reached for comment.
“We are appealing to those who took her to return her safely, in consideration of her family’s concerns, humanitarian grounds, and international law,” the BNA editorial team said in a statement on Monday.
The AA has seized control of 14 of Rakhine State’s 17 townships, including Maungdaw, along with Paletwa Township in neighboring Chin State.
Since the 2021 military coup, Myanmar has become one of the world’s most dangerous countries for media workers, with 194 journalists arrested by the junta and 55 still imprisoned, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
Since 2021, the country has plunged from 140th to 169th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders (RSF) press freedom ranking.
