Firstly, I’d like to remind you that our mandate is to advocate for freedom of the press. Consequently, I would not like to venture too far into a field I don’t know well. However, I can say that the freedom of the citizen journalist is also very compromised. As Mr. Naing said, anyone who publishes information on Facebook that displeases the government is subject to legal repercussions and lawsuits.
The presence on Facebook of an army of trolls of the Buddhist fundamentalist movement is of particular concern. We’ve investigated this to some degree. These people, who are close to those in charge of the army, prey on citizen journalists through harassment and hate speech. These practices are becoming more widespread. Even non-professional journalists, citizens who just want to tell the truth and are not usually the targets of the legal arsenal used to repress freedom of the press are subject to reprisals.