Demonstrations outside Burmese embassies in support of DVB’s detained video journalists

Reporters Without Borders participated in the demonstrations that were staged outside Burma’s embassies in several capitals today in response to a call from Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), a radio and TV station run by Burmese exile journalists. “Hla Hla Win is serving a 27-year jail sentence because she wanted to tell the world what was happening in Burma,” Reporters Without Borders said. “There are many other Burmese journalists who, like her, have paid a high price for exercising their right to report the news. “We want to show our support for DVB’s 17 detained video journalists and to urge the international community to reiterate its requests to the new Burmese government to release all detained netizens, dissidents and journalists, including DVB’s reporters, without delay.” Around 20 journalists and bloggers have been arrested by the police or army in Burma since the Saffron Revolution in 2007 Today’s demonstrations, held outside the Burmese embassies in Bangkok, Paris, Geneva and London, were to support the “Free Burma VJ” (Free Burma’s Video Journalists) campaign that DVB launched on 3 May, World Press Freedom Day, with backing from Reporters Without Borders. Reporters Without Borders, Info-Birmanie, Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), other human rights activists and members of the Burmese community participated in the demonstration outside the embassy in Paris, during which a letter was handed for Ambassador Kyaw Zwar Minn. In Geneva, the protesters marched from the Palais Wilson, the headquarters of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to the Burmese Mission, where they handed in a petition addressed to foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin (Burma’s former ambassador to the UN in Geneva and New York) calling for the immediate release of Hla Hla Win and all political prisoners. The Swiss section of Reporters Without Borders plans to continue staging regular demonstrations in Switzerland’s cities until Hla Hla Win is released. Sign DVB’s online petition for the release of Hla Hla Win and its other detained video journalists: http://www.freeburmavj.org/petition Info-Birmanie also has an online petition: http://infobirmanie.wufoo.com/forms/patition-libarez-les-journalistes-de-la-dvb/ And this is an online petition launched by the NGO Access calling for the release of Burma’s journalists and political prisoners: https://www.accessnow.org/page/s/release-hla-hla-now video Bangkok: Read the letter that was handed in to Burma’s ambassador in Paris: (attached file) photos: 1-6: DVB Bangkok/ 7-9: Burma Campaign UK/ 10-12: RSF Switzerland/ 13-15: Paris