Live rounds have been fired at reporters. Media outlets have been raided. The Internet has been completely disconnected. The Myanmar junta’s systematic persecution of journalists and its determination to suppress all news sources to which its citizens have access show that diplomacy and international sanctions are not enough to rein in the constantly escalating repression.
So, RSF is calling on multinationals still operating in Myanmar to end all cooperation with the junta, both in their business activities and the financial support they provide. Letters to this effect have been sent to the CEOs of ten of them: the French hotel chain Accor, the French TV group Canal+, America’s Chevron, Sweden’s Ericsson, Korea’s Lotte Hotels and Resorts, Japan’s Okura Nikko Hotel Management, the South Korean steel and energy giant POSCO, the Norwegian state telecom company Telenor, the French oil firm Total and the Anglo-Dutch food processing conglomerate Unilever.
The repression has taken a really shocking turn, with more than 500 people killed and nearly 60 journalists arrested. But most of the companies with a presence in Myanmar have taken no credible measure. Their fine words must now be transformed into action that leaves no doubt about their opposition to this illegitimate and bloody regime. RSF is urging these ten companies to take concrete steps to stop directly or indirectly funding Myanmar’s generals and, where relevant, to end their complicity in the widespread censorship that the junta is trying to impose.
Source- Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Newsletter, April 16, 2021.
