Myanmar's government is using threats, harassment and imprisonment to intimidate the media ahead of national elections later this year, Amnesty International says.
The London-based human rights group said efforts to restrict freedom of expression have intensified over the past year, with at least 10 members of the media currently languishing in prison, all of them jailed in the last 12 months.
Such actions belie claims of liberalisation since the country started a democratic transition in 2011 from a military regime to an elected civilian government that vowed democratic reforms, Amnesty said in a 22-page report.
Significant changes have been made in moving the country to a free-market economy, and Myanmar has a parliament for the first time in more than two decades.
Formal censorship has been dropped and the electronic and print media opened to competition, but the government has aggressively prosecuted publications and journalists over stories it has found offensive.
"What we are seeing in Myanmar today is repression dressed up as progress," Amnesty said in a statement that quoted its Southeast Asia research director, Rupert Abbott.
"Authorities are still relying on the same old tactics - arrests, surveillance, threats and jail time to muzzle those journalists who cover 'inconvenient' topics."
Information Minister and presidential spokesman Ye Htut disputed Amnesty's criticism.
"We usually don't pay attention to such statements by international organisations because they focus solely on freedom of expression," he said.
Ye Htut said that because Myanmar is still making a transition to democracy, it has to measure freedom based on "the country's fragile social and political factors, freedom along with responsibility and abidance of media ethics"
