 |
| "When I listen to the young people taking part in the demonstrations, they say 'Yes, I'm scared, but if we don't raise our voices to say that we're scared, we'll have to live in fear our entire lives,'" Kitazumi said in a recent post on Facebook. (Photo from Yahoo News) |
[Asia News Communication = Reporter Reakkana] Myanmar police released a Japanese freelance journalist on Friday (Feb 26) after briefly detaining him during a protest in the commercial capital of Yangon, Radio Free Asia showed in a Livestream on Facebook.
Reuters said that Yuki Kitazumi's arrest, who runs a media production company in the city and used to be a journalist with the Nikkei business daily, was the first detention of a foreign reporter since the Feb 1 military coup. "Thanks very much to all my friends. I'm OK. I'm safe," said Kitazumi after leaving the police station in the city's Sanchaung district. Earlier, Japan said one of its nationals in his 40s had been detained by Myanmar security police in Yangon, without giving details.
Kitazumi briefly became the second foreigner known to have been detained since the coup, after Australian academic Sean Turnell, an adviser to Suu Kyi on economic reforms, was arrested on Feb 6. Turnell remains under arrest. Police in Myanmar didn’t immediately return calls to seek comment. Myanmar has been roiled by protests for weeks since the army seized power from elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and detained her and most of her government.
