It’s outrageous to learn that Saw Myint Than, the chief reporter of the Rangoon-based weekly the Flower News Journal, was arrested on Monday for reporting on a murder that should have been a wake-up call to the city’s police force.

According to journalists in Rangoon, Saw Myint Than was summoned by police on August 26 and rebuked for a story he and another reporter wrote about the murder of a couple in Thingangyun Township. He was threatened with arrest and the possible closure of his newspaper.

In fact, the murder story had passed the military regime’s censorship board, the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division office, and was also published in other journals.

After Burmese exiled media, including The Irrawaddy, reported on Saw Myint’s interrogation, he was accused of spreading rumors and charged with at least three offences, including an infringement of a section of the Electronics Act which bans contacts with "unlawful organizations."

Editors of at least six Rangoon publications, including Flower News Journal, were then visited by the authorities and warned to avoid contacts with the Burmese media in exile and international news organizations.

This is a ridiculous state of affairs. Besides intimidating responsible journalists and seeking to suppress their freedom of expression and professionalism, the police seem to be trying to hide their failure to expose and arrest the criminals who committed the murders in Rangoon.

In March, five people living near the home of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi were shot by unknown gunmen in an execution-style killing. On Friday, The Irrawaddy received a report of a further murder, this time of a customs officer who lived in an apartment on 37th Street in downtown Rangoon.

Journalists seeking to report on these acts of violence encounter red tape and an aggressive refusal by the police to cooperate in shedding light on the murders.

Instead of being recognized as professional journalists in search of the truth, these newsmen and women are regarded by Burma’s military authorities as whistle-blowers who threaten to expose their mismanagement and poor governance. 

The authorities should be arresting the criminals, not journalists—whose protection is in the public interest and a necessary condition for the propagation of the truth.