AAPP’s Bo Kyi wins 2026 Ramon Magsaysay Award; 17 journalists currently jailed in Myanmar

AAPP’s Bo Kyi wins 2026 Ramon Magsaysay Award Bo Kyi, co-founder and joint secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), was selected as one of three recipients of the 2026 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation announced on Monday. “I dedicate this award to the Burmese people fighting injustice, especially the political prisoners who continue to stand strong behind bars,” Bo Kyi shared on Aug. 31. Bo Kyi was arrested in March 1990 for his participation in the “8888 Uprising”—a nationwide pro-democracy protest which began on Aug. 8, 1988. He, along with other ex-political prisoners from Myanmar, fled to Thailand where they founded the AAPP to advocate for the rights of those still being held behind bars in Myanmar on March 23, 2000. “Through decades of documenting political prisoners, supporting their families, and keeping their stories before the world, [Bo Kyi] has made sure that those whose voices were silenced would not simply disappear from memory,” Edgar Chua, the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation chairperson, said in a video message on Aug. 31. Seventeen journalists still being jailed in Myanmar Amnesty International stated on Saturday that 17 journalists remain in regime detention in Burma since being arrested following the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021. Citing research by Athan, a nonprofit group founded in 2018 to promote freedom of expression in Burma, Amnesty lists a total of 11 journalists killed and 216 arrested since the 2021 coup. Athan’s Aug. 20 report added that only one journalist has been released from detention so far this year. Prominent documentary filmmaker Shin Daewe was freed from Insein Prison as a part of the New Year amnesty on April 17. Shin Daewe, 52, was arrested in Yangon on Oct. 15, 2023 and sentenced to life imprisonment under the Counter-Terrorism Law on Jan. 11, 2024. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) states that at least 18 journalists are in detention. It has ranked Burma the world’s second biggest jailer of journalists worldwide behind China. “Through lawfare and bogus security charges, the junta has jailed scores of reporters in a bid to erase years of pre-coup press freedom gains,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. Civilian toll mounts in southeast, HURFOM reports Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) Program Director Nai Aue Mon warned of a worsening human rights crisis across southeastern Burma’s Mon State, Karen State, and Tanintharyi Region, characterized by escalating airstrikes, widespread displacement, and forced military conscription. In an exclusive interview with DVB, Nai Aue Mon addressed the human rights conditions in the southeast, detailing how the regime’s growing reliance on long-range weapons—including fighter jets, Y-12 aircraft, drones, paramotors, gyrocopters, and heavy artillery—has systematically terrorized rural communities. HURFOM noted that military operations surrounding the regime’s 2025–2026 elections displaced over 85,000 people in Mon and Tanintharyi, where 56 armed clashes occurred and 255 homes were destroyed. In recent months, a renewed military push around the Dawei Deep Seaport project has sparked fresh clashes. News by Region KAREN—Sources told DVB that Mote Thone, a senior leader of the pro-military Border Guard Force (BGF), has fled Myawaddy Township to the state capital Hpa-an following an arrest warrant reportedly issued for him by Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation (DSI) on July 27. A source told DVB on the condition of anonymity that Mote Thone has relocated his 300 BGF troops from Myawaddy, along the Burma-Thai border, to the foot of Mount Mizai in Kyarinn village, 24 miles (38 km) north of Hpa-An and 81 miles (130 km) west of Myawaddy. NAYPYIDAW—Applications involving a change in passport category—such as converting a Passport for Visit (PV) to a Passport for Jobs (PJ) or Passport for Education (PE)—now require background reviews and formal clearance from regime authorities in Naypyidaw before approval. A Burma national with a PV in Singapore told DVB on the condition of anonymity that the process takes around two months to change passport categories because the embassy now requires applicants to undergo additional review. SAGAING—An unknown number of residents in Kani Township, living along the 120-mile (193 km) Kalewa–Monywa highway, have been displaced from their homes since Aug. 24. Kani, located 37 miles (59 km) northwest of the region’s capital Monywa, has been partially controlled by resistance forces since 2021. Kani residents told DVB that regime forces have looted local homes and properties since June when it launched its counteroffensive to retake control of the Kalay-Tamu and Kalewa–Monywa highways, which connect Sagaing to India’s Moreh in Manipur State, from resistance forces.