Video: Interview of Newly-freed Burmese Dissident Comedian Zarganar

by Silvia Duarte  /  October 18, 2011  / No comments

Recently Reporters Without Borders posted a video interview with the comedian and blogger Zarganar, who was freed from Myitkyina prison on 12 October under a government amnesty.

After more than three years in detention, Zarganar has clearly not abandoned his right to express his views freely. Many journalists, bloggers and other prisoners of conscience were, like Zaw Thet Htwe and Nay Phone Latt, left out of the government amnesty. Democratic Voice of Burma’s 17 video journalists are all still held.

As part of its “Free Burma VJ” campaign for the release of its 17 journalists, Democratic Voice of Burma has just published a legal analysis of the cases of five of them. It highlights abusive practices, violations of free expression and freedom of association, use of torture and use of legal ploys to crack down on the regime’s opponents. Click here for the full analysis.

About the Author

Silvia Duarte is the managing editor of Sampsonia Way. She received her degree in Communication Sciences from Rafael Landivar University in Guatemala and her masters in Latin American studies from the Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain. Duarte was editor of El Periódico de Guatemala’s Sunday magazine from 2001 to 2006 and has written scholarly and journalistic articles in Germany, Spain, and the United States. She came to Pittsburgh in 2007 with her partner writer-in-exile Horacio Castellanos.

View all articles by Silvia Duarte

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