Photojournalist in Myanmar dies in military custody a week after arrest

A freelance photojournalist in Myanmar has died in military custody after being arrested last week while covering protests.

Soe Naing is the first journalist known to have died in custody since the army seized power in February, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. More than 100 journalists have been detained since then, though about half have been released.

Journalists have mostly been targets for arrest, as the military-installed government has sought to clamp down on the free flow of information. In addition to detaining media workers, many outlets have been forced to close or operate underground, with their staff always at risk of arrest.

Soe Naing and his colleague had been covering the crisis in Myanmar for months, with their work depicting anti-military protests and brutal crackdowns by security forces sometimes picked up by foreign news agencies.

Since the army takeover, interrogation centres across Myanmar have been increasingly using torture against detainees.

Soe Naing is survived by his wife and a four-year-old son. The situation of the photographer arrested with him was not known.