YANGON- Two journalists that were arrested at the Myawady border have been released yesterday evening but claim they were beaten during their detention.

The reporters work for Frontier Myanmar and Myanmar Times.

They were detained by the ethnic Karen Border Guard Forces (BGF) in Myawady border in the evening of March 4th because they were covering the ‘Wuhan’ virus.

“The In-Charge[BGF] ordered us to destroy the photos in my camera. I thought if we destroyed the photos, they’d let us go. But, I was wrong. A vehicle transported us to a detainment cell where our camera and phones were seized. They kept us separately. My hands were cuffed behind my back but I wasn’t beaten. However, I found that the Myanmar Times journalist was beaten. We didn’t know that no one was allowed to take photos at the border. We were covering the Coronavirus at the border. A man wearing the BGF uniform detained us due to taking photos of their station even though we didn’t. We took photos of the construction site,” said Naw Betty Han, a journalist from Frontier Myanmar.

“The In-Charge brought us to the forest via a black car. At their camp, they interrogated me and then beat me. I think my nose was broken. I apologized to them. My face was beaten,” said Mar Naw, Photojournalist from Myanmar Times.

“We formed an urgent investigation team after reporting about it to relevant departments. In concern with the claims that the BGF in its entirety arrested the journalists, I would like to say that there would have been explicit instructions from headquarters if that were true. This incident does not represent the whole of BGF. It was committed by those that did it. We have detained a suspect that did so. Our leader had instructed us to take effective action against him,” said Major Naing Maung Zaw, BGF’s Discipline In-Charge to the media.