Former students of a filmmaker jailed for criticising the Myanmar military have launched a hashtag campaign calling for his release amid fears over his health.
Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, who underwent surgery to treat his liver cancer four months ago, tutored over 30 filmmakers at his Human Dignity Film Institute from 2013 to 2017.
One of them, Kyal Yi Lin Six, 33, was “shocked” to hear her teacher was being charged under two separate laws that are synonymous with stifling free speech after he questioned the democratic worth of the military-drafted 2008 Constitution in a series of Facebook posts.
“In jail, he is very weak. He should be resting in his house, in bed,” Kyal Yi Lin Six told Myanmar Mix. “This kind of situation makes us fearful. If we want freedom from fear, we have to do something.”
Lieutenant Colonel Lin Tun of the Yangon Region Military Command filed a defamation case against Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi under section 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law and section 505(a) of the Penal Code, which criminalizes statements that might cause military officers to “disregard or fail” in their duties.
Each law carries a sentence of up to two years in prison.
The filmmaker was sent to Insein Prison on April 12 and has been denied bail several times, including at one dramatic hearing when he showed the judge scars from his recent operation and reportedly fainted in court.
His former students convened outside his last hearing on May 9 and set up the Facebook page Justice For Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi.
Since then, dozens of directors and activists from Myanmar, the US and Europe have posted on Facebook photos of themselves holding #freeminhtin signs.
“Our campaign started by calling on filmmakers. After that, our target is people who don’t like injustice,” said Kyal Yi Lin Six.
His next hearing at Insein court is scheduled for 11am on May 23.
Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi is the founder of Myanmar’s Human Rights, Human Dignity International Film Festival, which he used to showcase his students’ documentaries.
“He is a very great teacher, very good in art,” added Kyal Yi Lin Six. “He shared everything with us, his students. In my mind, he is an idol for my filmmaking and another way he has inspired me is through his poems.”
Hundreds of people internationally also called for his release in a letter published on April 23 by the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi is not the only peaceful critic of the army who has been targeted in the last month.
Members of the troupe Peacock Generation Thangyat have been hit with the vaguely worded section 505(a) for a satirical performance, while the military filed a case under section 66(d) against the editor of The Irrawaddy’s Burmese edition for its coverage of fighting between the army and the ethnic armed group the Arakan Army.
