“We are glad that Danny will soon be reunited with his family as we continue to call for the release of others who remain unjustly imprisoned in Burma.”įrontier Myanmar Editor-in-Chief Thomas Kean echoed those sentiments. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, using an old name for the Southeast Asian country. “We welcome the release of American journalist Daniel Fenster from prison in Burma, where he was wrongfully detained for almost six months,” U.S. Of the seven journalists known to have been convicted, six are Myanmar nationals and four were released in a mass amnesty in October. Fenster used to work for the site but left that job last year.Īccording to the United Nations, at least 126 journalists, media officials, or publishers have been detained by the military since the takeover, and 47 remain in custody, though not all of them have been charged. It was never exactly clear what Fenster was alleged to have done, but much the prosecution’s case appeared to hinge on proving that he was employed by another online news site that was ordered closed this year during a crackdown on the media following the military’s seizure of power. “We are tremendously grateful to all the people who have helped secure his release, especially Ambassador Richardson, as well as our friends and the public who have expressed their support and stood by our sides as we endured these long and difficult months.” “We are overjoyed that Danny has been released and is on his way home - we cannot wait to hold him in our arms,” his family said in a statement.
He has been in detention since he was taken into custody at Yangon International Airport on May 24 as he was headed to the Detroit area in the United States to see his family. via Qatar over the next day and a half, according to the statement. “We are so grateful that Danny will finally be able to reconnect with his loved ones, who have been advocating for him all this time, against immense odds.”įenster was handed over to Richardson in Myanmar and will return to the U.S. “This is the day that you hope will come when you do this work,” Bill Richardson, a former governor of New Mexico and past ambassador to the U.N., said in a statement emailed by his office. His sentence was the harshest yet among the seven journalists known to have been convicted since the military ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in February. diplomat who helped negotiate the release said.įenster, the managing editor of the online magazine Frontier Myanmar, was convicted Friday of spreading false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organizations, and violating visa regulations. BANGKOK (AP) - American journalist Danny Fenster, who was recently sentenced to 11 years of hard labor after spending nearly six months in jail in military-ruled Myanmar, was freed and on his way home Monday, a former U.S.
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