Letter from the VOA Director

Celebrating the release of Sithu Aung Myint

December 2, 2025

Sithu Aung Myint (RFA)

Dear VOA Colleagues,

It is a joyous day for Voice of America. All of us welcome the news that veteran journalist and VOA Burmese Service contributor Sithu Aung Myint was released on November 30, 2025, from Insein Prison in Myanmar after more than four years of unjust detention.

Sithu Aung Myint was arrested on August 15, 2021, on charges of incitement and defaming the armed forces and state. Afterwards, the military increased his imprisonment multiple times. On October 6, 2022, he was sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor. Then, in December 2022, a special court in Yangon’s Insein Prison sentenced Myint to seven years in prison. This brought his total sentence to 12 years in prison.

Sithu Aung Myint, who began working for VOA in 2014, is well known in Myanmar for his outstanding reporting on government, business and social issues. VOA staff stand with Sithu Aung Myint and all the other journalists who have been unfairly detained for carrying out their duties to provide accurate information to the public and protecting the cornerstone of democracy. We deeply admire his resilience, courage and dedication.

VOA and sister networks still have nine colleagues jailed overseas, including VOA contributors Ulviyya Guliyeva in Azerbaijan and Pham Chi Dung in Vietnam. We will not forget them and call on the U.S. government to do everything in its power to obtain the release of our colleagues.

I am so grateful for Sithu’s release and pray for all those still unlawfully imprisoned. Thank you to our colleagues, especially in the VOA Burmese Service, for their efforts on behalf of Sithu Aung Myint.

With respect,
Mike Abramowitz
VOA Director