![]() Not only did they embrace their own work, taking pride in telling their own stories, they also began to engage with students different from them. The new syllabus transformed the students. Gruwell assigned readings from "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "Zlata’s Diary." She invited speakers to class, including Miep Gies, the Dutch woman who hid Anne Frank from the Nazis. She had her students keep journals, which allowed them to explore their own personal experiences while also becoming empathetic to the experiences of others. Her unconventional teaching style moved away from the standard curriculum found in most high school English classes – Shakespeare, the classics – and helped students to understand how narrative storytelling could be more personal. When only one of the students had heard of the Holocaust, Gruwell decided to shift the focus of the class entirely. When Gruwell discovered students passing around a racist caricature of one of their classmates, she explained how this kind of imagery was comparable to the propaganda spread by the Nazis. Board of Education declared “separate but equal” unconstitutional. ![]() The documentary explores Gruwell’s experience working in a school that remained markedly segregated even decades after the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. A recently completed documentary digs into her story, which was the basis for the 2007 film, “Freedom Writers” starring Hilary Swank as Gruwell. Over the next four years, she found she changed not only her own life but also those of the 150 students that passed through her classroom. The IFJ urges the international community to heighten efforts to protect and support media workers and journalists working under the coup.Erin Gruwell took a job student teaching at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California in 1994. The IFJ calls for the release of all detained media workers, including Maung Tha Cho and Htin Lin Oo, and strongly condemns the junta’s continued censorship and suppression of press and civilian freedoms. The IFJ said: “Journalists and media workers have suffered intensely throughout the first year of Myanmar’s military coup, actively persecuted and silenced for doing their jobs. Naing was the first journalist confirmed to have died in custody since the coup. In December 2021, Ko Soe Naing, a freelance photojournalist, died in custody after being arrested by military forces for covering silent protests by opponents of the coup. At least 40 of the arrested journalists were charged with violating Section 505(a) of the Penal Code. According to Reporting ASEAN, at least 121 journalists and media workers have been arrested since the beginning of the military coup, with 47 currently detained as of February 9, 2022. The three sentencings come during a period of increasing restrictions on press freedom in Myanmar, one year on from the military takeover. These weapons were supplied with “full knowledge that they would be used to attack civilians”, said Andrews. On February 22, the United Nations human rights expert on Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, said that Russia, China and Serbia were providing arms assistance, including fighter jets, to the military junta. Student activist Yin Myat Noe Oo was also given a three-year prison sentence for incitement at a court inside Insein Prison last week. The student was arrested in Yangon in April 2021 after putting up posters that criticised the junta.Īccording to the University Students’ Union Alumni Force (USUAF) who are in contact with detainees inside Insein Prison, inmates facing political charges have been tortured by prison authorities and denied medical treatment for their injuries. In February 2022, the IFJ reported the sentencing of Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) reporter Aung Kyaw, and freelance reporter Ko Zaw Zaw, who were the first journalists to be sentenced to two years in prison under Section 505(a). This is not the first time a journalist has been charged under Section 505(A). The writers were arrested on February 1, 2021, the day of Myanmar’s military coup and were placed in Insein Prison, where they have been detained for more than a year. Maung Tha Cho was sentenced to two years for an article he wrote eight years ago, while Htin Lin Oo was charged after sharing an anti-junta video on his social media page. Section 5050(A), an amendment introduced by the military junta, criminalises the circulation of any information with the intent to defame government employees. ![]() On February 22, Maung Tha Cho and Htin Lin Oo, two anti-junta writers, were sentenced to two and three years in prison respectively under Section 505(a) of the Myanmar Penal Code.
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