US condemns Myanmar arrest of AP journalist

The Biden administration is condemning the Myanmar government's arrest of Associated Press journalist Thein Zaw and five other members of the media.

"We are deeply concerned about the increasing attacks on and arrests of journalists," said State Department Spokesman Ned Price.

"We call on the military to immediately release these individuals, and to cease intimidation and harrassment of the media and others unjustly detained merely for doing their jobs," he said.

Authorities have charged the journalists with violating a public order law that could see them imprisoned for up to three years.

Myanmar security forces dramatically escalated their crackdown on protests against last month’s coup, killing at least 34 protesters Wednesday in several cities, according to accounts on social media and local news reports compiled by a data analyst.

That is highest daily death toll since the Feb. 1 takeover, exceeding the 18 that the U.N. Human Rights Office said were killed on Sunday, and could galvanize the international community, which has responded fitfully so far to the violence.

The military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a Feb. 1 coup. Protesters have demonstrated peacefully against the coup even as security forces have dramatically escalated their crackdown.

The intensifying standoff is unfortunately familiar in a country with a long history of peaceful resistance to military rule - and brutal crackdowns.

The coup reversed years of slow progress toward democracy in the Southeast Asian nation after five decades of military rule.