July 2, 2014
M-Media
Reported by Thiha
A piece of news with the title of “two Muslim brothers, owners of ‘Sun Cafe’ tea shop had raped a Buddhist female worker at their tea shop” was posted at the popular Thit Htoo Lwin Blog. One event of violent attack on Muslim properties broke out last night in Mandalay due to that news.
It is observed that the news was taken down by the blogger this morning without giving any further explanation or making any correction. The rape news had been posted at Thit Htoo Lwin news blog since 30th June without confirmation of police. Since its first appearance at the blog, it had been shared by over 2200 netizens until the riot broke out last night.
It was very clear that the blogger did not follow media ethic completely. He blogged it intentionally in order to trigger a conflict between Muslims and Buddhists in Mandalay. It was found that significant number of social media users shared that racial and religious hatred fabricated news.
The Facebook page of U Wira Thu, the leader of 969 Radical Buddhist Movement, as well as Myanmar Express, an anti-democracy and anti- Aung San Su Kyi news website established since military junta, were among who shared this particular news.
Once that news was removed at Thit Htoo Lwin Blog, Myanmar Express also synchronistically took the news down.
It was not the first time of posting such fabricated news at Thit Htoo Lwin and it used to blog religious and racial hatred made-up stories and news, which might lead a sectarian conflict. For instance, on 18th Jun 2013, it posted fabricated false news, “Declaration of 2nd Jihad”, with a very clear intention of causing a sectarian conflict.
The founding blogger of the Thit Htoo Lwin Blog is believed to be living in the United States currently. He worked for several foreign-based Burmese Language broadcasts such as BBC, VOA, DVB from 1998 to 2006 according to Irrawady News Magazine’s interview with him.
Photo 1. The Google search result for the false fabricated news
Photo 2. 969 Leader U Wira Thu’s Facebook page sharing of the news
Photo 3. Ko Di, the founder of Thit Htoo Lwin Blog (photo credit to Irrawady)
