Myanmar authorities should stop using criminal laws, website blocks, and licensing delays to severely restrict the two ethnic Rakhine media outlets in Rakhine State, Human Right Watch said in a statement.

The authorities have filed charges against Aung Marm Oo, chief editor of Development Media Group (DMG), under the Unlawful Associations Act, blocked access to the outlet’s English and Burmese language webpages, and failed to act on DMG’s application to renew the publishing license for its bimonthly print journal. Narinjara News, the only other ethnic Rakhine media outlet, has also been blocked since March.

“The Myanmar authorities’ relentless harassment of ethnic Rakhine news outlets is an outrageous assault on media freedom and the right to information,” said Linda Lakhdhir, Asia legal adviser. “The authorities should immediately drop the baseless charges against DMG’s chief editor, renew the company’s publishing license, and unblock the websites of both DMG and Narinjara News.”