JUNE 3 • 2021 | 37

WORLD

O

n his way home for 
a surprise visit to see 
family and friends, 
native Detroiter Danny Fenster, 
37, managing editor for Frontier 
Myanmar, was detained May 
24 at Yangon International 
Airport shortly before boarding 
a flight to Kuala Lumpur and is 
being held in prison. He is one 
of many journalists who has 
been detained, imprisoned or 
expelled from the country since 
a military coup took over the 
government there in February. 
Fenster’s brother Bryan, 39, 
of Huntington Woods, told the 
JN he was alarmed to see multi-
ple messages from Myanmar on 
his phone early that morning 
from Fenster’s wife, Julianna.
The last time Fenster saw 
his brother was at a friend’s 
wedding in Krakow, Poland, in 
September 2019. He assumes 
the reason why his brother is 
being detained is that he is a 
journalist who has been cover-
ing the coup in Myanmar. Since 
then, Myanmar’s military gov-
ernment has arrested about 80 
journalists, according to media 
reports, which state Fenster is 
the fourth foreign journalist to 
be detained. 
Fenster said his brother, 
a graduate of Berkeley High 
School and a graduate of 
Colombia College of Chicago 
and Wayne State University, 
had been working as a journal-
ist in Asia for about three years. 
He had positions in Thailand 
and was working for anoth-
er media outlet in Myanmar 
before the military government 

shut it down. Then he joined 
the staff of Frontier, an inde-
pendent news site. 
Bryan Fenster said Julianna is 
trying to arrange to visit Danny 
in Insein Prison, which has a 
notorious and well-document-
ed reputation for its deplorable 
conditions for political prison-
ers.
“We do not know the exact 
reason why he is being detained 
or of his physical condition,
” 
Fenster said in an interview 
with the JN. “The good news 
is that we’ve been able to get 
in touch with the right people. 
Local (Congressional) repre-
sentatives, Gov. Whitmer and 
the U.S. State Department are 
aware, and they are working 
on it.
” 
On May 25, Congressman 
Andy Levin (MI-09), along 
with all 16 
members of the 
Michigan congres-
sional delegation, 
sent a letter to 
Secretary of State 
Antony Blinken 
urging the State 
Department to secure Fenster’s 
immediate and unconditional 
release. The full text of the 
letter can be read at https://
tinyurl.com/2tew6s3f.
In an interview with the JN, 
Levin said he spent a great 
deal of time speaking with 
Fenster’s brother, as well as 
the U.S. State Department and 
U.S. Ambassador to Myanmar 
Thomas Vajda on May 25. 
Levin said Vajda is “leaving no 
stone unturned” in efforts to 

release the journalist. 
“I was very reassured after 
speaking to Ambassador 
Vajda and learned all he is 
doing to win Danny’s release,
” 
said Levin, who serves in 
Congress on the Foreign Affairs 
Committee and is the vice chair 
of the Subcommittee on Asia, 
the Pacific, Central Asia and 
Nonproliferation. In March, 
Levin passed H. Res. 134 that 
condemned the military coup 
in Myanmar that received 
bipartisan support. 
“Vajda has thorough, mea-
sured and strong experience 
in protecting Americans in 

every country he has served 
in as ambassador,
” Levin said. 
“Washington is coming at this 
at all angles to release him.
”
According to CNN, in 
February, the military detained 
Myanmar’s civilian leader 
Aung San Suu Kyi, who won 
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, 
for her support of democracy. 
The military declared a state 
of emergency, claiming there 
was voting fraud in elections 
that Suu Kyi’s party had won, 
according to observers. The 
U.S. and other nations have 
criticized Myanmar’s military 
leaders for the coup. 

Metro Detroit journalist is being held 
in a Myanmar prison.
Detained on His Way Home

Rep. Andy 
Levin

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Bryan and Danny Fenster, 
September 2019, at a friend’s 
wedding in Krakow, Poland. 
It was the last time the 
brothers saw each other.

