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.