A freelance photojournalist in Myanmar has died in military custody after being arrested last week while covering protests. Soe Naing is the first journalist known to have died in custody since the army seized power in February, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. More than 100 journalists have been detained since then, though about half have been released. Soe Naing was arrested Friday when he and a colleague were in downtown Yangon taking photos during a “silent strike” called by opponents of military rule. It was the biggest nationwide protest in several months, and the streets were virtually empty as people answered the call to stay home and for businesses to shut down for six hours. Soe Naing is not the first detainee to die in government custody. There is no clear total, but the others reported dead while in custody have been political activists and members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party. In several cases where the bodies could be seen, they bore marks that suggested the individuals had been tortured, according to human rights activists. Journalists have mostly been targets for arrest, as the military-installed government has sought to clamp down on the free flow of information. In addition to detaining media workers, many outlets have been forced to close or operate underground, with their staff always at risk of arrest. Soe Naing and his colleague had been covering the crisis in Myanmar for months, with their work depicting anti-military protests and brutal crackdowns by security forces sometimes picked up by foreign news agencies. After his arrest, Soe Naing was sent to a military interrogation centre in Yangon’s eastern Botahtaung Township, said colleagues familiar with his case. His family was informed Tuesday morning morning that he died at the 1,000-bed Defense Services general hospital in Yangon’s Mingaladon Township, said the colleagues and a family friend, who spoke on condition of anonymity as giving such information could make them targets for arrest. Since the army takeover, interrogation centres across Myanmar have been increasingly using torture against detainees. The Paris-based organisation Reporters Without Borders tweeted that the group was “appalled to learn that freelance photoreporter Soe Naing – abducted by the military while covering a silent protest in Yangon on Friday – died in custody this morning, after a violent interrogation.” Soe Naing is survived by his wife and a four-year-old son. The situation of the photographer arrested with him was not known. The Committee to Protect Journalists on Tuesday called for the immediate release of Aung San Lin, a reporter for the Democratic Voice of Burma, a broadcast and online service. It said he had been arrested on 11 December, right after he had given a report that alleged soldiers had carried out arson on the homes of three supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party.