Sithu Zeya, a 21-year-old Burmese photographer who was arrested on April 16 for taking photos of the damage caused by a bomb in a Rangoon park, has been sentenced to eight years in prison. His father, Maung Maung Zeya, a journalist and painter who was arrested a day later, is to be tried in January, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Both worked for the exile radio and TV station Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB).
RSF and its partner organization, the Burma Media Association (BMA), condemned the arbitrary punishment of a news photographer who was just doing his job. The two organisations said they were appalled by the way Sithu Zeya and his father were being treated. The son has already received one long jail sentence and could receive another one. The father is awaiting a sentence that could be very harsh.
The two organisations feared that these two DVB reporters will be treated extremely severely by the Burmese authorities and call for their release. Hla Hla Win, a young woman who worked as a video reporter for DVB, was sentenced to 20 years in prison a year ago, on December 31, 2009. In all, six DVB reporters are currently detained in Burma.
According to Sithu Zeya’s legal advisar Aung Thein, no evidence or testimony was presented at his trial on December 21 before a court in the Rangoon district of Mingalar Taung Nyunt. The judges reached their verdict solely on the basis of a confession extracted under torture. The eight-year sentence consisted of five years for crossing the border with Thailand illegally and three years for “communicating with an illegal organization” (meaning DVB).
He is facing the possibility of an additional sentence of up to 20 years in prison under the Electronics Act for taking the photos after the bombing during the Burmese New Year festivities in April that left nine people dead and 170 injured.
RSF/BMA condemned the Electronics Act, which exposes journalists to the possibility of imprisonment while having a deadening effect on the country’s media. It is high time the Burmese junta stopped gagging reporters. RSF released a report entitled “Burmese media combating censorship” on December 22 that highlighted the importance of the role played by exile media such as DVB in providing news and information to the Burmese public:
