Sentence reduced for Burma’s Unity Journalists

Four journalists with the Burmese weekly Unity, as well as the company’s CEO U Tin Hsan, have had their prison sentences reduced to seven years upon appeal, Mizzima News reported last week.

The journalists had been originally sentenced in July to ten years in prison with hard labour by a court in the Magway Region of Myanmar for violating Sec. 3/9 of the country's 1923 Official Secrets Act after reporting on a government factory alleged to have been designed to manufacture chemical weapons. The government denied the allegations and the group was prosecuted for trespassing and taking photographs on restricted grounds.

“The use of official secrets laws, which typically carry lengthy prison terms, in response to journalists’ coverage of issues of public interest goes far beyond the legitimate scope of such laws. The chilling effect these rulings have on journalists seriously threatens the development of independent journalism in a country that is just emerging from years of censorship,” IPI Press Freedom Manager Barbara Trionfi said.

Calling the case a serious blow to the expanded media freedom promised by President Thein Sein when he took office in March 2011, the International Press Institute (IPI) has called on Burmese authorities to immediately release the journalists. IPI Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie also raised the issue with Burmese Minister of Information Ye Htut during a visit to the country in August.

Mizzima Media had identified the defendants as Unity Weekly Paper CEO U Tin Hsan, of Dagon Myothit (South) Township, and journalists U Lu Maw Naing (aka) Lin Kyaw Oo (aka) Lu Maw, of Pauk; U Sithu Soe, of Pyapon; U The Yazar Oo (aka) Yazar Oo (aka) Ko The, of Hlinethaya Township; and U Aung Thura (aka) Paing Thet Kyaw, of North Okkalapa Township.

The court convicted the journalists and the CEO in connection with a January 25 report – “Secret Chemical Weapon Factory” – on a secretive government factory that sources alleged was designed to produce chemical weapons. U Ye Htut told the IPI delegation that the journalists “acted irresponsibly” by “illegally dressing as construction workers and entering the defence office and taking photographs”.