YANGON, Myanmar — Dozens of journalists
staged a rare demonstration Tuesday morning in Myanmar’s biggest city to
protest a jail term given to a reporter who was working on a story
about corruption.
Wearing black T-shirts with slogans saying, “We don’t want threat on
Press Freedom,” and carrying banners that read, “Right to Information is
life of democracy,” nearly 60 reporters marched down a busy downtown
Yangon street decrying the three-month prison sentence given to Ma Khine
from the Daily Eleven newspaper.
She was convicted by a court in eastern Kayah state last month of trespassing, using abusive language and defamation.
Journalists have gained new freedoms under the reformist government of
President Thein Sein, who since taking office in 2011 has abolished most
censorship and allowed the publication of privately owned daily
newspapers for the first time in almost five decades.
Previously, reporters here worked under some of the tightest
restrictions in the world, subject to routine state surveillance, phone
taps and censorship for all publications.
Still, even under recent reforms, some publications have been sued for
defamation, including by government agencies. Ma Khine is the first
journalist under Thein Sein’s government to be given a prison sentence.
Ma Khine was sued by a lawyer after she visited her house for an
interview for a story about corruption. The lawyer was annoyed by her
questioning and asked her to leave and later filed a lawsuit, according
to Wai Phyo, chief editor of the Daily Eleven.
“The judge could have imposed a fine but deliberately gave the prison
sentence not only to threaten the reporter but to threaten press
freedom,” he said.
Myint Kyaw, the general secretary of Myanmar Journalist Network, helped
organize the protest march “because we do not want the imprisonment of a
journalist to become a precedent.”
Local and international media and watchdog organizations such as the
World Association of Newspapers, Committee to Protest Journalists and
Reporters Without Borders issued statements strongly condemning the
prison sentence.
