Myanmar Sentences VOA Contributor to Additional 7 Years in Prison

A Myanmar journalist who contributes to the Voice of America (VOA) has been sentenced to a further seven years in jail.

A Yangon court docket on Friday handed down the sentence with arduous labor to Sithu Aung Myint after convicting him of sedition, in accordance with a lawyer representing the journalist.

The lawyer, who requested to not be recognized for safety causes, mentioned that the authorized crew plans to enchantment.

Myanmar’s junta arrested Sithu Aung Myint in August 2021 in Bahan Township, Yangon, together with a contract BBC producer named Htet Htet Khine.

Sithu Aung Myint was arrested for allegedly writing articles essential of the army or that incited individuals to again the opposition, in accordance with pro-military native media.

The journalist is already serving 5 years in jail with labor after being convicted in October of incitement and in November of denigrating the army.

The lawyer for Sithu Aung Myint advised VOA Burmese that the journalist shouldn’t be concerned in politics and was not part of any political group.

“He was merely writing analytical articles in regards to the scenario of the nation because it develops. He had been writing such articles lengthy earlier than the coup,” the lawyer mentioned. “He shouldn’t be punished for writing essential evaluation of any administration.”

Sithu Aung Myint coated politics, enterprise and social points for native media and on his weblog. Since 2014, he was a contributor to VOA, offering weekly information evaluation.

In an announcement after his first conviction, VOA Performing Director Yolanda Lopez mentioned that the army ought to “cease the indiscriminate arrest and detention of journalists.”

“The individuals of Myanmar need to reside in a society that embraces correct and goal information,” Lopez mentioned.

A spokesperson for Myanmar’s army has repeatedly advised VOA that the junta doesn’t jail journalists for his or her reporting.

Since Myanmar’s army seized energy in a February 2021 coup, the nation has turn out to be one of many main jailers of journalists, with greater than 150 arrested between 2021 and December of this yr, in accordance with information collected by journalists at present in exile who monitor arrests.

At the moment, round 50 journalists are imprisoned throughout Myanmar, in accordance with that information. Most are detained on accusations of incitement or spreading false information in regards to the junta for protection of opposition to army rule.

The repressive setting for media has had a dire impact on Myanmar’s press freedom rating.

Media watchdog Reporters With out Borders says the coup set media rights again 10 years. The nation ranks 170 out of 180 international locations, the place 1 alerts a optimistic setting for media, on the Press Freedom Index.

RSF has mentioned that the coup “obliterated the delicate progress towards larger press freedom that had been seen because the earlier army junta disbanded in 2011.”