By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar Junta continues its judicial crackdown on political activities. Two journalists were sentenced for seven years each. Thet Zin, editor of the local Myanmar-language journal Myanmar Nation, and Sein Win Maung, the paper’s manager, were convicted for undermining the government under the country’s Printing and Publishing Law. They were also being charge for possessing documents deemed to be subversive, including a UN Special Human Rights Report on Myanmar. The same day, 13 members of the ’88 Generation students group’ were sentenced to six years in jail.
Thet Zin founded the Myanmar Nation in 2006. He is a former political prisoner and had previously worked as a reporter and editor for several weekly journals, including News Watch and Ah Lin Tan. Thet Zin and Sein Win Maung were arrested in February in a raid in which military intelligence officers seized the UN Special Human Rights Report on Myanmar, Shan ethnic leader Shwe Ohn’s book on federalism, and a VCD containing footage of the 2007 September uprising.
“In the case of Thet Zin and Sein Win Maung, the judges have imposed the maximum penalty allowed under the press law. What is the most shocking is that none of journalists, bloggers, poets, activists or monks who have recently been sentenced, committed a crime defined as such under Burmese law. Their sole crime is to peacefully oppose the junta”, the worldwide press freedom organization said.
Myanmar courts sentenced more than 100 people, including activists, writers, musicians and Buddhist monks to jail since last month. Myanmar Junta, which has held power since 1962, frequently arrests artists and entertainers regarded as opposing the regime.
For more information, please see:
AP – Journalists caught in crackdown by Myanmar junta – 01 December 2008
Reporters Without Borders – Two journalists jailed for seven years as wave of sentencing continues – 29 November 2008
The Irrawaddy – Judicial Crackdown in Burma Continues – 28 November 2008
