Bangkok, October 11, 2022 – Myanmar’s military regime must immediately and unconditionally release journalist Sithu Aung Myint and stop using vague laws to harass and persecute members of the press for merely reporting the news, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.
On October 7, an Insein Prison court in Yangon convicted and sentenced Sithu Aung Myint, who contributed to U.S. Congress-funded Voice of America and other outlets, to three years in prison with hard labor for allegedly violating Section 505(a) of the penal code, a broad provision that criminalizes incitement and the dissemination of “false news,” according to multiple news reports.
Sithu Aung Myint’s lawyer said he planned to appeal his conviction to a higher court, according to a VOA report.
He also faces a separate sedition charge under Section 124 of the penal code, according to VOA Burmese Service editor Than Lwin Htun, who communicated with CPJ via email. Convictions under Section 124 carry a maximum 20-year prison sentence. The next hearing in that trial is scheduled for October 13, the VOA report said.
“The harsh sentencing of journalist Sithu Aung Myint is the Myanmar junta’s latest crime against independent journalism and the free press,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Sithu Aung Myint and all the other journalists Myanmar’s regime wrongfully holds behind bars must be freed now.”
Sithu Aung Myint was arrested on August 15, 2021, at an apartment in Yangon with fellow journalist Htet Htet Khine while fleeing a warrant for his arrest related to his journalism, CPJ reported at the time.
Htet Htet Khine was sentenced to six years in prison under Section 505(a) and the Unlawful Associations Act in two separate rulings handed down in September, according to news reports and CPJ reporting.
Than Lwin Htun told CPJ that Sithu Aung Myint contributed reporting to a weekly radio program for VOA since 2014 and that it wasn’t clear which articles prompted his prosecution. Sithu Aung Myint has also served as a reporter at the independent Frontier Myanmar magazine and the local SkyNet broadcaster, the VOA report said.
Sithu Aung Myint’s health has deteriorated while in detention, and prison authorities have denied him medical attention, according to a European Parliament joint motion for a resolution on Myanmar’s media crackdown issued on October 5.
Myanmar’s Ministry of Information did not reply to CPJ’s emailed request for comment on Sithu Aung Myint’s conviction, sentencing, health, and detention. Myanmar was the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists as of December 1, 2021, according to CPJ’s annual prison census.