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12.12.09 07:43UNHCR | Refworld | Annual Prison Census 2009: BurmaSeite 1 von 4http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,,MMR,,4b220ca4c,0.html
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Title
Annual Prison Census 2009: Burma
Publisher
Committee to Protect Journalists
Country
Myanmar
Publication Date
8 December 2009
Cite as
Committee to Protect Journalists,
Annual Prison Census 2009: Burma
, 8 December2009, available at:http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4b220ca4c.html [accessed 12 December2009]
Annual Prison Census 2009: Burma
Journalists in prison as of December 1, 2009Burma: 9Ne Min (Win Shwe), freelanceImprisoned: February 2004
Ne Min, a lawyer and a former stringer for the BBC, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on May7, 2004, on charges that he illegally passed information to "antigovernment" organizationsoperating in border areas, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners inBurma, a prisoner assistance group based in Thailand.It was the second time that Burma's military government had imprisoned the well-knownjournalist, also known as Win Shwe, on charges related to disseminating information to newssources outsideof Burma. In 1989, a military tribunal sentenced Ne Min to 14 years of hard laborfor "spreading false news and rumors to the BBC to fan further disturbances in the country" and"possession of documents including antigovernment literature, which he planned to send to theBBC," according to official radio reports. He served nine years at Rangoon's Insein Prison beforebeing released in 1998.Exiled Burmese journalists who spoke with CPJ said that Ne Min had provided news to politicalgroups and exile-run news publications before his second arrest in February 2004.
Nay Phone Latt (Nay Myo Kyaw), freelanceImprisoned: January 29, 2008
Nay Phone Latt, a businessman also known as Nay Myo Kyaw, wrote a blog and owned threeInternet cafés in Rangoon. He went missing on the morning of January 29, 2008, according toexile-run news groups.The New Delhi-based Mizzima news agency reported that police had detained Nay Phone Latt atan Internet café and that he was being held at the Ministry of Home Affairs. The journalist,whose Web site offered perspectives on Burmese youth, had been a youth member of theopposition group National League for Democracy, Reuters said.A court charged Nay Phone Latt in July with causing public offense and violating video andelectronic laws when he posted caricatures of ruling generals on his blog, according to Reuters.He was being held in Insein Prison, according to a joint report by the Assistance Association forPolitical Prisoners in Burma and the U.S. Campaign for Burma.
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During closed judicial proceedings held at the Insein compound on November 10, 2008, NayPhone Latt was sentenced on several counts under the penal code to a total of 20 years and sixmonths in prison, according to the Burma Media Association, a press freedom advocacy group,and news reports. In late 2008, he was transferred to Pa-an Prison in Karen state, news reportssaid.In February 2009, the Rangoon Divisional Court commuted the sentence to a total of 12 years.Nay Phone Latt's lawyers continued to challenge the conviction and appeared before the HighCourt on June 22, according to Mizzima. The court turned back the appeal.
Sein Win Maung (Ko Soe),
Myanmar Nation
Imprisoned: February 15, 2008
Police conducting a raid on the offices of the weekly
Myanmar Nation
arrested editor Thet Zinand manager Sein Win Maung, according to local and international news reports. Police alsoseized the journalists' cell phones, footage of monk-led antigovernment demonstrations that tookplace in Burma in September 2007, and a report by Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, U.N. specialrapporteur for human rights in Burma, according to Aung Din, director of the Washington-basedU.S. Campaign for Burma. The report detailed killings associated with the military government'scrackdown on the 2007 demonstrators.The New Delhi-based Mizzima news agency cited family members as saying that the two werefirst detained in the Thingangyun Township police station before being charged with illegalprinting and publishing on February 25.On November 28, 2008, a closed court at the Insein Prison compound sentenced each to sevenyears in prison.Police ordered
Myanmar Nation
's staff to stop publishing temporarily, according to the BurmaMedia Association, a press freedom advocacy group with representatives in Bangkok. The newsWeb site
Irrawaddy
said the newspaper was allowed to resume publishing in March 2008; byOctober of that year, exile-run groups said, the journal had shut down for lack of leadership.Thet Zin was among 7,000 prisoners released as part of a government amnesty on September 17,2009, according to international news reports. His colleague remained behind bars in late year.
Maung Thura (Zarganar), freelanceImprisoned: June 4, 2008
Police arrested Maung Thura, a well-known comedian who used the online and stage nameZarganar, or "Tweezers," at his home in Rangoon, according to news reports. The police alsoseized electronic equipment at the time of the arrest, according to Agence France-Presse.Maung Thura had mobilized hundreds of entertainers to help survivors of Cyclone Nargis, whichdevastated Rangoon and much of the Irrawaddy Delta in May 2008. His footage of relief work inhard-hit areas was circulated on DVD and on the Internet. Photographs and DVD footage of theaftermath of the disaster were among the items police confiscated at the time of his arrest,according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma and the U.S. Campaign forBurma.In the week he was detained, Maung Thura gave several interviews to overseas-based newsoutlets, including the BBC, criticizing the military junta's response to the disaster. The day afterhis arrest, state-controlled media published warnings against sending video footage of reliefwork to foreign news agencies.During closed proceedings in August 2008 at Insein Prison in Rangoon, the comedian was indictedon at least seven charges, according to international news reports.On November 21, 2008, the court sentenced Maung Thura to 45 years in prison on three separatecounts of violating the Electronic Act. Six days later, the court added 14 years to his term afterconvicting him on charges of communicating with exiled dissidents and causing public alarm ininterviews with foreign media, his defense lawyer, Khin Htay Kywe, told The Associated Press.The sentence was later reduced to a total of 35 years by the Rangoon Divisional Court.Maung Thura had been detained on several occasions in the past, including in September 2007 for
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helping Buddhist monks during antigovernment protests, according to the exile-run pressfreedom group Burma Media Association. He had maintained a blog,
Zarganar-windoor
, which hissupporters continued to update in 2009.The Democratic Voice of Burma reported that Maung Thura had been transferred to a remotelocation, Myintkyinar Prison in Kachin state, in December 2008, where he was reported in poorhealth. His sister-in-law, Ma Nyein, told
Irawaddy
that the journalist suffered from hypertensionand jaundice.
Zaw Thet Htwe, freelanceImprisoned: June 13, 2008
Police arrested Rangoon-based freelance journalist Zaw Thet Htwe on June 13, 2008, in the townof Minbu, where he was visiting his mother, Agence France-Presse reported. The sportswriter hadbeen working with comedian-blogger Maung Thura in delivering aid to victims of Cyclone Nargisand videotaping the relief effort.The journalist, who formerly edited the popular sports newspaper
First Eleven
, was indicted in aclosed tribunal on August 7, 2008, and was tried along with Maung Thura and two activists, AFPreported. The group faced multiple charges, including violating the Video Act and Electronic Actand disrupting public order and unlawful association, news reports said.The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma said police confiscateda computer and cell phone during a raid on Zaw Thet Htwe's Rangoon home.In November 2008, Zaw Thet Htwe was sentenced to a total of 19 years in prison on charges ofviolating the Electronic Act, according to the Mizzima news agency. The Rangoon DivisionalCourt later reduced the prison term to 11 years, Mizzima reported. He was put in TaunggyiPrison in Shan state in 2009.Zaw Thet Htwe had been arrested before, in 2003, and given the death sentence for plotting tooverthrow the government, news reports said. The sentence was later commuted. AFP reportedthat the 2003 arrest was related to a story he published about a misappropriated football grant.
Aung Kyaw San,
Myanmar Tribune
Imprisoned: June 15, 2008
Aung Kyaw San, editor-in-chief of the
Myanmar Tribune
, was arrested in Rangoon along with 15others returning from relief activities in the Irrawaddy Delta region, which was devastated byCyclone Nargis, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners inBurma (AAPPB) and the Mizzima news agency.Photographs that Aung Kyaw San had taken of cyclone victims appeared on some Web sites,according to the Burma Media Association, a press freedom group run by exiled journalists.Authorities closed the Burmese-language weekly after his arrest and did not allow his familyvisitation rights, according to the association. On April 10, 2009, a special court in Insein Prisonsentenced him to two years' imprisonment for unlawful association, Mizzima reported.Aung Kyaw San was formerly jailed in 1990 and held for more than three years for activities withthe country's pro-democracy movement, AAPPB said.
"T," Democratic Voice of BurmaImprisoned: July 2009
The video-journalist known publicly as "T" reported news for the Oslo-based media organizationDemocratic Voice of Burma. He was one of two cameramen on an award-winning internationaldocumentary, "Orphans of the Burmese Cyclone," according to news reports.The Rory Peck Trust announced the arrest on November 18 as it honored "T" and his Burmesecolleague, "Z," with the Rory Peck Award for Features for their work on the documentary. Theindependent UK-based Rory Peck Trust supports freelance journalists. It said "T" had beenarrested four months earlier and had recently been charged under the Electronic Act with filmingwithout government permission. Khin Maung Win, deputy executive director of the DemocraticVoice of Burma, confirmed the arrest in a November 30 report on the organization's Web site. Hesaid "Z" was in hiding.
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