Verdict on DVB reporter attacked

 

Magway Township Court on Monday reached the sentence on reporter Zaw Pe, also known as Thura Thet Tin, for "trespassing" and "disturbing an on-duty civil servant" while reporting a news story on Japanese funded scholarships in 2012.

The Associated Press report on this has been widely shared while the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) – an international organisation committed to defending journalists worldwide – urged the court to overturn the verdict. 

"The conviction of journalist Zaw Pe is the latest indication that Burma's once-promising democratic reform program is rapidly being reversed," Shawn Crispin, CPJ's senior Southeast Asia representative, said on the organisation’s website. "With at least five journalists now in jail, President Thein Sein's vows to uphold press freedom ring increasingly hollow. We call for the immediate release of all reporters being held in Burma."

Win Myint Hlaing, the father of a student, was also convicted of the same charges and sentenced to one year in prison. Both were trying to find out more about the process for selecting the students for the Japan-funded excursion trip to Japan.

Zaw Pe was arrested after interviewing students and filming inside an education department office. He also asked an education official a series of questions, and was charged with keeping a civil servant from carrying out his duties. 

Deputy education administrator Maung Ngwe for the region was the plaintiff in the case. And the court finalised the verdict following its final hearing on March 26.

According to CPJ, Zaw Pe's conviction comes amid a widening clampdown on the press, following the three-month imprisonment for Eleven Media’s reporter Ma Khine in December for defamation, trespassing, and allegedly using abusive language while interviewing a lawyer about a legal dispute in eastern Kayah State. 

She was the first Burmese reporter to be imprisoned since Thein Sein released 14 jailed journalists in a 2012 presidential pardon of political prisoners.

After that case, four journalists and the CEO of the Unity Journal have also been detained for exposing a secret weapons factory in Magwe Region. The weekly journal reporters are still facing trial and could face up to 14 years in prison if convicted under a colonial-era law.

The Monday reopened concerns on media freedom in the country. 

CPJ’s appeal is the latest of a number of formal complaints from the US and British embassies as well as international journalist associations and rights groups. Local news outlets, including Eleven Media, have promised to protest the sentencing by blacking out front page covers on Friday. 

Zaw Pe was interrogated by the police for more than eight hours when the charges were first filed in August 2012. The police confiscated his video camera, memory card and press badge, releasing him on bail before pressing charges. 

"I did what I should as a journalist. I say there is no rule of law if we are sued and jailed unfairly. This shows how far President Thein Sein's democratic reforms and Myanmar's media freedom reach. I stood against the case in accordance with the law. Our sentences clearly show whether the legal system is independent under the current administration,” said Zaw Pe after being sentenced by Magway Township Court.

The defendant’s lawyer, Thein Tun, said that Zaw Pe would simultaneously serve one-year terms for each charge but will also appeal the verdict. The reporter was given a three-year sentence in 2010 while doing a story about a water shortage, but released in 2012.

The reporter and Win Myint Hlaing were transferred from the jailhouse in Magway Myoma Police Station to Thayet Prison on Tuesday. Fellow journalists from DVB and members of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society Group accompanied the two men on their way to prison providing moral support and encouragement. Zaw Pe had only a few minutes to say goodbye to his wife and son in front of the police station.

"We didn't get much time to talk. My husband didn't do anything wrong in this case. I believe the verdict is unfair,” said Moe Moe Myint, the wife of the journalist. 

DVB was blacklisted for many years and has only recently joined other exiled media outlets who have returned to set up operations inside Myanmar. They were frequently targeted and harassed by the previous military government for their critical reports.