Ye Htut defends jail terms for journalists
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Presidential spokesperson Ye Htut has defended a controversial 10-year sentence given to four journalists and an executive of the Unity Journal last week.
The Pakokku District Court sentenced the five to 10 years’ hard labour on July 10 under a colonial era secrecy law for publishing a report in January about a secret weapons’ factory in Pauk Township, Magway Region.
Ye Htut justified the sentence in an interview with Radio Free Asia (RFA) as a matter of national security rather than a matter of press freedom, despite the widespread outcry from media professionals and rights groups.
“Any nation, any government, must control secret issues for their national security. Information that harms national security is not even tolerated in the United States. We don’t think this case is about press freedom,” Ye Htut told RFA.
He added that if only reporters followed media ethics, they would avoid such problems, echoing the original prosecution claim that they had sneaked into the factory ignoring signs that said the area was off limits. The defence council denied that there were any such warnings.
During the final court hearing on June 30, the state prosecution told the court that entry into the factory compound was not a crime in itself unless those entering intended to harm national security.
They concluded that in publishing the reporting, the Unity Journal was undermining the government’s peace efforts and that this could lead to misunderstandings about the president and the military, and therefore were damaging the country’s interest.
"Such expressions are believed to damage the national security and interest according to the law. If no article had been written about these things, there wouldn't have been any offence. Such writing, according to the law, is automatically obvious that it damages national security,” the prosecution said.
