Myanmar media groups blast arrests of journalists

"These arrests threaten journalists in our media industry and may seriously affect freedom of expression," said a joint statement issued by the Myanmar Journalists Network, Myanmar Journalists Association, Myanmar Journalists Union and Pan Myanmar.
The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists on Tuesday also condemned the arrests and called for the immediate release of the journalists.
Police on Saturday night detained the four local journalists and the chief executive of The Unity, a weekly journal, after the journal published a report last week about an alleged secret chemical weapons factory in Magway division, in central Myanmar.
They were detained for questioning without arrest warrants, and face a charge of exposing state secrets, police said. Their families were told that the journalists would not have the possibility of bail due to the nature of the accusations against them.
Dissemination of state secrets carries a potential death penalty.
The Unity report claimed that the chemical weapons factory was built in 2009 on land allegedly confiscated from nearby farmers without compensation.
Government spokesman Ye Htut denied the report, insisting that the installation was a normal weapons factory. He said there were no chemical weapons factories in Myanmar.
The media has only recently dared to demand greater press freedoms in the former pariah state.
Last month, journalists and activists took to the streets of Yangon to protest against a three-month jail sentence for Ma Khine, a reporter for the Daily Eleven newspaper, on charges of trespassing and defamation.
DPA