Myanmar journalists arrested over satire

Police in Myanmar have arrested a newspaper’s chief editor and a columnist for allegedly defaming the military by publishing an article mocking its role in the country’s efforts to reach a peace agreement with fractious minority groups, one of their lawyers said yesterday. The lawyer for The Voice Daily editor Kyaw Min Swe said that the two were not released after being called in for questioning Friday over a lawsuit filed by the military under the country’s Telecommunications Law. A broadly defined offense under the law sets a prison term of up to three years for material judged defamatory that is transmitted over any telecommunications network, including online.

Free speech advocates have criticized the law, and several journalists said they plan to wear armbands in protest of the arrests. The lawyer, Khin Maung Myint, said the trial of the editor and columnist Ko Ko Maung would begin Thursday. Article 66 (D) of the Telecommunications Law, which targets anyone “extorting, coercing, restraining wrongfully defaming, disturbing, causing undue influence or threatening to any person,” had been used by the repressive former military government to punish its critics, particularly members of the country’s pro-democracy movement.

To the surprise of many who expected a new era of freedom of expression, prosecutions have continued under the government of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose political party took power last year. — AP