A Burmese court fined two journalists 1 million kyat (£550) each after they were convicted of defaming the country’s president, Thein Sein, reports Radio Free Asia (RFA).
The former chief editor of the Myanmar Herald, Kyaw Swa Win, and the deputy chief editor, Ant Khaung Min (aka Win Ko Ko Oo), received the maximum fine for violating Burma’s controversial media law.
Nine other staff were acquitted on Tuesday in the case, which was brought by Burma’s information ministry.
In November 2014, the newspaper published an interview with a political analyst and member of the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, in which he criticised the president for not making it clear whether he would seek re-election.
In the course of the interview, Myo Yan Naung Thein described a statement by the president as “gibberish, irrational, cheap, and inconsistent... completely nonsensical, absurd and insane.”
According to The Irrawaddy online journal, the judge said the interview about the president “should not have been published... President Thein Sein is like our parent and it was defamation.”
The journalists’ lawyer, Zaw Lin, told RFA: “We plan to appeal... We will have to pay the fine first and appeal at a subsequent court appearance. If we win the appeal, we will get our fine money back.”
Aung Kyaw Min said: “If they want [Myanmar] to become a democratic country, they shouldn’t restrict the press.”
The defamation charges were the first to be brought by the information ministry since the media law was passed in March last year. Journalists free greater clamps on the press ahead of national elections scheduled for 8 November.
Sources: Radio Free Asia/BBC
