Myanmar jails two journalists for ‘spreading false news’

Reporters for Democratic Voice of Burma and Mizzima sentenced to two- year terms in military crackdown on media.

A court in military-ruled Myanmar has jailed two journalists under a colonial-era law that was recently revised to make spreading “false news” a crime, as part of a continuing crackdown on reporting in the troubled country. A military court in southern Myeik on Wednesday sentenced Aung Kyaw of the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and Zaw Zaw, a freelance reporter for Mizzima News, to two years in prison over their reporting of the anti-coup protests that have swept Myanmar since the generals under Min Aung Hlaing seized power on February 1, the two publications said. Aung Kyaw, who live streamed his arrest, is the third DVB journalist to be jailed since the coup triggered a wave of protests and calls for the restoration of the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The security forces have responded with force, and the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which has been tracking arrests and deaths says 841 people have killed in the violence.