Myanmar Journalist Ye Yint Tun Jailed for Two Years

A special court in Pathein sentenced Ye Yint Tun on March 23, according to multiple news reports, to two years in jail for allegedly violating Section 505(a) of the penal code, which criminalizes the dissemination of "false news," as well as Section 505(b), which criminalizes publishing or disseminating material that may cause fear or alarm.

In February 2021, Ye Yint Tun, a reporter for the Myanmar Herald news website, was arrested while covering a protest in Pathein, and was held in pretrial detention until his sentencing, according to those reports.  Ye Yint Tun's sentence was passed in the same week that two other reporters, Hanthar Nyein of Kamayut Media and Than Htike Aung of Mizzima, were sentenced to two years each in prison. 

A second Myanmar Herald reporter, Wine Maw, is being held in pretrial detention at Yangon's Insein Prison. As of the latest prison census conducted by CPJ, Myanmar was the second-worst jailer of journalists, trailing only China, with at least 26 behind bars.

As a result of the military's ongoing crackdown on the media following the coup in February of last year, many journalists are being forced into hiding across Myanmar. The junta asserts that it has followed the law, and denies that journalists are being arrested. 

According to the Detained Journalists Group, which has maintained data on the arrest and detention of journalists since the coup, more than 130 journalists have been detained since the coup. Approximately 50 journalists remain in prison.