A court has sentenced a journalist to one year in prison for trespassing and obstructing a civil servant while doing a story on education, a his company's spokesman said today.
The journalist, Zaw Pe (41), who works for Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) was arrested while covering a Japanese-funded scholarship program in Magwe region. He interviewed students and filmed inside an education department office, said Khin Maung Soe, a DVB spokesman.
He got into an argument with an official inside the education department in Magwe region and was charged with obstructing a civil servant from carrying out his duties.
"Media freedom is not just about the lifting of censorship. If journalists are not allowed to do interviews freely, denied access to information and face criminal charges for their journalistic activities, we cannot call it freedom of press," said Soe.
Recently, four reporters and chief executive of the private weekly journal, "Unity," face up to 14 years in prison for violating the country's state secret's act following publication of a story about an alleged chemical weapons factory in Myanmar.
