Myanmar: Do not jail journalists for 10 years for reporting on a weapons factory

Four reporters and the chief executive officer of a magazine in Myanmar have been sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in prison on a national security charge for investigative stories about a weapons factory.

The court found the five men who had worked for Unity journal (which has since closed) had violated the 1923 Burma State Secrets Act pertaining to trespassing in a prohibited area.

The stories alleged the military had seized more than 1,200 hectares of farmland in the Myanmar central Magwe Region to construct a weapons factory.

The Myanmar government said the five men were jailed as they had threatened national security. However, press freedom was supposed to have been guaranteed in Myanmar after it emerged from a brutal dictatorship in 2011. Nonetheless, media commentators say that journalists still face intimidation.

Please sign and share the petition to demand that Myanmar releases the five men jailed for reporting on a weapons factory.