Photo: RFA
When journalist Aung Kyaw Min filed a brief story Dec. 11 about the need for repairs on a wooden bridge in Maungdaw township of western state of Rakhine, the road engineer responsible didn’t like it.
The engineer, Maung Win, didn’t register his disapproval with a simple letter to the editor – the standard right of reply that is a pillar of the fourth estate in a democracy. He took the scorched-earth approach often preferred by Myanmar authorities to intimidate journalists.
He filed a defamation case with police against the reporter under much-cited Article 66 (d) the Telecommunications Law that provides for up to two years in prison for “extorting, coercing, restraining wrongfully, defaming, disturbing, causing undue influence or [threat] to any person by using a telecommunications network.”