A Myanmar journalist who contributes to the Voice of America (VOA) has been sentenced to an additional seven years in prison.
A Yangon court on Friday handed down the sentence with hard labor to Sithu Aung Myint after convicting him of sedition, according to a lawyer representing the journalist.
The lawyer, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, said that the legal team plans to appeal.
Myanmar’s junta arrested Sithu Aung Myint in August 2021 in Bahan Township, Yangon, along with a freelance BBC producer named Htet Htet Khine.
Sithu Aung Myint was arrested for allegedly writing articles critical of the military or that incited people to back the opposition, according to pro-military local media.
The journalist is already serving five years in prison with labor after being convicted in October of incitement and in November of denigrating the military.
The lawyer for Sithu Aung Myint told VOA Burmese that the journalist is not involved in politics and was not a part of any political organization.
“He was simply writing analytical articles about the situation of the country as it develops. He had been writing such articles long before the coup,” the lawyer said. "He should not be punished for writing critical analysis of any administration.”
Sithu Aung Myint covered politics, business and social issues for local media and on his blog. Since 2014, he was a contributor to VOA, providing weekly news analysis.
In a statement after his first conviction, VOA Acting Director Yolanda Lopez said that the military should “stop the indiscriminate arrest and detention of journalists.”
"The people of Myanmar deserve to live in a society that embraces accurate and objective news," Lopez said.
A spokesperson for Myanmar’s military has repeatedly told VOA that the junta does not jail journalists for their reporting.
Since Myanmar’s military seized power in a February 2021 coup, the country has become one of the leading jailers of journalists, with more than 150 arrested between 2021 and December of this year, according to data collected by journalists currently in exile who track arrests.
Currently, around 50 journalists are imprisoned across Myanmar, according to that data. Most are detained on accusations of incitement or spreading false news about the junta for coverage of opposition to military rule.
The repressive environment for media has had a dire effect on Myanmar’s press freedom ranking.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders says the coup set media rights back 10 years. The country ranks 170 out of 180 countries, where 1 signals a positive environment for media, on the Press Freedom Index.
RSF has said that the coup “obliterated the fragile progress toward greater press freedom that had been seen since the previous military junta disbanded in 2011.”