Myanmar Jails 2 Reporters for Defamation

A Myanmar court on Thursday sentenced two journalists to two months in prison on charges of defamation. The Myanmar Post’s chief editor Than Htaik Thu and reporter Hsan Moe Tun were charged in February 2014 after their paper quoted a military lawmaker allegedly commenting on the lack of education of his colleagues in parliament. The lawmaker, Major Thein Zaw, denied the comments and filed a defamation case against the two journalists. The conviction is the first time journalists have been jailed for defamation since President Thein Sein came to power in 2011, ending a half-century under a military junta.