(Reuters) – A photojournalist was sentenced by a Myanmar court on Wednesday to 20 years in prison, according to his employer, the longest prison sentence imposed on a media professional since the military coup in 2021.
The reason for the conviction against the photojournalist was not immediately clear.
“The military council convicted Ko Sai Zaw Thaike in his first trial on September 6 in a court at Insein Prison without the presence of a lawyer or the opportunity to defend himself,” the Myanmar Now media outlet reported.
The military junta did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
In 2022, Burma was ranked third among the countries that imprisoned the most journalists in the world after China and Iran, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
According to data from the association Group of Detained Journalists, more than 150 journalists have been arrested and four media professionals have lost their lives since the coup in Burma.
(Reuters offices, French version Zhifan Liu, editing by Blandine Hénault)
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