U.S. journalist jailed for 11 years in army-ruled Myanmar
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[November 12, 2021]
(Reuters) - A court in
military-ruled Myanmar on Friday jailed American journalist Danny
Fenster for 11 years, his lawyer and his employer said, despite U.S.
calls for his release from what it said was unjust detention.
Fenster, 37, the managing editor of online magazine Frontier Myanmar,
was found guilty of incitement and violations of immigration and
unlawful associations laws, his magazine said, describing the sentences
as "the harshest possible under the law".
He is the first Western journalist sentenced to prison in recent years
in Myanmar, where a Feb. 1 coup by the military against an elected
government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi ended a decade of
tentative steps towards democracy and triggered nationwide protests.
"There is absolutely no basis to convict Danny of these charges," said
Thomas Kean, editor-in-chief of Frontier Myanmar, one of the country's
top independent news outlets.
"Everyone at Frontier is disappointed and frustrated at this decision.
We just want to see Danny released as soon as possible so he can go home
to his family."
Fenster was arrested while trying to leave the country in May and has
since been held in Yangon's notorious Insein prison, where hundreds of
opponents of the Tatmadaw, as the military is known, were jailed, many
beaten and tortured, during decades of dictatorship.
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He was charged with additional, and more serious, offences of sedition
and violations of the terrorism act earlier this week, without an
explanation by authorities. Those charges are punishable by a maximum 20
years in prison each.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said
Fenster's jailing was also intended as warnings to the United States and
the media.
"The junta's rationale for this outrageous, rights abusing sentence is
first to shock and intimidate all remaining Burmese journalists inside
Myanmar by punishing a foreign journalist this way," he said.
"The second message is more strategic, focused on sending a message to
the U.S. that the Tatmadaw's generals don't appreciate being hit with
economic sanctions and can bite back with hostage diplomacy," he said.
'PLAIN TO SEE'
Fenster's family has repeatedly called for his release, saying they were
heartbroken about his detention.
His trial had not been made public and a spokesman for the junta did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.
The United States has been pushing for Fenster's release. The U.S.
embassy in Myanmar did not immediately respond to a request for comment
on Friday's verdict.
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![](../images/111221PIX/news_d7.jpg)
Managing editor of online magazine Frontier Myanmar, U.S. journalist
Danny Fenster, is pictured in an unknown location in this undated
handout picture made available to Reuters on November 12, 2021.
Frontier Myanmar/Handout via REUTERS
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The State Department had earlier said his detention
was "profoundly unjust" and "plain for the world to see", urging the
junta to release him immediately.
The American is among dozens of journalists who were detained in
Myanmar after protests and strikes erupted following the coup,
hampering the military's efforts to consolidate power. Independent
media has been accused by the junta of incitement.
More than 1,200 civilians have been killed in protests and thousands
detained since the coup, according to activists cited by the United
Nations.
Myanmar authorities overlooked Fenster in a recent amnesty for
hundreds of people detained over anti-junta protests, which included
some journalists.
During nearly half a century of harsh rule by the military, news
reporting was tightly controlled by the state but Myanmar's media
blossomed after the a quasi-civilian government introduced tentative
reforms from 2011.
Since the February coup, however, the military has rescinded media
licenses, curbed the internet and satellite broadcasts and arrested
dozens of journalists, in what human rights groups have called an
assault on the truth.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report in July that
Myanmar's rulers had effectively criminalised independent
journalism.
Ming Yu Hah, Amnesty International's deputy regional director for
campaigns, called the sentence a "reprehensible outcome" in a deeply
flawed case.
"Danny should have never been arrested in the first place and to
sentence him to a combined 11 years shows how far Myanmar
authorities are willing to go to signal that they do not respect
independent media," she said.
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Frontier Myanmar's publisher, Sonny Swe, who spent eight years in
prison during the previous era of military rule, announced Fenster's
imprisonment on Twitter under the message: "A lot of things are
going so wrong in this country."
(Reporting by Reuters Staff; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by
Robert Birsel)
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