Myanmar sends 5 journalists to jail for 10 years for writing stories about weapons factory

Four reporters and the chief executive officer of a magazine in Myanmar have been sentenced to 10 years at hard labor in prison on a national security charge for investigative stories about a weapons factory.

All five men from the Yangon-based Unity journal were sentenced by a court on Wednesday for violating the 1923 Burma State Secrets Act pertaining to trespassing in a prohibited area with prejudicial purpose. The law was enacted when Myanmar was a British colony called Burma.

The weekly magazine published stories in January alleging the military had seized more than 3,000 acres of farmland in Myanmar’s central Magwe Region to construct a weapons factory.

It reported allegations that the factory would produce chemical weapons, also printing a denial by authorities of the latter allegation.