Expecting to receive a fine, they confessed to flying the drone but were instead sentenced to two months in jail under Myanmar’s aircraft act. But police dropped those extra charges “as the defendants didn’t compromise state security”, defence lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told AFP on Tuesday. “The outlook is good,” Aung Myo Kyaw, the lawyer for Mok Choy Lin, told AFP when asked whether the journalists would be released soon. TRT has not confirmed the subject of the documentary but said the reporters told Myanmar’s Ministry of Information about their filming plans in advance. Activists say Myanmar’s rich and powerful are increasingly using the country’s defamation laws to muzzle the media and civil society.

Source: The Star December 26, 2017 12:00 UTC