Judge rejects bail for top Myanmar media chief

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

YANGON, Myanmar (AA) - The chief executive and an editor at one of Myanmar's leading media groups was denied bail Wednesday after being charged with defaming a senior government official on social media.

Than Htut Aung and Wai Phyo were detained Nov. 11 after an article alleging that the official had accepted an expensive watch from a convicted drug lord as a bribe was published in Daily Eleven newspaper and posted on websites.

Yangon chief minister Phyo Min Thein sued them for defamation, insisting that the watch he wears is a more affordable Rolex bought by his wife as a present, and not a Patek Philippe as described in the article titled Myanmar, One Year after the Nov. 8 Polls.

Since the arrests, local and international media advocacy groups have called for their immediate release and for them to be cleared of charges leveled against them under section 66(d) of the country's controversial telecommunications law, which carries a jail sentence up to three years or a fine or both.

A court in Yangon’s Tamwe Township, however, denied the bail requests Wednesday.

The telecommunications law prohibits use of the telecoms network for "extorting, coercing, restraining wrongfully, defaming, disturbing, causing undue influence or threatening” to any person.

When introduced in 2013, it replaced the Electronic Transactions Law; one of several repressive laws enacted by a former junta to repress opposition figures and activists.

Thein Than Oo from the Myanmar Lawyers Network told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday that section 66(d) was to pursue repression of political dissidents.

“Therefore, that section should be abolished right now,” he said by phone.