A court in Burma sentenced an award-winning journalist accused of working illegally for a foreign news outlet to 13 years in prison, a lawyer said today.
Authorities arrested Ngwe Soe Lin (28) in June last year after he left an Internet cafe in Yangon, accusing him of working for Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) without proper accreditation.
A court in high-security Insein prison found him guilty on Wednesday of violating immigration and electronic communication laws, his legal adviser, Aung Thein, told Reuters.
"Arrangements are now underway to lodge an appeal," said Aung Thein, a 65-year-old lawyer who himself had his licence to practise law revoked while preparing to become a member of defence team for detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ngwe Soe Lin won the 2009 Rory Peck Award for a video documentary about orphaned child survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which killed nearly 140,000 people in Burma in 2008. The award is given to freelance camera operators who risk their lives.
In December, Hla Hla Win, a 25-year-old female freelance journalist, was jailed for 25 years also for working for DVB, a nonprofit broadcaster run by exiled Burmese nationals in Oslo.
Media and news organisations run by exiles across the world are the main source of uncensored news in Burma, where all electronic media and newspapers are heavily regulated and censored.
Burma handed heavy prison terms to scores of activists, monks, journalists and bloggers for their roles in monk-led protests against the junta in September 2007 and for activities to help and publicise the damage of the 2008 cyclone.
Some journalists were arrested for sending photos and video abroad to news media and opposition groups.
There are 2,177 political prisoners, including 14 reporters, in Burma as of this month, according to data compiled by Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.