Photographing Grenade Attack, Burmese Authority Imprisoned Young Photojournalist for 18 Years

Despite the fact that photographers’ rights are preserved, cases of photographers being harassed by police or national government keep on increasing day by day. Just recently, Sithu Zeya—a 21-year Burmese photojournalist, has been sentenced to a 18-year imprisonment—perhaps the longest one ever sentenced to a photographer.

Zeya, an independent photojournalist working for the Norway-based news broadcaster Democratic Voice of Burma, was arrested in 2010 after he was caught taking photograph of a grenade attack in Yangon. At first, he was sentenced to a 10-year imprisonment for photographing the violent act.

This year, he was sentenced to another 8 years in jail—making it a total of 18 years imprisonment—for a new charge of distributing the photograph online. Burmese authority claimed that his circulating the material “could damage tranquility and unity in the government”.

Condemning the latest sentence against Zeya, Reporters Without Borders wrote in a statement, “Recent events show that the conciliatory gestures so far taken by this government are just part of a PR strategy and are not indicative of a real intention to give Burmese citizens more media freedom.” petapixel.com