A senior editor from the Irrawaddy will appear in court Friday after being charged with defamation over an April 2019 article about fighting between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army.
Ye Ni was sued but granted bail shortly after publishing the article on the outlet’s Myanmar language edition, but he says he heard nothing more about the case for 11 months.
“I thought they weren’t suing me anymore, I thought the case had been dismissed,” he told Myanmar Now.
The article, written by reporter Moe Myint, gave a first person account of fighting in the ancient town of Mrauk U that contradicted official claims made by the Tatmadaw.
It was originally published in English, but it was the Myanmar translation of the article, published on Ye Ni’s watch, that triggered the lawsuit.
Lieutenant Colonel Zaw Min Tun from Yangon Region Command filed a case under 66d of the Telecommunications Law, which carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison.
He argued that the article was one sided and that it failed to include a response from the Tatmadaw.
Ye Ni said at the time that he didn’t include a response because it was a personal account of the reporter’s experience on the ground.
Moe Myint was not charged, and is now working as the deputy bureau chief of RFA’s Myanmar Service in Yangon.
Ye Ni said he was “surprised” his case has resurfaced given other prominent cases that started around the same time as his have progressed far more quickly.
“Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, who was sued around the same time as me is now freed,” he said, referring to a prominent filmmaker jailed for criticising the military on Facebook.
The delay happened because police were waiting for a decision from the Ministry of Communications about whether to proceed with the case, Ye Ni said.
In the article, titled “Reporter’s Notebook: On the Ground in Mrauk-U”, the writer described hearing gunshots and “deafening artillery explosions” after a Myanmar military convoy “entered Mrauk-U town shooting.”
The hearing will be held at Kyauktada township court in Yangon.
