Lawsuits abound in Myanmar’s current media landscape. Now, the government is suing a notoriously litigious newspaper over coverage of a previous suit brought by the government. If you can wrap your head around that.
Seventeen members of Eleven Media Group’s editorial team are facing trial on charges of contempt-of-court pursued by the Ministry of Information, the Myanmar Times reported.
The ministry has alleged that the newspaper unfairly insisted on the innocence of its staff in a defamation case before the verdict was out.
U Kyaw Soe, managing director of the News and Periodicals Enterprise at the MOI, launched an action against five staff in 2014 after they accused the ministry of buying a printing press for an inflated price.
The defendants in the latest case include the editor-in-chief, the managing editor and his deputy.
The maximum sentence would be a six month jail term and 100,000 kyats (a little more than $100) fine each.
The trial will take place at the Mandalay Region High Court. That’s a 685-mile round trip from Yangon, which the staff will have to do every couple of weeks.
“The editors who are being sued are [the leaders] of news production. This will have a serious impact on us,” Eleven Media Group chief Ko Wai Phyo told the Times.
Government spokesman U Ye Htut told the paper that Eleven’s article could damage the judiciary’s independence.
He also referred to the media company’s own litigious reputation. It has sued the Times on several occasions.
“Just compare how many times Eleven Media charged other media company to our ministry, which has only charged them twice,” he was quoted as saying.
Nevertheless, other journalists seem to have sided with Eleven.
“We need mutual understanding between the media and the government,” U Phoe Thauk Kyat, Vice-Chair of the Myanmar Press Council, told the Times. “That can’t be built by arresting and jailing journalists.”
Photo of Daily Eleven front page above the fold / Facebook / Eleven Media Group
