NLD votes to keep prison sentences for Facebook posts

Myanmar’s parliament voted yesterday to pass only minor reforms to the country’s Telecommunications Law, opting to preserve prison sentences as a punishment for Facebook posts that mention other people.

The changes to the law will allow defendants in online defamation cases to be released on bail and will prohibit uninvolved parties from suing people under the law. People convicted for online defamation, which is vaguely described in the law’s controversial Section 66(d), will still face prison sentences of up to three years, plus the possibility of a fine.

A proposal to remove prison sentences from the law was voted down in the upper house of parliament by a vote of 92-59. The body is dominated by lawmakers from Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD party, as is the lower house, which will soon vote to approve the amendments.

The law was passed by Myanmar’s previous government in 2013, but the vast majority of cases to date have been filed since the NLD took control of the government in March 2016. According to the Telecommunications Law Research Team, 73 out of 80 total cases were filed while Aung San Suu Kyi has been the leader of the government.

The law, which is responsible for the ongoing case against The Voice editor Kyaw Min Swe, is seen by rights activists as part of a larger legal apparatus used to suppress criticism of the government and the military.

Another piece of that apparatus is the 1908 Unlawful Associations Act, which prohibits contact with illegal organizations, including armed groups in ongoing peace negotiations with the Myanmar government.

When journalists Aye Nai, Pyae Phone Naing, and Lawi Weng were arrested in Shan State and charged with unlawful association for reporting on an event organized by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army in June, NLD spokesman and Suu Kyi advisor Win Htein justified their arrest, saying: “It’s true that they broke the law by going to meet ethnic groups.”

However, yesterday’s vote demonstrates that even though they did not pass these laws restricting speech and association, the NLD is in no rush to get rid of them.