A Myanmar journalist who contributed to Voice of America's Burmese Service was sentenced Friday to three years in prison with hard labour after being convicted of incitement, VOA reports.

VOA said it condemns both the recent decision to impose a three-year prison term on VOA Burmese contributor Sithu Aung Myint and the continued media crackdown across Myanmar.

Sithu Aung Myint had been contributing fact-based news analysis to a VOA weekly programme since 2014 until his arrest in August of 2021.

“The government of Myanmar must stop the indiscriminate arrest and detention of journalists and the hopeless legal proceedings that follow,” Acting VOA Director Yolanda López said. “The people of Myanmar deserve to live in a society that embraces accurate and objective news.”

The February 2021 coup d’état by the military junta brought about a stark decline in the journalistic environment in the country.

Myanmar’s press freedom ranking is now among the worst in the world, at 176 out of 180 countries according to Reporters Without Borders.

Detained columnist and political commentator Sithu Aung Myint.