Efforts are continuing to appeal the 13-year prison sentence handed down by the junta to Kachin freelance journalist Ma Sut Ring Pan, sources close to the case have confirmed.
A source among those assisting Ma Sut Ring Pan told MNJ that they have vowed to pursue appeals at every stage, up to Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital, in an effort to reduce her sentence to less than 10 years after she was unjustly arrested.
“We will not stop the appeal process. If we fail at the township level, we will move on to the district level. If necessary, we will even go to Naypyidaw. Our main goal is to change the charges against her and reduce the sentence imposed on her,” he said.
Ma Sut Ring Pan was sentenced to prison this year under Section 505(A) of the Penal Code and Section 50(J) of the Counter-Terrorism Act. Section 505(A) broadly criminalizes speech deemed to cause fear, spread false news, or incite offenses or disloyalty against the government or the military.
She was sentenced to 3 years in prison under Section 505(A) of the Penal Code on May 16, about eight months after her arrest, by the Insein Prison Court in Yangon Region. On December 2, she received an additional 10-year sentence under Section 50(J).
The source criticized the sentences on such severe charges as completely inappropriate, saying that journalists doing their work should not be treated as criminals.
“It’s completely normal for journalists to do their work. So, it makes no sense to imprison them under such severe laws. Doing their job is not a crime. People’s access to information and their right to know the news are very important today. Prosecuting a journalist under the counterterrorism law and jailing her just for doing her duty is completely illogical. It’s an extrajudicial act,” he said.
Ma Sut Ring Pan was arrested at her home in Yangon Region on September 29, 2024, by three plainclothes soldiers who had already gathered complete information about her personal details.
The soldiers said they carried out the arrest on direct orders from Naypyidaw. They physically beat her during the arrest and confiscated her phone, iPad, some clothes, as well as rice and other items from her home.
After the arrest, her family, with the help of a lawyer, sought to determine her whereabouts and discovered that she was being held at a notorious interrogation center in Yangon Region.
After 22 hellish days at the center, she was transferred to Insein Prison. The dark spots on her face did not disappear until about 3 months after she arrived at the prison.
Ma Sut Ring Pan, 26, who writes under the pen name Pu Noi Tsawm, has been a journalist for over two years and was working as a freelance reporter for several news outlets at the time of her arrest.
