The head of the weekly newspaper Unity Journal and four of its journalist were sentenced to 10 years in prison and hard labor in Myanmar yesterday. They were convicted of violating the State Secrets Act regarding trespassing a prohibited area with prejudicial purpose, a British colonial law from 1923. During the military rule hard work was often added to prison sentences. It includes building roads and ditches. The lawyer of the journalists will appeal the decision.

The newspaper published an article in January saying that a secretive government factory produced chemical weapons and that the military had claimed more than 1,200 hectares of farmland in the central Magwe region to construct a weapons factory. The Unity Journal had to close in June.

According to state news media “military equipment” is made there but the government denies that chemical weapons are produced.

Current President Thein Sein reformed news media and abolished censorship when he became president three years ago but his views seem to have changed.

“If media freedoms are used to endanger state security rather than give benefits to the country, I want to announce that effective action will be taken under existing laws”, he said.

On Friday a news media association will hold a vigil for the imprisoned journalists.

“Clearly, real press freedom remains a distant dream for Burma, where the government still gets to decide what is fit to print, and who has the right to inform (or misinform) the public”, a commentary in the Thailand-based news website Irrawaddy said.

Human rights organization Amnesty International criticized the sentence as well since they “expose the government's promises to improve the human rights situation in the country as hollow ones. They reflect a wider crackdown on free media since the beginning of the year, despite government assurances that such practices would end”, Rupert Abbott, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Asia-Pacific region said in a statement. He also said that“these five media workers have done nothing but cover a story that is in the public interest,"

Deputy Information Minister Ye Htut on the other hand defended their punishment. "It is a national security issue, and even a country like the U.S. would respond the same way on these matters." He also said that the accusations that the factory builds chemical weapons are “totally baseless”.