Case Summary and Outcome

The owner of a printing house and four of his associates were prosecuted for  printing  a calendar that mentioned “Rohingya”, the name of an ethnic minority in Myanmar, and charged with causing fear or alarm to the public. On trial, the owner was acquitted but his associates were sentenced to one year in prison.

“Global FoE could not identify official legal and government records on the case and information on the case was derived from secondary sources. Global FoE notes that media outlets may not provide complete information about this case. Additional information regarding legal matters will be updated as an official source becomes available.”

Facts

It has been reported that U Kyaw Kyaw Wai, the owner of the Kyaw Printing House in Yangon, and four of his associates, Ye Thu Aung, Win Naing, Zaw Min Oo, and Win Htwe, have been prosecuted for the publication of a calendar.

The calendar contained quotes from speeches of U Nu, the first Prime Minister of Myanmar, and other prominent figures from Myanmar’s early independence period describing the Rohingya, a Muslim minority group in Myanmar, as a distinct ethnic group. The calendar also contained a quote from a 1946 speech by Bogyoke Aung San, the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, in which he invites Muslims to live in peace with the Buddhist majority.

They were initially prosecuted under the country’s Printing and Publishing Law, and subsequently under the Criminal Code. The calendar had been reported to the authorities by members of the Ma Ba Tha, a group of Buddhist-extremists in Myanmar who aim to protect “race and religion.” Over 700 copies of the calendar had been published, and a warrant has been issued for the arrest of the person who had ordered the calendars.

Decision Overview

On November 23, 2015, the Pazundaung Township Court in Yangon fined each of the defendants 1 million kyat ($770) under Myanmar’s Printing and Publishing Law.

Immediately after, the five were arrested and charged under Article 505 (b) of Myanmar’s Criminal Code. On June 14, 2016, they were sentenced to one year in prison for publishing a statement deemed to “cause fear or alarm to the public”. It was reported that U Kyaw Kyaw Wai was released as he was not liable to legal action under Article 505 (b). At the time the ruling was handed down, police had not been able to find the person who had ordered the calendar.