Reporters Without Borders Monday called on bloggers worldwide to protest the jailing of a fellow blogger by the Myanmar military junta for criticising it.
In a statement in Montreal, Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association in Canada said that a Myanmar court Monday jailed blogger Nay Phone Latt for 20 years and six months for criticizing military junta head Gen Than Shwe.
A poet, Saw Wai, was also sentenced to two years in prison for writing a poem critical of the junta head.
``The authorities have imposed an extraordinarily severe punishment on Nay Phone Latt just for using the Internet,'' the two organisations said in their statement.
``This shocking sentence is meant to terrify those who go online in an attempt to elude the dictatorship's ubiquitous control of news and information, and we call for his immediate release.
``Saw Wai, for his part, is being made to pay for his impertinence and courage as a committed poet.''
The two organisations called upon bloggers all over the world to protest against Nay Phone Latt's arrest by carrying his photo on their blogs and writing to Burmese embassies worldwide to seek his release.
My View:
This is shocking, not only the oppression of blogger and poet but our (we blogers) attitude of keeping silent. It happened in Myanmar, it happened in China and it can happen with us too.
I urge all bloggers to protest it in the best possible way they can.
Write columns, articles on your blogs. Send emails to your friends and aquaintances urging them to join you... DO WHATEVER YOU CAN...
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