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Scores of journalists staged a rare demonstration this morning in Myanmar's biggest city Yangon to protest against a jail term given to a reporter who was working on a story about corruption.
Wearing black T-shirts with slogans saying: "We don't want threat on press freedom" and carrying banners that read, "Right to information is the life of democracy," about 150 journalists and civil liberties activists marched down a busy central Yangon street decrying the three-month prison sentence given to Ma Khine from the Daily Eleven newspaper.
She was convicted by a court last month of trespassing, using abusive language and defamation.
Journalists have gained new freedoms under the government of President Thein Sein, who has abolished most censorship and allowed the publication of privately owned daily newspapers for the first time in four decades.
Previously, reporters worked under some of the tightest restrictions in the world and even after recent reforms some publications have been sued for defamation by government agencies.
Ma Khine is the first journalist under Thein Sein's government to be given a prison sentence.
She was sued by a lawyer after an interview for a story about corruption.
The lawyer was annoyed by her questioning and asked her to leave and later filed a lawsuit, according to Daily Eleven chief editor Wai Phyo.
"The judge could have imposed a fine but deliberately gave the prison sentence not only to threaten the reporter but in order to threaten press freedom," he said.
Myanmar Journalist Network general secretary Myint Kyaw organised the protest march "because we do not want the imprisonment of a journalist to become a precedent."
"It's a direct threat as journalists can be punished with criminal charges while working on news stories," he said.
Media watchdog organisations condemned the prison sentence.
Reporters Without Borders said: "A news organisation should not have to face criminal proceedings and, in this case, the conviction of one of its reporters, because of its news coverage.
"Freedom of information is at stake."
