The owner of a Burmese fish farm has filed charges against two reporters and a representative of the International Labour Organization for their attempts to gather information on a dispute with local farmers.
(Mizzima News/IFEX) – 22 November 2012 – The owner of a fish farm in the Irrawaddy delta has filed charges against two reporters and a representative of the International Labour Organization (ILO) for their involvement in a dispute between local farmers in Kyaunggon Township and himself.
On Monday 19 November 2012, military crony U Hmone, the owner of the fish farm in question, filed charges at Pantanaw Police Station against Burma VJ Media reporter Myo Kyaw (aka Nyi Htwe) and Kyi Nyein Thaw from New Day Media after they met with farmers, took photographs and recorded video footage of the disputed lake earlier that day.
Along with Thet Wai from the ILO, the Rangoon-based journalists were charged with trespassing, criminal mischief and conspiracy, under Sections 447, 427 and 34 respectively of the Penal Code. The three were later released from police custody on personal bail, according to Kyi Nyein Thaw.
“We went to Kyaunggon on Monday to cover the story and record footage of a dispute between farmers and the owner of a fish farm,” she told Mizzima. “On our way back home, we were called into the Pantanaw police station and told that the township administrator wanted to talk with us. They questioned us at 5:30 p.m. Then police officers from Kyaunggon arrived and told us that U Hmone was pressing charges against us.”
She said that, according to the local farmers, U Hmone’s staff at the fish farm had put rows of bamboo screens in the rivers which acted as dams to keep the fish from escaping.
Some 500 farmers depend on the flow of water from this lake for irrigating their paddy fields, she said. A group of farmers then removed these barriers on Monday to allow the rivers to flow into their fields.
Pantanaw police reportedly checked the reporters’ news footage and photographs, but did not confiscate them.
A date for the court hearing has not yet been set.
Kyi Nyein Thaw said that they – the two reporters at least – would countersue the authorities for obstructing the media.
A case was also reportedly filed against Thet Wai from the ILO. He said that he was shooting video footage to hand over to Rule of Law Committee Chairperson Aung San Suu Kyi for submission to the Lower House.
“Small-scale fishermen and farmers who have valid land tenures are deprived of the water they need because of this fish farm,” Thet Wai told Mizzima. “So they removed the fishing implements which were blocking the water flow to their paddy fields and surrendered them to the owner.”
He said that 50 farmers from Thekhone village were charged with trespassing at Kyaunggon police station on 20 November, and that another 50 farmers from Seikphuni village were questioned on 21 November over the same allegations.
