Posted on 11/12/2021 4:59:45 PM PST by RandFan
U.S. journalist Danny Fenster was sentenced by a court in Myanmar on Friday to 11 years in prison with hard labor after he was found guilty on several charges, including spreading false information.
The Biden administration has pressed Myanmar's ruling military junta for Fenster's release, and has described the journalist's arrest as "profoundly unjust."
Fenster, the managing editor of the online magazine Frontier Myanmar, was found guilty of incitement for allegedly spreading false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organizations and violating visa regulations, and more, according to The Associated Press, citing his lawyer Than Zaw Aung. He was sentenced to the maximum term on each charge.
Fenster, who has been detained since May, reportedly wept in court upon hearing his sentencing. He has not decided if he will appeal.
The 37-year-old still faces two additional charges in a separate court for allegedly violating the counterterrorism law and a statute covering treason and sedition, according to the AP.
“Everyone at Frontier is disappointed and frustrated at this decision. We just want to see Danny released as soon as possible so he can go home to his family,” Editor-in-Chief Thomas Kean said in a statement, according to the AP. “There is absolutely no basis to convict Danny of these charges.″
Fenster is the only foreign journalist to be convicted of a serious crime since the military seized power in February, which effectively booted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
He was arrested in May while attempting to leave the country to go home to Detroit and visit family, according to The Associated Press.
According to the news outlet, the military junta in the country has cracked down hard on the freedom of the press amid the coup.
A number of journalists groups and the U.S. government have called for Fenster's release, according to the news outlet.
Earlier this month, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson traveled to Myanmar to discuss humanitarian assistance surrounding COVID-19, but raised hopes that he would press for Fenster's release given his high-profile work in pushing to free Americans detained abroad.
But Richardson reportedly told news outlets that the State Department told him not to raise Fenster's case during his visit.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Monday declined to comment on private discussions with Richardson, but said that the administration remains "deeply concerned" over Fenster's detention.
"We have continued to press the junta for Danny's release," Price said, adding that U.S. consular officers last spoke with Fenster by phone on Oct. 31.
"This case is an absolute priority for the department, and it will be until Danny is able to return to his family."
Can we nominate some journalists to take his place that spread WAY more disinformation than him??
For a minute I thought this was the sentence for one of those Jan 6th “terrorists”. The Dems want those people thrown under the jail.
Remember the media inciting riots and protests after Trump won in 2016 by claiming he used the Russians to steal the election? How many “journalists” went to jail for that?
Burma bummer.
I don’t get it. Why was he in Burma at all? The narrative is written in metro DC/NY anyway. Couldn’t they just photoshop his photo ops?
Or was he like a real journalist or something?
Rule of law in action
Sounds like he was working on a tourist visa. That’s going to get you in trouble most places on this planet if the government wants to press the issue.
They should arrest more of them and sentence them to the practise of actual journalism, as determined by a panel consisting of Tucker Carlson, Newt Gingrich, and Donald Trump.
Wish this would happen here. There would be very little journalists left.
And that Fenster is needed back here in America to spread false information"
There are a lot of people who are just stupid. Writing about a military junta when you are someplace they can easily reach is as stupid as writing a negative story about Putin while living in Moscow, or knowing something that could put the Clintons in jail while living on Earth.
Just like that kid that got caned in Singapore a few years ago for vandalism. If you go their country, don’t break their laws or be prepared to pay the penalty. Don’t like it, don’t go there.
Choices:
1) Free-lance lefty do-gooder, working against an oppressive regime for ideological, personal, or careerist reasons;
2) Operative for the Culinary Institute of America, cooking up trouble;
3) Some of both.
Not me. I value freedom, even freedom of the press. The issue in this country is people grant trust. I'd rather live in a country of wise, untrusting people than a country of gullible fools. No better way to make people wise than to put them in a room full of cheats and liars.
*** The Biden administration has pressed Myanmar’s ruling military junta for Fenster’s release, and has described the journalist’s arrest as “profoundly unjust.” ***
Oh, please, Biden, and his Predecessor both support the ongoing torture, and extradition of Assange.
Rest assured if democrats want him back he was a CIA plant. Tough cookies, be careful who you work for
He was not brought up? State didn’t want it? Was the guy a republican?
he found out...
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