Myanmar Times Editor Jailed in Insein Prison

13 February 2011: Mr. Ross Dunkley, the co-owner and editor of the Myanmar Times, has been put to the notorious Insein Prison after he was arrested at his home in Rangoon reportedly on Thursday.

The Australian founder, who is to be held in Insein Prison until a court appearance on 24 February, is said to have been arrested under Burmese immigration law for ‘being in the country illegally on a tourist visa’ as he returned from his business trip abroad.

However, other sources said that the editor-in-chief is detained in regards to a dispute with his Burmese co-owners and partners of Burma’s only privately owned newsapaper published both in English and Burmese, according to Mr. Dunkley’s business associate, David Armstrong.

It is claimed that Mr. Dunkley could, if charged, face up to five years in prison while other sources from Burma said further allegations may be brought up to lengthen the jail term.

Mr. Dunkley’s business partner, David Armstrong, is also said of rubbishing some reasons reported in the news for his arrest as ‘serously inaccurate’.

The Myanmar Times, a weekly published newspaper which is 51 percent locally owned and 49 percent foreign owned, was co-founded in 2000 by Ross Dunkley and his Burmese business partner, Sonny Swe, who was arrested in 2005.

Under the military rule in Burma after the March 1962 coup d’etat, all newspapers are required to pass through the ‘strict press laws’ tightly monitored by the censors board at the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division of the Ministry of Information.

Van Biak Thang
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