8/22/22, 10:18 PM Myanmar: Freedom on the Net 2019 Country Report | Freedom House violations. 159 In May 2019, a copyright law that includes prison terms of up to three years for commercial copying without consent was adopted. 160 After a leaked draft law criminalizing “hate speech” received significant criticism from civil society, a new revised version was sent to the parliament in 2017, but the bill has not yet been passed. 161 The government claims that consultations with civil society regarding the bill have occurred, 162 but several well-known civil society organizations working on the issue have refuted these assertions and have received no responses to their requests for meetings with the parliament. 163 C3 0-6 pts Are individuals penalized for online activities? 1/6 Internet users are frequently prosecuted in Myanmar’s restrictive online environment. More than 200 criminal cases using Article 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law were filed between November 2015 and April 2019, 164 almost all of which were brought under the NLD government. 165 The majority of plaintiffs in the cases were affiliated with the state, including public officials, NLD party officials, and military officers, while the majority of the accused were activists, online journalists, or other civil society representatives. 166 Most cases have resulted in guilty verdicts with six-month prison sentences. 167 One of the most notorious cases under Article 66(d) is that of Swe Win, the chief correspondent for the news journal Myanmar Now, who was arrested in July 2017 for a Facebook post criticizing Wirathu, 168 after a complaint was filed against the journalist by a supporter of Ma Ba Tha, the Buddhist ultranationalist group. 169 Swe Win was forced to travel 600 kilometers from his home to the court more than 55 times, usually for a session that lasted just minutes. 170 The slow pace of Swe Win’s proceedings has been common in Article 66(d) cases. The case was finally dismissed in July 2019, after the end of the coverage period, the chilling effect remains. In May 2019, Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were pardoned after serving more than 500 days in prison following their September 2018 convictions for reporting on the massacre of 10 Rohingya men and boys. 171 The journalists had been sentenced to seven years in prison for violating the Official Secrets Act. 172 They were originally detained in December 2017. In June and July 2018, the journalists’ defense lawyers informed the court that they had been tortured while in custody (see C7). In September 2018, Ngar Min Swe, a former columnist for state media, was convicted of sedition and sentenced to seven years in prison after he posted “abusive” Facebook posts about Aung San Suu Kyi. 173 His posts included sexist remarks about Suu Kyi after she received a kiss on the cheek from former US president Obama when he visited the country. Also in September 2018, Facebook user Aung Ko Ko Lwin was sentenced to one year in prison for Facebook posts criticizing a state chief minister, under Article 8(f) of the Law Protecting the Privacy and Security of Citizens. 174 One post included a video clip in which the state minister controversially called on residents of the town of Thaton to “eat only a dish of curry” in hopes of lowering food prices. Aung Ko Ko Lwin was accused of “spoil[ing] the image of the town.” 175 He was originally arrested in January 2018. 176 https://freedomhouse.org/country/myanmar/freedom-net/2019 14/20