5/25/22, 3:43 PM It's time to get rid of criminal defamation | Frontier Myanmar ISSUES SIGN UP NOW It's time to get rid of criminal defamation JANUARY 24, 2019    Myanmar has six criminal defamation laws and a study has found that their misuse by the rich and powerful is hampering the fight against corruption. By OLIVER SPENCER and YIN YADANAR THEIN | FRONTIER THE NATIONAL League for Democracy pledged in its 2015 election manifesto to establish a society free from corruption. Since taking office nearly three years ago, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s government has banned public officials from accepting expensive “gifts” and beefed up the Anti-Corruption Commission. But still Myanmar languishes among the world’s most corrupt countries. The government’s moves, welcome as they are, mask an underlying flaw in its response: the surreptitious and still expanding framework of criminal defamation laws that protect the corrupt from being held accountable. Who, after all, is brave enough to complain about corruption knowing that they risk being sent to prison for up to three years as a consequence? Many people are aware of Yangon Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein’s defamation case against Eleven Media for reporting that he was wearing a US$100,000 watch. But there have been other examples, most of them unreported. In August 2018, a Facebook user was arrested by police after he sarcastically posted a “good luck” message to them regarding their alleged attempts to sell drugs from a police station. In August 2017, a journalist posted that a minister was misusing his position to gift land to his son, but later apologised to avoid legal action. In each of these cases, and in many others, we will never know the extent to which the allegations are true or false because criminal law requires the state to automatically support those claiming to have been defamed. If defamation is a criminal offence, then the state has an obligation to use police to investigate and state prosecutors to fight the case in court, whereas if it is a civil matter it is up to the aggrieved to hire a lawyer and find evidence. Faced with the sheer muscle of the state and its bottomless budget, who can blame a complainant for withdrawing their complaint? https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/its-time-to-get-rid-of-criminal-defamation/ 1/5