Freedom of Expression Activist Organization 2019 Mid-year Report on Status of Freedom of Expression in Myanmar Application of Law Protecting the Privacy and Security of Citizens for Prosecution The Law Protecting the Privacy and Security of Citizen (LPPSC) was enacted in March 2017, and if found guilty, the highest sentence of this law is a 3-year imprisonment. Often, the Law Protecting the Privacy and Security of Citizen is used to silence freedom of expressions. Since enacted, there have been 28 cases charged under this law and 21 cases with 78 individuals were affected in the first six months of 2019. 21 Cases 78 Individuals Monthly charges Law protecting the Privacy and Security of Citizen became The 27-month-old instrumental in charging against free expression cases, leading the number of cases under that law to increase tremendously in the six months of 2019. Classification of defendants The ordinary citizens are biggest group in 4% facing charges under this law- being 9% အရပ် သ ားပပည် သူမ ား Ordinary citizens charged for the reasons from 13% နMembers ိုင်ငံရရားပါတီ ဝင်မ parties ား of political practicing online self-expression to တက် ကကြွလှုပ်ရ ားသူမ ား Activists 55% submitting public complaints to the အပ ားနင်မသရ Journalists relevant authorities, including the 19% State Counsellor. There is a case filed သတင် Othersားမီဒီယ သမ ားမ ား by a member of NLD party against an individual for his/her online criticism of General Aung San. Third-party complaints Despite its legal standard shortcomings, there are some cases of an intermediary person filing a complaint under ‘Law protecting the Privacy and Security of Citizen’. On behalf of the Chief Minister of Kayah State, a citizen filed a complaint against youth activists for allegedly defaming him. Page - 6