Yangon, Myanmar: Ex-management team from a government newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar, has been prosecuted because of the misuse of public money concerning with publication and advertisement fees. The Voice Weekly News Journal reported on February 22nd that the ex-management team of The New Light of Myanmar had filed a legal suit on 21st of February for the second time.
One of the witness reported that three persons including ex-assistant manager of The New Light of Myanmar had been in No. 4 West Deputy Judge office and they had been prosecuted according to Myanmar section of Act 78 / 2011, 79 / 2011, 80 / 2011 and it finished at about 3 in the evening. “The person including ex-assistant manager were in handcuffs.” the witness reported.
Due to the news from court, the reason of the prosecution is they had used 288,600,000 Kyats (more than 350,000 US Dollar) for their personal use which was actually meant for newspaper publication and advertisement fees given by public. Some unconfirmed sources from Yangon newspaper and journal distribution said that it could be more than 350,000 US Dollar.
Concerning with the above mentioned case, 8 major newspaper representatives had been brought to court last November to investigate about misusing public money by ex-management of The New Light of Myanmar. Some sources from newspaper relative organization said those 8 major newspaper representatives had been asked to present the invoices that ex-management provided during past years. In this investigation, some could not present the invoices and in some others, government-owned The New Light of Myanmar sold the extra publication for 45 Kyats (about 0.054 US dollar) instead of the actual price 50 Kyats (about 0.060 US dollar).
This case has been scheduled to hear again in court on March 6 2012. Due to the year 1963 Section of Act 3 concerning with protecting public property, the defendants can be put to jail from minimum 10 years to life sentence, told by one of the lawyers in Yangon. U Wai Phyo Than has been assigned as a new general manager of The New Light of Myanmar recently. One of the currently working staff of The New Light of Myanmar said there are many conflicts inside the organization and some transfers and resignations have been taking place there, too.
