Myanmar sentences reporters to 10 years of hard labor!

Four journalists and an executive from a Myanmar magazine have been sentenced to 10 years of hard labor on charges of violating state secrets by claiming the military was making chemical weapons CNN reports.

The sentencing has drawn an outcry from international media and rights watchdogs, who say it is evidence of a drastic rollback of press freedoms this year in a country that had been praised for its reforms since 2011.

The sentenced reporters identified as Yazar Soe, Sithu Soe, Lu Maw Naing, and Paing Thet Kyaw and chief executive Tint San -- all worked for the Yangon-based current affairs magazine Unity Weekly, said Tint's lawyer, Than Saw Aung. 

They had been convicted under the country's 1923 State Secrets Act, Than said. The periodical, which has since been shuttered, had published stories in January alleging that Myanmar's military had seized hundreds of hectares of land to build a factory to manufacture chemical weapons, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). 
Myanmar's government has previously denied accusations it has used chemical weapons against ethnic rebels.