The Pakokku District court in Magwe Division, Burma, meted out an additional 20-year prison term to an undercover female reporter, a judicial court source said.

Hla Hla Win, believed to be a video reporter for a Burmese exile news agency and who is currently being held in Pakokku Prison, and her co-accused in the same case, Myint Naing, were given additional 20- and 25-year prison sentences, respectively, on  31 December 2009.

They were charged under the Electronic Act and for another political case which has yet to be made public.

Hla Hla Win and her host, Myint Naing, were arrested on  11 September last year on their way back from Pakokku Sasana Wapuula Yama Pali Tekkatho (Ah Nauk Tike) in Magwe Division, where Hla Hla Win interviewed local monks. The Pakokku Township court gave each of them a seven-year prison sentence on  6 October 2009 for violating Section 51 of Export Import Act because they used an  illegally imported motorcycle.

The lawyers in Pakokku are reluctant to represent the accused in political cases for fear of possible harassment by the  police and local authorities, said a Rangoon-based legal consultant, Aung Thein.

Thai-based Burma Media Association (BMA) Vice-Chairman Zin Lin said that they strongly condemn the additional prison terms given to the female reporter.

“She was arrested while she was trying to cover news. We strongly condemn the long prison sentences to a reporter who had been framed in a false case, Zin Lin said.

According to BMA, a total of 14 reporters were arrested in 2009.