Posts Tagged ‘burma’

Burmese Court Sentences Photojournalist to 18 Years in Prison

Burmese Court Sentences Photojournalist to 18 Years in Prison sithu mini

Regardless of how bad photographers’ rights seem to be in your country, here’s a story that will definitely make you appreciate them at least a little bit more: a photojournalist named Sithu Zeya may spend 18 years of his life in prison after being arrested for photography. Zeya, who’s only 21 years old, was arrested in Burma last year after getting caught photographing the aftermath of a grenade attack that killed 10 people in the country’s largest city, Yangon. After being sentenced to 8 years in prison last year, a Yangon court decided to tack an extra 10 years onto his prison sentence yesterday for posting online material that could “damage tranquillity and unity in the government.”

Suddenly those stories you hear of photographers getting harassed by police don’t seem nearly as bad, eh?

(via AP via PDN Pulse)

Shooting a Portrait in Burma as a Photographer for TIME Magazine

TIME Magazine’s latest cover features a photograph of Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung Sang Suu Kyi, with the feature story offering a glimpse into her life since being released from house arrest. The above is an interesting video in which Platon, the photographer behind the photo, tells the harrowing tale of what it took to make the photo. It’s guaranteed to make most portrait assignments sound extremely boring.

You can read the article and view the photographs here.

(via Photoxels)