Myanmar journalist Sut Ring Pan serving 13 years in prison on incitement, terrorism charges

Bangkok, December 16, 2025—Myanmar authorities must immediately and unconditionally release freelance journalist Sut Ring Pan, who is serving a combined 13-year prison sentence on incitement and terrorism charges, and stop using vague and overbroad laws to imprison journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

On December 2, Yangon’s Western District Court convicted and sentenced Sut Ring Pan, also known by her pen name Pu Noi Tsawms, to 10 years in prison under Section 50(j) of the Counterterrorism Law for her news reporting, according to news reports, a statement by the exile-run Independent Myanmar Journalists Association (IMJA), and Kyor Khine, a family intermediary who communicated with CPJ via messaging app.

An Insein Prison court previously sentenced Sut Ring Pan on May 16 to three years in prison for incitement and spreading false news under Section 505(a) of the penal code, those sources said. The journalist’s family had kept her situation in detention confidential until her most recent sentencing, hoping for leniency, according to Kyor Khine.

“CPJ categorically condemns the severe sentence imposed on journalist Sut Ring Pan,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Myanmar’s junta claims to be on a path back to democracy, but continues to sentence journalists to outrageously long prison terms for their reporting. It must stop treating journalists as criminals now.”

Sut Ring Pan was arrested by plainclothes soldiers on September 29, 2024, in Yangon’s Mingala Taungnyunt Township. She was initially detained at the military-run Yay Kyi Ai interrogation center, where she was held for 22 days before being transferred to the township’s police station and later Yangon’s Insein Prison, the IMJA statement and Kyor Khine said.

Soldiers assaulted the journalist during interrogations, causing injuries to her chest, hips, and thighs as well as chronic muscle pain, according to the family intermediary. Sut Ring Pan’s mother has been allowed to deliver food and supplies during prison visits, the intermediary told CPJ.

Sut Ring Pan previously worked as a journalist with the local independent outlet The 74 Media and was featured in a Reuters Institute paper on the role of citizen journalists covering Myanmar’s post-coup conflict. 

Myanmar is one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists, with 27 currently behind bars, according to CPJ’s latest research.

Myanmar’s Ministry of Information did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment on Sut Ring Pan’s conviction, sentencing, or allegations of abuse.