A Rangoon resident has been arrested for talking to foreign news media, according to a family member.

A family member told The Irrawaddy on Friday that authorities came to the home of Tin Yu in Hlaing Tharyar Township in Rangoon on Wednesday evening and took him away for interrogation.

“They (authorities) told us that he was arrested because he talked to foreign media. But they did not say which specific news media,” said a relative. “They also did not tell us where they took him.”

A spokesperson of the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, Nyan Win, who is also a lawyer, said that talking to the media is not illegal in Burma. However, there is also no real rule of law in Burma so people sometimes are sentenced to prison for talking to the media.

“The media gives information to people,” said Nyan Win. “Giving information to media means you are contributing to the good of society. If he was arrested for talking to the media, it is a big mistake.”

However, in Burma there are frequent reports of people arrested and sentenced to prison for giving information to foreign media and even for listening to foreign language news media, such as the BBC, VOA and Radio Free Asia.

In 1989, a lawyer, Nay Min, was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment for giving information to the BBC  Burmese Service.

In the early 1990s, Ba Myint and others from Sanchaung Township were arrested and sentenced to five years in prison for listening to foreign language broadcasts and for passing the information on to friends at a teashop.

In 1996, a 70-year-old villager in Taungtha Township in central Burma was sentenced to three years imprisonment for listening to the BBC Burmese Service.

According to a Burmese journalist familiar with the Ministry for Information, the authorities frequently warn citizens not to talk to foreign news media. He said people can be sentenced up to 40 years imprisonment.

Burmese state-run newspapers run stories almost daily that attack the foreign media, especially the BBC, VOA, and RFA. One newspaper called such radio stations “the murders on air.”