Four reporters and their editor are in prison for leaking "state secrets". Their paper, the Unity Journal, was founded after the country adopted a more liberal media law. The paper published reports about a China-backed secret plant and the use of toxic gas. The journalists could get up to 14 years.

Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies) - In spite of Myanmar's new press freedom, Myanmar authorities charged four journalists and their editor with leaking state secrets after their paper published reports about an alleged chemical weapons factory in Myanmar linked to China.

All five pleaded not guilty at the Pakkoku District Court on Monday, and asked the court to dismiss the case. However, they are presently in jail wait for trial.

The defendants work for the Yangon-based Unity Journal, a paper founded after the country's more liberal media law was enacted in 2012, ending pre-publication censorship.

The newspaper has a weekly circulation of 15,000 copies. In two reports, it identified an alleged chemical weapons factory near Pakkoku, in central Myanmar's Magway Division.

In both stories, the newspaper (front-page pictured) alleged a secret facility built in 2009 in tunnels near Pakkoku stretching over 3,000 hectares of land was used to make chemical weapons, and that Chinese workers were seen at the site.

Lei Zhen, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Yangon, said he had no information on the matter.

For its part, the Myanmar government has consistently denied having a chemical-weapons programme.

The issue is a sensitive one. It comes as the international community shows greater openness to the Myanmar government after the country's military junta relinquished power, which was followed by the resumption of humanitarian aid and the lifting of trade sanctions.

However, greater openness is also directly linked to government policy vis-à-vis the rights of the country's the ethnic minorities.

Some groups seeking independence from the central government have alleged in the past that they were targeted with "toxic gas" by Myanmar's armed forces, but did not provide evidence.

Robert Saw Maung, the lawyer for one of the defendants, said that he expected the trial to take at least six months. A conviction could lead to 14 years in prison.

"The detention and trial of the Unity journalists is the clearest indication yet that military authorities are chafing under the more open reporting environment," said Shawn Crispin, Southeast Asia representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

"The conviction and sentencing to prison of the reporters would be the nail in the coffin of Myanmar's supposed media reform drive."

• myanmar
• burma
• china
• chemical
• weapons
• plant
• toxic
• gas
• unity
• journal