Myanmar's rich and powerful using defamation to silence critics

There had been high hopes that the Suu Kyi government would herald a breakthrough for freedom of speech, but the rights group Free Expression Myanmar said those hoped-for gains were so far strikingly absent.

Yangon (AFP) - Defamation cases have rocketed since Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government came to power in Myanmar, a report said Monday, as the rich and powerful intensify their use of draconian laws to muzzle civil society and the media.

There had been high hopes that the new government would herald a breakthrough for freedom of speech after half a century of stifling military rule.