Ko Nay Lin: Jailed BBC Myanmar reporter to appeal

A BBC reporter jailed for three months with hard labour in Myanmar will appeal against his sentence.

Nay Lin of the BBC Burmese service was convicted by a court in Mandalay of assaulting a policeman during student protests in 2015.

A lawyer for the reporter said his client unintentionally hurt the officer while trying to help a protester who had been knocked off a motorbike.

The BBC said it was working with his lawyer to support his appeal.

Nay Lin was arrested on 27 March in Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city, as protesters demonstrated in support of students who had been detained the week before in the southern town of Letpadan.

Nay Lin was covering the demonstration and was arrested during a commotion after a policeman tries to stop protesters on motorbikes.

The demonstrators were marching from Mandalay to Yangon, the main city in Myanmar (also known as Burma), in protest at a bill they said curbed academic freedom.

Riot police stopped the protests and dozens of activists were arrested and charged.

"Nay Lin will appeal against this decision and the BBC will continue to work with his lawyer to support his appeal," a BBC statement said.