A court in Myanmar has handed down a 20-year jail term to a video journalist for an alleged violation of the country's Electronics Act. A man accompanying her at the time of arrest was sentenced to 26 years.

Freelance reporter Hla Hla Win was arrested in September after visiting a Buddhist monastery in the northern town of Pakokku, according to a joint statement by the Burma Media Association and Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.

The 25-year-old jailed reporter works with the exiled broadcaster Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), a station based in the Norwegian capital, Oslo. She had already been sentenced to seven years in jail in October for allegedly using an illegally imported motorbike. The DVB has said the arrest and sentencing of Ms Win are merely a means of punishing her for her work as an undercover journalist.

There was no immediate confirmation of the sentence from authorities in Myanmar, which remains under tight US and EU sanctions because of its record on human rights.

Reclusive junta leader Than Shwe said at an independence day ceremony last Monday that plans were underway for elections promised by the regime some time this year, but warned citizens to make "correct choices" at the polls.

Photo: Monks protest against regime, 2007 by racoles (Flickr)