Yesterday in Myanmar, a township court dismissed a lawsuit that had been filed against the U.S. Ambassador and two others, charging that a picture posted on Facebook defamed Buddhism.
Irawaddy reports:
Nationalist monk U Parmaukha filed the lawsuit against US Ambassador Scott Marciel, the artist who painted the picture and the person who posted the picture on the official Facebook page of the US Embassy in Yangon. The image was of a painting done for an environmentally themed art exhibit the embassy hosted in July.
The US Embassy in Yangon on Friday promoted the “Insight Out Art Exhibition” of young artists on its Facebook page with a painting that depicts a silhouette of Buddha wearing a gas mask in the foreground while factories belching smoke are seen in the background.
Chapter XV of the
Myanmar Penal Code outlaws various offenses against religious feelings.
