( CNN ) -- Four journalists and an executive from a Myanmar magazine have been sentenced to 10 years of hard labor on charges of violating state secrets by claiming the military was making chemical weapons . The sentencing has drawn an outcry from international media and rights watchdogs , who say it is evidence of a drastic rollback of press freedoms this year in a country that had been praised for its reforms since 2011 . Those sentenced -- reporters Yazar Soe , Sithu Soe , Lu Maw Naing , and Paing Thet Kyaw and chief executive Tint San -- all worked for the Yangon-based current affairs magazine Unity Weekly , said Tint 's lawyer , Than Saw Aung . They had been convicted under the country 's 1923 State Secrets Act , Than said , adding that his client would appeal the sentence . The periodical , which has since been shuttered , had published stories in January alleging that Myanmar 's military had seized hundreds of hectares of land to build a factory to manufacture chemical weapons , according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists ( CPJ ) . Myanmar 's government has previously denied accusations it has used chemical weapons against ethnic rebels . `` CPJ is alarmed that journalists were tried under a 100-year-old spying statute and slammed with an outrageously harsh sentence , '' said CPJ 's Asia program coordinator Bob Dietz , Asia program coordinator in a statement calling for donor countries to Myanmar to exert pressure over the case . `` This conviction should shatter any illusions that President Thein Sein 's government grasps the role of a free press in a democracy . '' Myanmar 's presidential spokesman Ye Htut could not be reached for comment . 'Back to square one ' Scores of journalists , some of them wearing T-shirts that read `` Stop killing press , '' gathered at Yangon 's Shwedagon Pagoda Friday offering prayers for the sentenced journalists Friday , while some publications printed blacked-out front pages in protest . Aung Zaw , editor of news magazine The Irrawaddy , told CNN the case showed it was `` back to square one '' in terms of press freedom in Myanmar , also known as Burma . `` The sad fact is Burma overnight restored its former title as enemy of the press , '' he said . The government could have asked for a retraction or correction if the report was untrue , he said , or prosecuted the Unity staff using newly passed media laws . Instead , it had chosen to bludgeon them using the colonial-era State Secrets Act to send `` a serious warning to other journalists . '' He said the harsh sentences handed down had shocked journalists , but also made them more resolute not to back down from their work . Tide turned . While Myanmar has been praised for reforms in recent years , rights groups say the tide appears to have turned when it comes to media freedom . Benjamin Ismail , the head of Reporters Without Borders ' Asia-Pacific desk , described the court 's decision in a statement as `` a grave setback for press freedom . '' He said it marked `` a return to a dark time when journalists and bloggers who did their job were jailed on national security charges or for allegedly trying to overthrow the government . '' Rupert Abbott , Amnesty International 's deputy Asia-Pacific director , said in a statement that the sentences reflected `` a wider crackdown on free media since the beginning of the year , despite government assurances that such practices would end . '' Myanmar President Thein Sein warned in a speech earlier this week that the increased press freedom the country had enjoyed should be used without threatening the stability of the state , the state-run New Light of Myanmar reported . Reporters Without Borders says that while no journalists were imprisoned in Myanmar in 2012 , they have been the target of a growing number of prosecutions this year . Reporters from local media outlets have been jailed this year , and a foreign journalist deported after covering a press freedom rally . Zaw said the resumption of official antagonism towards the fourth estate was reflected in a visit to The Irrawaddy 's newsroom by special branch officers in recent weeks . He claimed the officers , who would not reveal who had sent them , had harassed staff about the magazine 's editorial positions and finances . `` It was a sign of intimidation , '' he said . Burma is ranked 145th out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index . Ei Mon Kyaw and Kocha Olarn contributed to this report .
Five magazine staffers in Myanmar have been sentenced to a decade of hard labor . Observers say it marks a return to old ways following a couple of years of promising reforms . The sentences have been criticized around the world as `` outrageously harsh '' The magazine , since shuttered , had run stories about the production of chemical weapons .