Media caption Philip Blackwood said he was 'pretty disappointed' as he was led from court 
 
 A New Zealander and two Burmese men have been found guilty of insulting religion in Myanmar over a poster promoting a drinks event depicting Buddha with headphones. 
 
 Philip Blackwood, who managed the VGastro Bar in Yangon, was arrested in December along with bar owner Tun Thurein and colleague Htut Ko Ko Lwin. 
 
 They have each been sentenced to two and a half years in jail. 
 
 Burmese law makes it illegal to insult or damage any religion. 
 
 The poster, which was posted on Facebook to advertise a cheap drinks night, showed Buddha surrounded by psychedelic colours. It sparked an angry response online. 
 
 Myanmar, also known as Burma, has seen growing Buddhist nationalism in recent years. 
 
 All three men had denied insulting religion during their trial. Tun Thurein told the court that Blackwood alone was responsible for the posting. Blackwood had said sorry online and repeated his apology in court. 
 
 Image caption About 90% of Myanmar's population is Buddhist and perceived insults to the religion are taken seriously 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption The three convicted men emerged from court to be confronted by a media scrum 
 
 But the judge, Ye Lwin, said that though Blackwood apologised, he had "intentionally plotted to insult religious belief" when he uploaded the poster on Facebook, reported AFP news agency. 
 
 Blackwood, 32, said he planned to appeal against the sentence. 
 
 Speaking after sentencing outside the court before being bundled into a car, he said that he was "pretty disappointed" with his punishment, which was "more than the maximum sentence". 
 
 "I have said that I was sorry so many times," he said. "It was nothing to do with me." 
 
 Before sentencing he said that he had removed the image and posted an apology when he realised it was being shared online and provoking outrage. 
 
 The New Zealander's family say they hope the government will intervene to deport him. 
 
 Blackwood's lawyer, Mya Tway, was careful with his assessment of the ruling which has been welcomed by some Buddhist groups. 
 
 "It will be difficult to say whether this verdict is fair or not because this is Myanmar, not like other democratic countries. That's all I can say," he said. 
 
 Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson said that the three men acted in a culturally insensitive way but should not have been sent to prison. 
 
 "By using the Religion Act to criminalise these three individuals, rather than accepting an apology and dealing with it in another way, the government is, sort of, setting up more witch hunts against persons that these Buddhist groups view as being insulting to their religion," he said. 
 
 Mr Robertson said that freedom of expression in Myanmar is under greater threat than ever as the country heads into a pivotal election year. 
 
 While free speech in Myanmar has improved under the country's semi-civilian government, Buddhist nationalism has been on the rise in recent years, with extremist monks such as Wirathu growing in popularity. At the same time and Muslim minorities have been targeted, particularly in Rakhine state. 
 
 About 90% of Myanmar's population is Buddhist. 

 Bar owner Tun Thurein leaves court after being sentenced to two and half years in prison, at Bahan township court in Yangon, March 17, 2015. 
 
 Phil Blackwood, a bar manager from New Zealand, comes out of court after being sentenced to two and half years in prison, at Bahan township court in Yangon, March 17, 2015. 
 
 YANGON A Myanmar court on Tuesday jailed a New Zealand bar manager and two Myanmar colleagues for two and a half years for insulting religion by using a psychedelic image of Buddha wearing headphones to promote their bar. 
 
 The case comes amid a surge in Buddhist nationalism in Myanmar - which emerged in 2011 from half a century of military rule - with monks forming groups aimed at promoting the country's Buddhist character. 
 
 New Zealander Phil Blackwood and bar manager Htut Ko Ko Lwin and bar owner Tun Thurein had all pleaded not guilty. They were sentenced to jail with labor, the court said. 
 
 Rights groups condemned the verdict as an assault on freedom of expression and called for the release of the three. 
 
 "The authorities are clearly trying to make an example with this case, but ironically all it has done is hurt the image of Myanmar and Buddhism," said Matt Smith, executive director of the Bangkok-based group Fortify Rights. 
 
 Police bundled Blackwood out of court into a vehicle after the verdict and he did not comment to reporters. 
 
 Some people have compared the case with recent remarks made by a prominent monk and Buddhist nationalist, Wirathu, who called a U.N. human rights envoy a "whore". 
 
 A senior monk and an official in the Religious Affairs Ministry told Reuters in January that Wirathu's remark could harm Buddhism. He has not been charged. 
 
 At a hearing in December, Blackwood said he had not intended to offend Buddhism when he posted the image on the bar's Facebook page to advertise a cheap drinks night. 
 
 He said he had removed the image and posted an apology when he realized it was being shared online and provoking outrage. 
 
 "These men expressed contrition for what they said was a mistake, but meanwhile extremists like Wirathu have incited violence in the name of Buddhism and publicly attacked a senior U.N. official with truly offensive remarks," Smith said. 
 
 Myanmar's semi-civilian government has lifted restrictions on freedom of speech, association and media, but reforms have been accompanied by a rise in Buddhist nationalism. 
 
 The main target of the nationalist movement has been Muslims, who make up about 5 percent of Myanmar's 53 million people. Sectarian violence since June 2012 has killed at least 240 people, most of them Muslims. 
 
 Parliament is due to debate laws, including regulations on religious conversions and interfaith marriages, which were initially proposed by a Committee to Protect Race and Religion, one of the main Buddhist nationalist groups associated with Wirathu. 
 
 (The story was refiled to correct the second name of the bar manager to Blackwood, paragraphs 3, 6 and 9) 
 
 (Editing by Robert Birsel) 

 A New Zealand man has been jailed for more than two years with hard labour in Myanmar, after being found guilty of insulting religion by using an image of the Buddha to promote the bar he managed. 
 
 Philip Blackwood, 32, formerly of Wellington, and his two Myanmar co-accused were given the same verdicts and sentences when they appeared in a Yangon court on Tuesday. 
 
 The V Gastro bar used an image of the Buddha wearing headphones in an online poster to promote a cheap drinks night. 
 
 The poster, which appeared last year on the Facebook page of the newly opened Yangon bar, sparked outrage on social media in the predominantly Buddhist country. 
 
 Bar general manager Blackwood, bar owner Tun Thurein, 40, and manager Htut Ko Ko Lwin, 26, were arrested and charged with breaching the Religion Act. 
 
 Agence France-Presse reports that the three men were sentenced to two years for insulting religion through written word or pictures and a further six months for breaching a local order including when a protest erupted outside the bar over the image in December. 
 
 Both terms carry hard labour. 
 
 Blackwood's lawyer Mya Thway had earlier told the court his client had not intended to insult religion and was simply promoting a cheap drinks night. 
 
 But AFP reports that Judge Ye Lwin said on Tuesday that although Blackwood posted an apology, he had 'intentionally plotted to insult religious belief' when he uploaded the mocked-up image on Facebook. 
 
 After the sentencing, Blackwood told reporters as he was getting into a police van that he would appeal. 
 
 Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch said the three men acted in a culturally insensitive way but they should not be sent to prison. 
 
 'What this shows is freedom of expression is under greater threat than ever in Burma (Myanmar) just as the country heads into a pivotal election year,' he said in an email.
– A Burmese bar owner and two employees have been sentenced to two and a half years in jail over a Facebook post that promoted a night of cheap drinks. The post, which depicted Buddha wearing DJ headphones, was found in violation of Burma's Religion Act, which bans damaging or insulting any religion, Sky News reports. The owner of the VGastro Bar in Yangon, Tun Thurein, 40, and bar managers Htut Ko Ko Lwin, 26, and New Zealander Philip Blackwood, 32, were found guilty of mocking religion today. One of his colleagues said the image was Blackwood's idea, but he had apologized and removed it after angry complaints. The judge, however, said Blackwood "intentionally plotted to insult religious belief," though it was "unreasonable only to blame the foreigner," reports the AFP. Blackwood tells the BBC he is "disappointed" with the verdict and plans to appeal. Each of the men were sentenced to two years over the post, but an additional six-month sentence stemmed from resulting protests at the bar. The sentences would include hard labor. The director of Fortify Rights notes a Buddhist nationalist, Wirathu, recently called a UN human rights envoy a "whore," a comment some say harms Buddhism, yet he hasn't been charged. "These men expressed contrition for what they said was a mistake, but meanwhile extremists like Wirathu have incited violence in the name of Buddhism," he tells Reuters. "What this shows is freedom of expression is under greater threat than ever in Burma just as the country heads into a pivotal election year," a Human Rights Watch director adds. Burma will soon consider new laws on religious conversions and interfaith marriages, put forth by a Buddhist nationalist group linked to Wirathu. (A British tourist was arrested over a Buddha tattoo.)