YANGON: A US journalist imprisoned in Myanmar since May was pardoned and deported on Monday, a day before he was due to face terror and sedition charges that could have jailed him for life.

The military has squeezed the press since taking power in a February coup, arresting dozens of journalists critical of its crackdown on dissent, which has killed more than 1,200 people according to a local monitoring group.

Danny Fenster had been working at local outlet Frontier Myanmar for around a year and was arrested as he headed home to see his family in May.

He was jailed for 11 years last week for incitement, unlawful association and breaching visa rules and had been due to appear in court on Tuesday to face sedition and terror charges - which could have seen him jailed for life.