Staff of Rangoon Journal Summoned by Censor Board

By ARKAR MOE
The Irrawaddy News

Senior editors and staff of the True News Journal in Rangoon were summoned to appear before the censor board of Burma’s military regime on Monday following the distribution of the publication at Insein Prison, the location of Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial.

The Press Scrutiny and Registration Board told the publication that it objected to the headline on a story written by Ludu Sein Win, an outspoken, veteran journalist, which said: “Newsmen dare express the truth and risk arrest.”

An unidentified staff of the journal apparently sold copies of the journal to people in the crowd outside the prison last week and displayed a small sign saying, “The True Journal which dares to report the truth,” according to sources.

The staff who sold the journal in front of the prison was arrested in the journal’s office on May 28, sources said, and later released.

According to World Report 2009 by Reporters without Borders, a global media watchdog group, “Burma is a paradise for censors, one of the very few countries where all publications are subjected to prior censorship. After China and Cuba, it is the world's largest prison for journalists and bloggers.”

The junta sets out to physically and psychologically break imprisoned journalists by sending them to prisons far from the capital, according to political activists.