Domestic journals can quote NLD spokesman

by Nem Davies

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burma’s Censor Board has relaxed its stringent rules and allowed two Rangoon based weekly journals to quote the spokesman of the main opposition party the 'National League for Democracy' (NLD).

The latest issues of 'The Voice' and '7 Days' could cover the news of Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who is serving a suspended one and-a-half year prison sentence at her home by quoting party spokesman Nyan Win.

"Previously leave alone quoting him, we could not mention even his name in our publications. It is significant to see the censor board allowing us to cover news by quoting the NLD spokesman," an editor of a weekly journal told Mizzima.

The '7 Days' weekly journal in its latest issue carried an interview by her lawyer and party spokesman Nyan Win after he visited her house a day after the special court pronounced the verdict on her trial.

"I bought and gave two journal copies to her. We could give them to her now. She can also receive guests. So we talked with her today for about an hour, Suu Kyi's lawyer Nyan Win said," the journal reported.

Similarly 'The Voice' covered the same news with the headline 'Despite of arriving back at her home, ongoing house renovation allowed' by quoting Nyan Win.

The inside pages had news of the verdict, news of the renovation of her house, action taken against security personnel deployed at her residence for security lapses and Suu Kyi's release by 2011.

The junta allowed the journalists to visit the court and allowed them to cover the trial but did not allow it to be printed in their publications. One of the censored news, '75-minutes long court pronouncement of judgment' has been published in 'The Voice' now.

But journalists do not view this leniency as the beginning of a free press in Burma just because the Censor Board has allowed the journals to print news by quoting Suu Kyi’s lawyer Nyan Win.

"Sometimes they permit some to be printed. And then they tighten the screw again. So we can't say this is the beginning of press freedom in our country. It's very difficult to comprehend the Censor Board," a reporter from Burma told Mizzima.

The junta has put the Burmese media on a leash and banned mention of the names of pro-democracy activists, politicians and their movements.

21 August 2009

READ MORE---> Domestic journals can quote NLD spokesman...

EU Sanctions Target Burmese State-run Media

By WAI MOE
The Irrawaddy News

The European Union has added four state-run media outlets to its list of Burmese sanctions targets in response to the court ruling against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Four media enterprises—the Myanmar News and Periodicals Enterprise, which publishes three state-run newspapers; the Tatmadaw Telecasting Unit, which runs Myawaddy Television; Myanmar Radio and Television; and the Myanmar Motion Picture Enterprise—were added to the revised sanctions list published on Friday.

The EU stated that it put the media organizations on the list because they have been involved in promoting the regime’s policies and propaganda.

Responding to the move, journalists in Rangoon noted that the listed enterprises were not the only ones used by the regime to promote its policies. Private journals and magazines owned by the junta’s associates also play a similar role, they said.

“Like the state-run media, these privately owned journals and magazines run by associates of the ruling generals also play a significant role in spreading the regime’s propaganda,” said a Rangoon-based journalist who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Also added to the sanctions list were judges and government prosecutors from the Northern District Court, which sentenced Suu Kyi on August 11.

The EU sanctions on Burma includes visa bans, an arms embargo, limiting diplomatic contacts, freezing officials’ offshore accounts, and suspending non-humanitarian aid or development programs.

The European bloc first introduced sanctions on Burma in 1996. The sanctions have been updated, renewed and extended every year since then, and are set to expire on April 30, 2010, if they are not renewed.

On August 13, two days after Suu Kyi’s conviction, the Council of the European Union announced the adoption of additional sanctions against the Burmese regime to condemn “the unjustified trial of and the verdict against” the pro-democracy leader.

“Under the new restrictive measures, members of the judiciary responsible for the verdict are added to the existing list of persons and entities subject to a travel ban and to an assets freeze,” the EU council said in a press release on Thursday.

“Moreover, the persons and entities subject to the restrictive measures is extended to cover the assets freeze to enterprises that are owned and controlled by members of the regime in Burma/Myanmar or by persons or entities associated with them,” the council added.

Forty Burmese enterprises owned by cronies of the junta are included on the EU sanctions list.

READ MORE---> EU Sanctions Target Burmese State-run Media...

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.

READ MORE---> Staff of Rangoon Journal Summoned by Censor Board...

PHOENIX entertainment journal suspended this week

by May Kyaw

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burma’s censor board suspended the publishing license of the ‘PHOENIX’, an entertainment journal for this week’s issue after it published some censored news.

The censor board under the Burmese Ministry of Information suspended the publishing of this week’s issue of this journal. It is published every Thursday.

The censor board also reminded the journal authorities to publish only entertainment news.

“They have no time to edit when the journal is being censored. The censor board can give them permission to publish only on Wednesday. But they already published the journal by that time,” a person belonging to the censor board circle said.

The journal fraternity said that they do not have enough time to make necessary changes if the censor board sends its censored and finalized draft copy on Wednesday for the Thursday issue.

This journal reported the news of objection by the ‘Eleven Media Group’ against the ‘Lucky Eleven’ advertisement by Yangon Media Group in its 27 May issue by carrying out interviews on legal ground.

Though the economic impact on the journal due to a week’s suspension is not too heavy, its marketing will be hit for the newly published journal.

READ MORE---> PHOENIX entertainment journal suspended this week...

Sales of state-run newspapers surge during trial

People should buy a cup of tea instead of local newspaper

(DVB)–Government-run newspapers in Burma have reported unusually high sales since the trials of Aung San Suu Kyi and US citizen John Yettaw began on Monday.

News of Yettaw’s visit earlier this month to the house where Suu Kyi has been held under house arrest for the last six years has been closely followed in international media.

Yet the trial has received a muted response in Burma’s state-run newspapers, failing even to make headline news.

This however hasn’t prevented a surge in the number of Burmese people buying the state-run Myanma Ahlin and Kyemon newspapers, particularly on Wednesday when the government allowed journalists and diplomats into the courtroom to observe the hearings.

“Normally, no one really bothers to buy these newspapers but on [Wednesday] they were already sold out [by] the morning,” said a Rangoon resident.

The editor of a news journal in Rangoon reported earlier today that journalists working for private-owned publications, Bi-Weekly and Myanmar Times, were being prevented from publishing detail other than that already being said in government media.

“All the facts included in Bi-Weekly journal’s coverage were the same as the government newspapers, apart from a small difference in writing style and the headline,” said the editor, speaking under condition of anonymity.

“There was nothing new from what was aired on government television MRTV on Wednesday evening.”

Reporting by Naw Noreen

READ MORE---> Sales of state-run newspapers surge during trial...

Burmese journalists restricted in trial reporting

(DVB)–Burmese journalists reporting on the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi are being prevented from publishing detail other than that already being said in government media, according to a journal editor in Rangoon.

On Wednesday, the Burmese government surprised observers by allowing 10 journalists – five from international agencies and five domestic - and around 30 foreign diplomats into the courtroom where Suu Kyi is facing charges of breaching her house arrest.

A news journal editor in Rangoon said that two private-owned media organisations in Burma, Bi-Weekly journal and Myanmar Times, who were among the five domestic publications allowed inside the courtroom faced heavy restrictions in their reporting.

“All the facts included in Bi-Weekly journal’s coverage were the same as the government newspapers, apart from a small difference in writing style and the headline,” said the editor, speaking under condition of anonymity.

“There was nothing new from what was aired on government television MRTV on Wednesday evening.”

All publications in Burma face strict censoring from the government’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Division board.

Articles are often required to be sent to the board for censoring days prior to publication.

The deputy director of exile-based Burma Media Association said the junta’s allowing of foreign and inside news reporters inside Wednesday’s court hearing was merely a trick to convince the international community that press freedom exists in the country.

“[The junta] did it to ease pressure from the international community and to maintain the support they receive from the [Association of Southeast Asian Nations], Russia and China, who have always been backing them,” said Zin Linn.

“That wasn’t a gesture of press freedom but merely their use of the media as a tool to protect their own profit.”

Last year, Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranked Burma 170 out 173 countries in their Press Freedom Index. Journalists in Burma are regularly imprisoned, some with sentences of 20 years.

Reporting by Ahunt Phone Myat

READ MORE---> Burmese journalists restricted in trial reporting...

Court access for diplomats merely ‘a gesture’

(DVB)–Burma opposition party, the National League for Democracy, have said that allowing diplomats to observe Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial was merely a “gesture” and still falls short of making it an open trial.

In a statement released yesterday, the NLD, whose leader Suu Kyi is facing charges of breaching conditions of her house arrest, denounced the trial and said that proceedings were not consistent with the regulations of the court.

NLD Central Executive Committee Member Win Tin added that allowing journalists and diplomats into the courtroom did not make it a free and fair trial.

“This is merely a thing the government do similar to when they invite foreign diplomats to events where they destroy confiscated drugs in a gesture to convince them they are doing things properly.”

Similarly, the secretary of the Committee Representing the People’s Parliament said that it was a superficial move aimed only at convincing people that the trial is fair.

“In reality, the court should let the NLD and the family members of [Suu Kyi], and reporters from the media inside and outside of the country to enter it and study its procedures, in order to make it an open trial,” said Aye Thar Aung.

One of the diplomats allowed inside the courtroom yesterday, Britain’s Mark Canning, told the BBC that the move was welcomed but did little to alter the reality of the situation.

"All the paraphernalia of the courtroom was there, the judges, the prosecution, the defense,” he said.

“But I think this is a story where the conclusion is already scripted."

Reporting by Aye Nai

READ MORE---> Court access for diplomats merely ‘a gesture’...

Burma bars access to Suu Kyi trial again

(AFP)–Burma's military regime put the trial of opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi back behind closed doors today, after allowing diplomats and journalists to attend the hearing for just one day.

The junta had opened up the proceedings at the notorious Insein Prison near Yangon on Wednesday, in an apparent concession to fierce international criticism of the charges against the Nobel Peace Prize winner.

"The press will not be allowed today (Thursday). Only for one day were diplomats and press allowed," a Myanmar official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Diplomats said on Wednesday that they had been informed they would only be allowed in for one day, but the situation for the media was unclear until the official confirmation on Thursday.

A smiling, healthy-looking Aung San Suu Kyi, 63, had thanked diplomats for coming to the trial on Wednesday and said she hoped to meet them again in "better days."

Authorities allowed one diplomat from each of the 30 foreign embassies in Yangon to attend, while Aung San Suu Kyi met envoys from Thailand, Singapore and Russia.

Five journalists working for foreign news organisations and five from local groups were also allowed into the trial, which had previously only been reported on by the tightly controlled state media.

Aung San Suu Kyi faces up to five years in jail if convicted of charges of breaching her house arrest stemming from an incident earlier this month in which an American man, John Yettaw, swam to her lakeside house.

Myanmar's ruling generals have kept her in jail or under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years.

READ MORE---> Burma bars access to Suu Kyi trial again...

Journalists Attend Suu Kyi Trial

By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News

Ten journalists were allowed inside the courtroom on Wednesday to cover the trial of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said journalists in Rangoon.

Five journalists working for foreign news media were chosen by lot. Three were Japanese journalists and two work for Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

Riot police officers stand guard at a road block near Insein Prison in the northern suburb of Rangoon. (Photo: AP)

The remaining five were chosen by Burmese authorities. Sources believe they represent state-backed newspapers and publications associated with the regime.

A journalist who was chosen to report on the trial said it was not clear whether the authorities will allow the journalists to bring recorders and cameras into the courtroom. In the past, he said, journalists have not been able to use recorders or cameras when covering sensitive events.

A Burmese journalist in Rangoon confirmed that one journalist from the Myanmar Times was chosen to cover the trial.

Associated Press writers, who participated in the draw, lost out to the luck of the draw, sources said.

Wednesday is day three of the trial of Suu Kyi, who has been charged with violating the terms of her house arrest by allowing a US citizen, John William Yettaw, to stay overnight at her compound on Inya Lake. If convicted, she could be sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison.

Yettaw, 53, who allegedly swam across the lake to the compound, which is under 24-hour guard, is also on trial for violating Burmese security laws and immigration laws, along with two housekeepers who live with Suu Kyi.

READ MORE---> Journalists Attend Suu Kyi Trial...

Myanmar state media gives first reports on Suu Kyi

YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar's tightly controlled state media has reported on the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi for the first time, giving a rare mention of the imprisoned pro-democracy leader.

State television and radio carried brief items after the first day of proceedings, while the government mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar newspaper had a report on Tuesday.

It was the biggest story on the back page of the English-language paper, but failed to knock a story about a state transport and agricultural scheme off the front page.

Aung San Suu Kyi went on trial on Monday on charges of breaching her house arrest after John Yettaw, a US national, swam to her lakeside home earlier this month.

Yettaw and the opposition leader's two aides are also on trial.

The newspaper said that Yettaw now faced a third charge, brought by the Yangon City Council Sanitation Department, of swimming in Inya Lake without permission. He is also charged with breaching security and immigration laws.

The court on Monday heard two witnesses, one in Aung San Suu Kyi's case and one in Yettaw's, it said.

The Burmese-language Myanmar Ahlin newspaper also had a report on its back page, which said that after Yettaw entered her compound on May 3, Aung San Suu Kyi "gave him food and let him stay at the house" for two nights.

Both reports gave details of the lawyers for the defendents, their lawyers and the judges.

Neither paper mentioned the fact that the trial was being held behind closed doors in the notorious Insein prison, where Aung San Suu Kyi is being held, only saying that it was taking place at Yangon's northern district court.

The television and radio reports late Monday had similar details but were brief. They came after several reports about official engagements by members of Myanmar's military regime and immediately before the daily weather forecast.

READ MORE---> Myanmar state media gives first reports on Suu Kyi...

Rangoon Media Silent on Suu Kyi

By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News

Burmese journalists from Rangoon-based publications have complained that they cannot report freely about pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s transfer to Insein Prison due to heavy restrictions on press freedom.

While the Burmese public is eager to hear news surrounding Suu Kyi’s arrest and the incident at her home involving an American intruder, they are forced to turn to the international press and Burmese news agencies in exile, because local media is largely silent on the issue.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Friday, an editor working with a leading journal in Rangoon said, “Of course we want to report this news, but we cannot. The censorship board will definitely reject it.”

Another Rangoon-based editor said, “We can publish reports about this news in similar terms to those of the state-run newspapers. I’m sure that we cannot report any more than that. Otherwise, our lives will be in danger.”

A Burmese journalist in Rangoon who is working with a foreign news agency said that he is constantly confronted with difficulties when confirming details deemed “sensitive matters” by the Burmese authorities.

Sources in Rangoon said that “everyone” in the former capital—from reporters to rickshaw drivers—listens to the radio every morning and evening to find out what is happening with Suu Kyi.

Several sources indicated that the public reaction to Suu Kyi’s arrest and her subsequent detention in a guest house within the compound of Insein Prison ranges from anger toward the junta to feelings of pity for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and fears for her safety.

A resident in Rangoon said that the news about Suu Kyi and the “Inya Lake Swimmer” is the talk of the town and that many people are constantly calling each other sharing the latest rumors.

“Some are saying that the incident [with the American intruder at Suu Kyi’s house] has been fabricated by the Burmese authorities,” he said.

On Thursday, pro-junta newspapers The New Light of Myanmar and The Mirror published details about the “US citizen who secretly entered the house of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.” The report included a photograph and full biography of 53-year-old psychology student John William Yettaw.

However, neither newspaper ran a report mentioning Suu Kyi’s arrest.
Some local journals, including Rangoon-based The Voice, also reported on the arrest of Yettaw, but only quoted from the “official” report in The New Light of Myanmar.

The New Light of Myanmar said that the US citizen was arrested on May 6. According to the report, the man arrived in Rangoon on May 2, swam across Inya Lake on the night of May 3 and secretly entered Suu Kyi’s house.

Several pro-junta publications and blogs have criticized the reporting by Burmese news agencies and radio stations in exile, such as BBC Burmese, Voice of America, and Radio Free Asia, saying that their coverage shows a lack of ethics and is influenced by the Western community.

READ MORE---> Rangoon Media Silent on Suu Kyi...

Fishery Department introduces media censorship

by Myo Thein

Rangoon (Mizzima) – The 'Myanmar Fishery Federation’ has imposed certain restrictions on the domestic media, on media coverage of fishery products and export figures issued by the government Fisheries Department, without getting prior approval from them.

A weekly journal reported the actual export figures of fishery products in its news report, and claimed that it was far below the targeted figure for 2008-09 fiscal in comparison with the previous financial year, in terms of percentage. Following the publication of that news report, the Fisheries Department put forth such restrictions on the local media.

The Myanmar Fishery Federation holds a Meeting for Development of Meat and Fishery every Tuesday, at its head office in West Gyogon, which is attended by responsible people from the Fishery Department, the concerned people from organizations under the Myanmar Fishery Federation, concerned people from the Livestock Federation and sometimes even the Minister of Livestock and Fishery attends these meetings.

During these meetings, the local media are usually allowed to attend and report the news emanating from the meeting freely, but currently an officer of FIQC, a section of the Fishery Department has said that news regarding these meetings must get prior approval from their office. He also informed the local media that this restriction had already been communicated to the notorious Censor Board.

Although the reason given for this restriction, was reportage of incorrect facts, the real reason was disclosure of the true facts of both export earnings and volumes far short of target, by a local weekly journal, a Rangoon-based journal editor said.

"The reason is reporting of these facts before being sent to Naypyitaw. The Fishery Federation usually discloses weekly and monthly export figures. Though the media are allowed to report these figures, they are not allowed to report these figures in an overview report, such as export figures and target for the whole financial year. All reporters, who are familiar with this department and organization, know about it. In this case, the journalist, who wrote this news, was summoned to their office and a complaint was also lodged with the Censor Board,” he told Mizzima.

Sources from this Fishery Department said that the officials usually adjust the export volume and foreign exchange earning figures for each financial year, before reporting to their higher authorities.

They do such adjustments to avoid criticism and blame, likely to be put on them by their higher authorities, the sources said.

"The export target for this financial year is USD 850 million and the actual export is just 56% of this target. The Fishery Department wants the local media to report this news only from a positive viewpoint. Now it seems to be pointing out their negative aspect. It seems likely that we have to write news reports, without facts and figures from now on," a source said.

The Fishery Sector stands fourth in export earnings in Burma and the export target for the 2008-09 financial year is USD 850 million. Even in the post-Nargis scenario, the fishery products export business was not affected much. However, the current global economic slowdown has hit this fishery sector hard, when it was just picking up.

Therefore, the department revised its export target in early 2009, to a more realistic USD 500 million from the previous USD 850 million. But the actual export earnings reached only USD 483.082 million at the end of the last financial year, which ended in March 2009.

READ MORE---> Fishery Department introduces media censorship...

The Path of Pen or Sword?

By RYAN LIBRE
The Irrawaddy News

The path of the pen or the path of the sword? Young Kachin in northern Burma are preparing and learning on both fronts.

The question dates back to antiquity, but recently it has come to life here in Kachin State where the Kachin have struggled for autonomy for generations.

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) fought an armed insurgency for more than 30 years. Despite being out-numbered and out-armed, the KIA was never fully defeated, but they were not able to win full autonomy for the Kachin people.

Since the 1994 ceasefire, there have been 15 years of precarious peace and during that time, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) has built a civil society in addition to maintaining an army. Creating a civil society after a generation of war while isolated from the world at-large—and with scarce resources—is a daunting task.

But, the Kachin are making real progress. The liberated Kachin area now has native language schools, a TV station, intensive English colleges, a civil service academy, regular native language publications, a media center, several Web sites and a national library.

These institutions are the building blocks that make it possible, in the next phase of social development, to consider using the power of the pen—communication—as an effective tool to fight for ethnic autonomy.

Choosing to solve conflicts through the path of civil government and through the media instead of through armies and missiles is not an easy task. It’s been all the more challenging since the Kachin first had to create a civil government and mass media.

Mahatma Gandhi would have had little significance without the attention of India’s newspapers, radio and news stations spreading his words and ideas across the country, to the English commonwealth and around the world. But unlike Gandhi, the Kachin have not ruled out the use of military means as a way to ethnic autonomy.

They are, however, coming to understand that the media is as powerful as machine guns.

The question for the Kachin is how to harness the power of the media, and the question for the world is, how it can help them get their message out.

Burma’s pro-democracy leader, Aung San Su Kyi, has been effective at getting the attention of the world media, but the Kachin see their struggle for autonomy as separate from the larger pro-democracy movement.

Kachin leadership has yet to capture the attention of the world’s media. There are now more than 700 fulltime photojournalists active in Iraq. Kachin State has zero.

History has shown the Burmese military junta will not hand over autonomy to ethnic people. But, the more the world is able to see and hear the concerns and dreams of the Kachin, the more international pressure the junta will feel to provide for the aspirations of the Kachin people.

Recently, the Chiang Mai based NGO Documentary Arts Asia (DAA) taught a week-long journalism and photography workshop to Kachin youth. The young men and women—the journalists, photographers and researchers of tomorrow—were eager to learn. As part of their training, they published seven projects in the workshop magazine, Jingpaw.

DAA awarded two outstanding students cameras and it donated several cameras for community use.

Doi La, one of the workshop’s outstanding students, now has plans to put the skills he learned in the workshop to use by documenting Kachin traditional festivals. DAA has plans to keep working with Kachin youth, to publish their photographs and stories, and to offer another media workshop in 2009.

DAA considers the media workshop a success, but admits that much more needs to be done.

On the path of the sword, it’s possible to spend money to buy guns and train soldiers to fight in a matter of weeks or months.

On the path of the pen, it can take years of training to forge a group of people who can communicate effectively with words and photos.

KIO community organizer Mung Aung wants to study for a master’s degree in public administration with emphasis on public relations. He rightly sees such a goal as a way he can help his people communicate effectively with the international media.

Mung Aung admits there’s a “brain drain” going on in Kachin State now. Growing numbers of Kachin youth with his qualifications are leaving for jobs in other parts of Asia and the world. Being largely undeveloped, there are few good jobs in Kachin State, plus the Kachin face discrimination by the Burmese majority.

It is much easier to recruit and train soldiers than media experts. Mung Aung gets no salary, but he stays because he believes in a better future for the Kachin people.

The UN cannot directly aid the Kachin people in their struggle. No superpower has directly taken up their cause or offered direct support.

The media is the Kachin people’s best hope for a peaceful solution to their dream of an antonymous homeland.

The Kachin are trying to compete on the frontlines of communication by calling on the international media for attention. But they can't do it alone, and there’s the real possibility that if no one hears their message and they are ignored by the world's governments and media, they could return to the sword.

Ryan Libre spent three weeks in Kachin State supported by a grant from The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

READ MORE---> The Path of Pen or Sword?...