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Burma's censors tighten grip ahead of by-election
Irrawaddy - January 23, 2012
PSRD director Tint Swe warned the editors of some of Burma's leading news journals last week that "action will be taken" against publications that don't abide by the board's guidelines, which include a ban on reporting subjects deemed sensitive to the stability of the state.
"We thought that the PSRD policy had softened, but now it is getting tough again," said the editor of a local journal, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Among the subjects currently deemed off-limits: a decision by the official Buddhist monastic council, the Maha Nayaka Sangha, to evict the abbot of the Sadhu Pariyatti Monastery in Rangoon for his outspoken political views, and alleged campaign irregularities by Burma's ruling party, the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), ahead of April 1 by-elections.
Coverage of a press conference on Saturday by leading members of the 88 Generation Students group who were released from prison on Jan. 13 did get permission to go to press, but only after heavy censorship, according to another editor.
"We were allowed to report their support of Aung San Suu Kyi and political reforms, but not their calls for creating a new student union or their vow to fly the peacock flag [symbolizing Burma's pro-democracy movement]," said the editor, who also asked not to be identified.
"We also couldn't report their views on Burma's ethnic conflicts, which they attributed to the government's dishonesty in dealing with the ethnic groups," he added.
In October, former army major Tint Swe made international headlines when he told the Burmese-language service of the Washington-based Radio Free Asia that censorship in Burma, long considered one of the world's worst enemies of the press, could soon be a thing of the past.
"Press censorship is non-existent in most other countries as well as among our neighbors and as it is not in harmony with democratic practices, press censorship should be abolished in the near future," he said at the time.
Since then, however, local journals have found that little has changed, despite the PSRD's newfound willingness to put Suu Kyi in the media spotlight.
"People in the international community and some political groups are saying that we have press freedom now, but it isn't true," said one Rangoon-based reporter. "The situation is actually going back to the way it was."
This isn't the first time that Burmese journalists have complained that censorship remains alive and well in their country, despite perceptions to the contrary. Last November, for instance, The Irrawaddy reported that the PSRD did not approve publication of remarks by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi linking the continued detention of political prisoners to the lack of rule of law in Burma.
However, the issue is likely to get greater attention now that Burma is preparing for by-elections that will pit Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy against the ruling USDP, in a contest that could determine how soon, if at all, sanctions on Burma are lifted.
"Obviously we will have to look carefully at the process of the elections," US Senator John McCain said in Bangkok on Saturday, adding that the Obama administration should not consider lifting US sanctions unless the April by-elections are "free and fair."
But editors of local journals say they have already been prevented from publishing reports about campaign irregularities – including in Kawhmu Township, the constituency that Suu Kyi will contest in her first bid for elected office since emerging as Burma's democracy icon in 1988.
"In Mayangone and Kawhmu townships, the USDP has been telling people that they will only get access to electricity and micro-credit schemes if they vote for them," said a journalist who has been unable to report his findings because of press censorship.
"How can we say that the elections will be free and fair if we don't have press freedom?" he added.
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