| Home > South-East Asia >> Burma | |
Detained journalists can't go back to old jobs
Irrawaddy - December 10, 2009
Arkar Moe – Journalists who have been arrested and questioned by the Burmese military regime say they are unable to return to their jobs because they have lost the support of their former employers due to pressure from the government.
Thant Zin Soe, the editor of "Foreign Affairs" (FA) magazine, was arrested by Burmese authorities in October and later released without charge.
He said he has been unable to return to his former job on the magazine. Living Color media group, the publisher of FA, has not made a decision about rehiring Thant Zin Soe, said an editor of the media group.
Editor Kyaw Kyaw Than of "Weekly Eleven" journal and Eint Khine Oo, reporter of "Eco Vision" journal have also been let go from their media groups.
Kyaw Kyaw Than told The Irrawaddy, "Now I am no longer on the staff of 'Weekly Eleven.' I'm working freelance."
Eint Khine Oo said, "My office won't take me back. I read books now, and I may freelance." Analysts said that most leading media groups will not rehire journalist who are arrested and detained by the government under the pressure – both direcly and indirectly – from the Burmese Press Scrutiny and Registration Division of the Ministry of Information that oversees press censorship.
The censorship authorities, however, say the decision to rehire journalists is not theirs and is up to a publication's owner. An officer at Press Scrutiny and Registration Division told The Irrawaddy, "Firing or rehiring is not our responsibility. It is an affair between an employer and a journalist."
An owner of a media group in Rangoon said, "Burmese authorities have made it clear they don't want detained journalists rehired or their writing published. The authorities monitor the publications carefully and as a result most articles by these journalists are rejected.
"If they want to work for a newspaper or magazine, writers must submit resumes in detail to Burmese authorities. So detained journalists find it hard to be rehired. Some released journalist still manage to write regularly for some publications by using psedonyms. We should admire and appreciate their creativity and courage."
San Moe Wai, the secretary of the exile Burma Media Association, a partner organization of Reporteurs Sans Frontiers said, "The media is not like other businesses because it's so important to society. Real journalists need to stand up and be courageous. Although there are many limitations and restrictions in Burma, the owners should not give up their professional standards because of fear of the government."
"The owners of press houses also should not run the business solely with the idea of making money," he said. "They must understand the position of reporters and editors and support them. Actually, all of us should support and help every journalist."
The Committee to Protect Journalists(CPJ) on Tuesday released a series of reports on journalists imprisoned around the world. Burma, which has jailed nine journalists, was ranked in the top five nations for imprisoning journalists, along with Iran, China, Cuba and Eritrea.
"The days when journalists went off on dangerous assignments knowing they had the full institutional weight of their media organizations behind them are receding into history," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "Today, journalists on the front lines are increasingly working independently. The rise of online journalism has opened the door to a new generation of reporters, but it also means they are vulnerable."
[Kyi Wai contributed to this report.]
See also:
 |