Maj Wunna, an air force officer who uses the pen name “Mar J”, was recently discharged from the military for an article he published in the weekly Yangon Times which gently satirized the regime’s move to Pyinmana.
In February, Reporters sans fronti?res and the Burma Media Association issued an urgent report saying that the military government is tracking down people who give information to the international media.
More recently, two photojournalists were sentenced to three-year prison terms on March 24 for taking video and still photographs in Pyinmana. They were first arrested last December. The threat to journalists in
Twelve journalists are currently among the more than 1,300 political prisoners in
Apart from locking journalists up and censoring their work, the Burmese regime puts pressure on publications to trumpet its own propaganda and to carry articles attacking Western governments, the Burmese opposition and its detained leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Totally false news is also carried by the government-controlled press—the latest example was last month’s “official” account of how a former political prisoner, Thet Naing Oo, met his death. Eyewitnesses said he was brutally beaten up by officials on a
Despite the difficulties faced by publishers and official distrust of communications technology and the media, the number of news journals and magazines is expected to rise. Currently,
While editors and senior journalists complain about heavy-handed censorship policies and extensive self-censorship, they also admit their staffs often lack qualifications and practical media experience. The Rangoon-based Living Color magazine wrote last year that the “majority” of journalists and reporters were young and needed nurturing. One veteran journalist in
Despite their lack of practical experience, young journalists have a surprising degree of access to high-tech communication tools, such as the Internet, an advance that worries the regime.
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