Reading between the lines of Burma’s censored press

Power shortages and blackouts are nothing new in Burma. Nor are news blackouts.

In early February, authorities detected bird flu in Sagaing and Mandalay divisions but the news didn’t appear in state-run newspapers or privately-run journals until the middle of March. The government’s mouthpiece, The New Light of Myanmar, waited until March 16 to report the outbreak.

Why do the authorities wait so long to inform the public of such an important development that directly affects them? The reason for this particularly cynical form of censorship has to be the official fear of causing a panic. Yet fears of a serious health hazard aren’t the only reason for Burmese to stay glued to the broadcasts of shortwave radio stations beamed from overseas. The plain fact is that most Burmese have no clue what is happening in their own country.

Ironically, the latest clampdown occurs as optimism surfaces in Rangoon media circles about what some editors and journalists see as a relaxation of censorship regulations.

A Rangoon-based journalist’s confidential report, seen by this correspondent, said censorship had been slightly relaxed and described 2005 as an exciting year for the media and for a new generation of journalists in Burma.

Apart from news about disasters, low-level corruption and crime, local papers are now allowed to report on such developments as moving the capital to Pyinmana and such foreign political stories as the anti-Arroyo movement in the Philippines and the efforts to bring down Thailand’s prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.

But in order to be able to publish these stories, guidelines have to be followed. Editors are instructed by censorship department officials that coverage must be positive and constructive. As a consequence, self-censorship is widespread in local newspaper editorial offices.

Although coverage of domestic political news, once banned, is now allowed, the censors are still very selective. While Eleven Weekly Journal, for instance, recently reported on UN human rights investigator Paulo Sergio Pinheiro’s annual human rights report on Burma, only his criticism of US “megaphone” diplomacy and of Western sanctions was mentioned. His criticism of the Burmese regime was ignored.

Positive reporting? Constructive coverage? Burmese readers didn’t even get a chance to decide.

Changes in regulations affecting the media came about following the removal of prime minister and military intelligence chief Gen Khin Nyunt in late 2004.

First of all, local reporters and editors were invited to attend regular press conferences which had once been the almost exclusive preserve of foreign news agencies such as the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France Presse. Secondly, control of the notorious press censorship department was shifted from the home affairs ministry to the information ministry.

The Press Scrutiny Registration Department, once controlled by Khin Nyunt’s military intelligence officers, is now controlled by Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan.

The department also received a new director, Maj Tint Swe, whose staff was increased to more than 100, some 60 of whom are charged with regularly monitoring the press.

Tint Swe recently invited local reporters and editors to a meeting and assured them that editorial independence would be honored.  He told them that he had seen nothing to date that would encounter problems with the government, indicating that censorship proceedings were functioning well. Three months previously, however, Tint Swe’s boss, Kyaw Hsan, admitted to reporters that conflicts had occurred between the PSRD and local publications.

There have certainly been no signs of a relaxation of the PSRD’s draconian censorship regulations, which continue to stifle press freedom. Despite Tint Swe’s assurances of editorial freedom, the PSRD ordered the removal of a number of  New Year greetings from the December 31, 2005 issue of the Yangon Post, a privately-owned weekly. The order banned messages and photographs of several writers and journalists, including Maw Linn, Bo Bo and Zaw Thet Htwe, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The committee branded Burma in its 2005 report on press freedom one of Asia’s most repressive countries for the media.

Instances where the Burmese press has been muzzled fill a large catalogue. Weekly Eleven Journal was ordered to remove four names from a special feature on Burma’s leading personalities of 2005. They included tycoon Tay Za, journalist Sein Win and respected woman writer Daw Amar. No reason for the censorship was given.

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 Burma remains a very real one.

Twelve journalists are currently among the more than 1,300 political prisoners in Burma, according to the RSF. The most famous of them is Win Tin, who has won international recognition for his pro-democracy engagement. In 2001 he was awarded the World Association of Newspapers Golden Pen of Freedom and the Unesco Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.

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 Rangoon street. The government-controlled press charged falsely that Thet Naing Oo had started the fight.

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, Burma has 157 news journals and 231 magazines. Although many publications have been unable to open branch offices in upper or lower Burma, some local papers established themselves in Mandalay this year.

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 Rangoon estimated that more than 80 percent of the staff on local news journals were young people.

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. The government’s deep-seated distrust of the technological advances of publishing was clearly voiced at a meeting Kyaw Hsan had with publishers last December, when he warned that powerful countries with advanced information technologies were trying to destabilize the peace and stability of smaller ones.

Some publishers provide training and send staff to neighboring countries on “exposure” trips or short-term journalism courses, particularly in Thailand and Cambodia. Some Western embassies in Rangoon also conduct short term journalism courses, and at least one American college, the University of California, Berkeley, offers scholarships.

Some publications—notably Weekly News Eleven—have begun to expand their coverage with regular features on the culture and customs of Burma’s various ethnic groups. However, it is still impossible to report on what is really happening in the ethnic regions, particularly on anything related to ethnic and racial tensions, ceasefire issues and the involvement of the Tatmadaw, Burma’s armed forces, in human rights violations.

Although some editors and publishers in Rangoon see reasons for optimism in the recent small advances in the media scene, the news journal sector actually began to pick up 10 years or more ago, when publishing licences were granted to a number of weekly publications. There have been several success stories—noted by Living Color magazine—although advertising revenue usually played a big role.

Sports news takes first place in readers’ tastes, followed by entertainment world gossip and anything at all concerning the supernatural. Veteran journalist Ludu Sein Win says it will take time for magazines to acquire “quality,” but he remains optimistic, particularly in view of the number of publications now coming off the presses.

Optimism about the chances of Burma’s press taking on a serious role, however, remains at a very low level. The PRSD requires editors to avoid reporting on sensitive political developments in Burma and to shun critical analysis of events in China, India or Asean countries. The editor of one business monthly laments: “Critical reporting is not allowed and political news is out of the question…The media’s role as a watch dog is still a long way off.”