Junta Bans Magazines

October 29, 2002—Burma’s draconian Press Scrutiny Board (PSB) has been quite busy lately. Two more popular magazines have been prohibited from publishing their upcoming issue due to previous references to Thailand and the mentioning of a banned poet, according to reliable sources in Rangoon.

The latest victims of the PSB are Han Thit and Beauty magazines. An editor in Rangoon said that Han Thit was banned from distributing their November issue after a poem was found in the October issue that makes reference to the famous Burmese poet Ko Lay (Innwa Gon Yee). The PSB has banned any reference to his name due to his political activities in the late 1990s.

The poem also mentions another Burmese poet, Tin Aye Kyuu, who has been detained by the regime since 1989. Tin Aye Kyuu, who writes under the name Maung Hmaing Lwin, completed his ten-year sentence in 1999, but is being detained under section 10/a of the 1975 State Protection Act.

The source also said that Beauty magazine, which is aimed at Burmese youth, has been told that it will not be permitted to run its upcoming issue after two suspect advertisements were found in its September issue. One of the advertisements in question includes the word "Thai", and the other is a reference to the Beauty Technical School, which teaches a variety of massage therapy techniques.

The words "Thai" and "Thailand" have been barred from all Burmese media since relations between Thailand and Burma collapsed in May of this year. Since May, the word Yodaya must be used instead. Yodaya is a derogatory term that makes reference to the former Thai kingdom of Ayuthaya, which the Burmese sacked in the 18th century.

Heavy-handed censorship is common in Burma, and publications are often banned by the PSB without reason. In June of this year, Living Color and Mhyar Nat Maung were also prohibited from publishing for similar reasons. And last year Thintbawa was shut down after its former editor Tin Maun Than fled Burma to avoid arrest after distributing a speech that the country’s economic minister, Brig-Gen Zaw Htun, had made. Zaw Htun was later dismissed after giving the speech, which gave a candid description of Burma’s economic woes.

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders also condemned Burma in October for its continued crackdown on press freedoms.