Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association (BMA), fighting for restoration of democracy in Myanmar (Burma), have demanded that the Military Junta's Board of Censorship reverse its recent decision to ban the privately-owned fortnightly Khit-Sann Journal that covers current international affairs.
The junta has claimed that financial problems had led to Khit-Sannนs closure. But information with Reporters Without Borders and the BMA showed that the magazineนs financial situation was healthy. It was expanding and circulation had increased by more than 30% in recent months.
The Khit-Sann or New Age Journal was managed and published by Kyaw Win, the chief editor of the periodical. Kyaw.
Win spent altogether 15 years in prison, serving two terms as a political dissident. In 1982, during Ne Win's era, he was thrown into prison for 5 years. And in 1989, while he was a central executive committee member of the Ever Green Youth Organization, the current junta accused him having links with an unlawful organization and put him in prison for ten years. After serving his prison terms, he became a staff editor of Thint-ba-wa (Your Life) Magazine, along with two prominent writers, Tin Maung Than and Maung Thit Sinn, who are now living in exile in the United States.
After Tin Maung Than and Maung Thit Sinn quit the magazine, Win became the chief editor of the Thint-ba-wa Magazine in 2000. But, the magazine was shut down by the PSB without reason. Then, Kyaw Win negotiated with the owner of the Sa-bae-byu (Jasmine) Magazine to continue his career.
In 2001, the Sa-bae-byu had become one of the best magazines for intellectuals in Yangoon. Kyaw Win himself has made his name within a short period writing many books and articles for the new generation.
Being a popular writer and model of the youth, he is on the watch list of the Military Intelligence Service. And in last June, the junta's mouthpiece newspaper (The New Light of Myanmar) published a pro-military article using his pen name (Kyaw Win) deliberately to create misunderstanding among the public. Then Kyaw Win made a strong protest to the military authority telling not to break the journalistic code of ethics. His protest annoyed the authorities.
Afterward, the PSB summoned him as the chief editor of the Khit-Sann Journal and warned that the journal must change its Pro-US-EU policy. Actually, it is quite strange because the junta's accused him as a communist and kept in jail for ten years in 1990s.
Meanwhile, the Junta is trying to deceive the world, as if it were a pro-democracy regime, starting to implement human rights practices. The regime has prescribed human rights textbooks for the eighth and the ninth grades students. But, not all 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were included in the textbooks. It mentions only a third of the 30 Articles.
The worst is the text does not mention the Article 19 and it emphasizes that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should not be accepted as unquestionable. Teachers and students must accept it in relative terms, according to the prevailing situation of the country. That means the military regime is not reluctant to even censor the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to prolong its military power!
Censorship is imposed in the name of national security. Those found owning pamphlets, books, magazines; cassettes or videotapes that are interpreted as hostile to the ruling junta are arrested and usually serve jail-terms of seven to twenty years.
Although there are some privately owned journals and magazines in Burma, they are subject to an even stricter censorship regulations by the PSB, which can delay their publication by many months.
The regime also does not allow public accessing to the Internet, in particular the military intelligence, monitors all incoming and outgoing e-mails. Web mails are blocked by the MIS and students have no chance for international scholarships through the Internet.
Burma's state-owned Post and Telecommunications is said to be the country's first Internet Service Provider (ISP) and the second ISP is Bagan Cybertech, a semi-government organization established last year by Dr. Ye Nai Win, son of Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt. He is now going on to monopolize the mobile phone network and market in Burma.
It is illegal to own an unregistered modem in Burma. In addition, lack of electricity and expensive charges for Internet services are other factors that block public access to the Internet. Fax machines must be licensed and to obtain a cellular phone permit not only costs $3000 but there is also a years-long queue to apply. Phone lines are often tapped and oversea calls frequently cut.
Burma has been called "the world's largest prison for journalists" and over thirty journalists continue to languish in jail. The country's most respected journalist and art critic, former editor-in-chief of the Hanthawadi newspaper and vice-president of the Association of Burmese Writers, 75-year-old U Win Tin, has spent the last fifteen years of his life in prison.
- Asian Tribune -
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