The election of Aung San Suu Kyi was another step in Burma’s advance to democracy. But journalists are aware that the small gains made by the media could be taken back. Tom Fawthrop reports
(more…)
Burma’s mining ministry have said they will file a lawsuit against a news journal following allegations of corruption. An article in weekly publication The Voice said that the Auditor-General’s Office had discovered fraud in the mining, information, agriculture and industry ministries. It is believed that the article was published without approval from the country’s censors. The mining ministry’s director general Win Htein denied the accusations, and said the report had harmed the ministry’s dignity.
Burma’s opposition leader has been banned from criticising previous governments in TV and radio election campaigns. Aung San Suu Kyi has said that government censors are not allowing her party to criticise previous military-run governments when it promotes its policies on state-run radio and television ahead of next month’s elections. Suu Kyi’s statement will be broadcast on 14 and 22 March, and will be the first time the opposition leader has been given the opportunity to use the state media to promote her party.
A Burmese monk jailed for his involvement in 2007 protests faces further charges for breaking both the law and the Buddhist monks’ code of conduct. Shin Gambira, who was released from prison in a January amnesty, has been accused of rejoining the religious order without requesting authorisation, of being in the government sealed Magin Monastery and breaking the locks of two other monasteries. According to newspapers reports, Shin Gambira had said in a statement that he did not need permission to rejoin the order of monks so he would not ask for it.
Gambira was awarded an Index on Censorship Free Expression Award in 2008.