Burma Media Watch 2002: April

At a Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand panel discussion on May 22, the U.S. charge d'affaires in Rangoon, Priscilla Clapp, ripped into Irrawaddy magazine editor Aung Zaw for allegedly writing an editorial claiming "America deserved the attack of September 11." Although critical of U.S. foreign policy, the editorial fell far short of an endorsement of the terrorist attacks. Clapp, intervening from the floor, went on to say that panellist Aung Zaw's articles critical of the U.S. did "not go unnoticed in Washington."

The U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an agency funded by the U.S. Congress, is one of many international donors that provide funding to the Irrawaddy, which has become increasingly popular in diplomatic and academic circles for its hard-hitting coverage of Burmese politics. But magazine staffers say the NED is the only donor that attempts to interfere in editorial decision-making.

More junior diplomats from Washington's embassy in Bangkok have paid visits to the Irrawaddy office to express their displeasure with other articles perceived to be critical of the U.S., staffers say.

Forum-Asia and ARTICLE 19 call on the SPDC to revoke immediately a recent directive banning newspapers from reporting about Thailand or receiving advertisements from Thai sources.

On 22 May, the official Press Scrutiny Board, the Burmese State Peace and Development Council censorship body, ordered private journals and magazines not to publish articles about Thailand or advertisements for Thai products. The journalists were ordered to sign an agreement to comply with the directive and not to use the terms "Thailand" and "Yodaya" the Burmese name for Thailand in their publications. Even articles about Thai food and advertisements carrying letters of Thai alphabet are covered by the ban.

These bans are clearly contrary to international standards regarding freedom of expression and the right to receive information, which is particularly important in relation to matters of public interest, including relations with Thailand. They also undermine the economic viability of the Burmese print media, which is heavily dependent on Thai advertising. The right to freedom of expression is universally recognized as fundamental underpinning of democracy, in accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Coming just 25 days after the release of Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, these bans show that the SPDC still does not respect the fundamental rights of its citizen.

The ban is linked to the current intensified tension between Thailand and Burma. On 20 May, Thailand and Burma swapped protest notes after Thai troops and the United Wa State Army, a Rangoon-aligned ethnic militia, traded fire across the border. The next day, Burma closed its border checkpoints with Thailand and later announced its decision to block Thai official diplomatic missions from entering into country.

The Burmese media operate under strict government scrutiny and control. Publishing rights are vested exclusively in the Home Ministry while journals and magazines are required to submit to prior censorship by the State before publication.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF Reporters Sans Frontières) and the Burma Media Association (BMA, in exile) called today for the immediate release of imprisoned journalists Sein Hla Oo, who has not been heard of since February 2002, and Win Tin, who has just been returned from hospital to Rangoon¹s Insein jail, where he has been held for the past 13 years.

"Only a few days after you said there were no longer any political prisoners in Burma, we have had alarming news about the plight of these two journalists jailed for having expressed their opinions," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard in a letter to interior minister Col. Tin Hlaing, of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

Reporters Without Borders and the BMA reiterated their opposition to any lifting of European or US sanctions against the country¹s military regime without the release of all political prisoners, especially journalists, and the ending of censorship.

Col. Tin Hlaing said on 19 May, after the release from house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, that the country had no more political prisoners. About 200 members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) were in jail, he said, but they were "common law criminals." However, Reporters Without Borders has identified at least 16 journalists in prison and Amnesty International says there are at least 1,500 political prisoners in Burma.

Win Tin, a well-known journalist, dissident and member of the NLD who celebrated his 72nd birthday last 12 March in detention, was returned to his special cell at Insein prison last week after several months in Rangoon¹s general hospital. A close adviser of Aung San Suu Kyi, he was convalescing after a hernia operation and in early March was visited in hospital by the UN Special Rapporteur for Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro.

Officials at the jail in the northern town of Myitkyina are refusing to give any information about journalist Sein Hla Oo, who has been a prisoner there since 1997. The Interior ministry has reportedly banned all visits to the 15 political prisoners in the jail. Sein Hla Oo¹s wife last visited him at the end of February, but has been denied permission to see him since then. Relatives of other political prisoners have been refused access too, including the wife of regime opponent Dr Khin Zaw Win in the middle of this month.

Sein Hla Oo's sentence expired last August, but he was not released and no explanation was given. Last June, he was operated on for a slipped disc and after a few days' convalescence was returned to prison. His wife, who lives in Rangoon, has visited him several times at the prison, where conditions are very harsh and prisoners suffer from malaria, the cold, brutal guards and very bad food. Sein Hla Oo is one of the NLD's 17 members of parliament who have not been freed since the start of talks between the military rulers and Aung San Suu Kyi.