Press Censorship in Burma

The Burmese Information Minister has refused to accept the resignation letter of the head of the junta's press scrutiny office.

Major Tint Swe, the Director with the Government's Office of Press Scrutiny, which censors the contents of all print publications in Burma, submitted his resignation to the ministry on July 31, 2008.

Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan, the Minister for of Information, refused to accept his resignation letter.

One of the major reasons why the director has done so is, that most leading weeklies have been found, since the devastation following last May's Nargis Cyclone failing intentionally to observe the instructions of the censor board.

The official said more than half a dozen journals, including the prominent weeklies 7 Day News, News Watch, the First Music and among others, were recently ordered to sign assertion letters that they would comply with the instructions.

Maj Tint Swe said: When you write about government departments, it needs to be correct. If you exaggerate or have misconceptions while writing, there will be a problem. We only allow news that will not have a negative effect on the state or national welfare.

Burmese journalists are up in arms over censorship but can do little but unanimously voice that they are facing severe censorship at a time when the Chief of the Censor Board is on tour.

Journalists attached to periodicals said that censorship has became more severe while the director of the notorious 'Press Scrutiny Board' popularly known as 'Literary Kempetai', Maj. Tint Swe, is out of station.

A monthly magazine editor said the Deputy-Director Maj. Aung Kyaw Oo imposed stricter restrictions on magazines and journals to avoid unnecessary mistakes which can put him in trouble: He censors many more news and articles whenever Maj. Tint Swe is on official tour. We are pained when we see these censored manuscripts. He seems not to want to take responsibility and tries to avoid trouble.

The print media in Burma is incurring heavy losses due to the overcautious and stricter censorship. The publishers of print media in Burma have to submit their draft printed copy to the censor board. They have to remove the censored articles, news and re-typeset it again for the final copy and have to submit it for final approval. Only after these stages have been crossed the publishers can distribute their papers and magazines in the market.

Mizzima learnt that the Censor Board wanted removed about half of the 80 domestic news items from a weekly journal at the draft copy stage.

The Director could be approached for reconsideration of censored news and articles after slight modifications. We cannot do this with the new person, a weekly journal editor said.

In news censorship, a directive was issued to delete all news covering government ministries and departments without interviewing the responsible person of the departments concerned.

Literary magazines such as Mahaythi, Cherry, Ahtwe Ahmyin, Nwe Ni, Sabephyu are severely hit by the strict censorship. The circulation of these monthly magazines has declined significantly. A monthly magazine which had a previous circulation of over 10,000 copies is now selling 7,000 copies and a magazine with an earlier circulation of 3,000 copies is now selling at just below 1,000 copies.

The censor board badly cuts and deletes widely read popular articles and it is hardly readable with so many deletions and omissions. On the other hand, the people cannot afford to buy these magazines as the prices are rising, in an already bad economic situation, a veteran magazine editor who wished not to be named said.

Burma's press censor, the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD) has suspended two local journals, The Voice and First Music.

Before printing, they have to send the draft articles and photos to the division and only the permitted articles can be printed. But [in this case] they published articles that we didn't give them permission to publish, said PSRD director U Tint Swe, adding that the suspension would not last more than two weeks.

Both journals published articles about a recent incident involving actress Htet Htet Moe Oo without permission.

U Kyaw Min Swe, chief editor of The Voice, said he accepted the suspension but believed the journal did the right thing publishing three articles without permission in its May 24 edition.

U Kyaw Min Swe said the articles published without permission concerned local alarm about storms and cyclones, the Thai riots and a clash between Htet Htet Moe Oo and a journalist from 7-Day News.

News publications in Burma have welcomed a minor relaxing of regulations by the country's censor board which will see them no longer having to allocate a page for government propaganda articles.

Magazines, journals and newspapers have long been required to republish text from state-run outlets such as the New Light of Myanmar newspaper. Revised rules now state however that only on occasion will reprints be necessary.

This is good, we welcome it, said one Rangoon-based journal editor, who spoke to DVB on condition of anonymity. Before we had to republish the articles given by the censor board on one page; now we have one more page to publish our own choice of content.

But the move comes less than a fortnight after a wave of new rules were enacted by the censor board that journalists said were unprecedented in their severity. The regulations will implement uniform restrictions across media outlets, meaning that some newspapers and journals which had been able to operate comparatively freely will now be tightly controlled.

The Burmese junta resides over one of the world's strictest media environments, and consistently ranks at the tail-end press freedom indexes. All material is required to pass through the censor board, known as the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD), prior to being published.

The PSRD is overseen by the government's information ministry and is considered very much a wing of the military regime, which has ruled Burma in various guises since a coup in 1962.

The Burmese censorship board, the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division under the Ministry of Information, suspended nine private journals on Sunday for publishing news of Aung San Suu Kyi too prominently.

The censorship board also banned news about Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), in Burma's press.

The censorship suspended publication of the top sports journal, First Eleven and the Hot News journal for two weeks while other journals such as 7 Days News, The Voice, Venus News, Pyithu Khit, Myanmar Post, The Snap Shot and Myanmar Newsweek were suspended for only one week.

The censorship board, headed by Major Tint Swe, said the suspensions were given for use of photos and reporting that exceeded the prescribed limits of one picture and one report that must not be on the front page.

The two-week suspensions were for putting in information that it had not approved, while one week suspensions were given to journals covering the Suu Kyi news with an extra full-page report, some using more than one photo in their most recent editions.

Distributors across the country put the extra page at the front to attract readers, leading to editions being rapidly sold out, according to a journal distributor in Mandalay, who added that Suu Kyi's popularity was undiminished.

Other journals were also given serious warnings but not suspensions.

The Burma junta's censorship board director Tint Swe said that the new parliamentary government would relax the current press censorship policy in accordance with the new Constitution, the Flower News Journal reported.

'The first step will be made on the day the new government takes office. But, as a result of the freedom of the press, the publications need to take responsibility, the journal quoted Tint Swe as saying.

Tint Swe also said that publishers and journalists of most journals and magazines will not need to pass articles through the censor board prior to publication.

...HOWEVER... the new policy only applies to publications focusing on sport, entertainment, general knowledge, health, children's literature, the supernatural and technology. Publications which print articles about politics, business and news will still need to pass articles through the censorship board prior to publication.

Books and journals that have already been published will need to go via the censor board after publication. Printing houses and publishers must also be licensed by the state.

Update: Warnings

1st July 2011. See article from irrawaddy.org

Burma's draconian censorship board, the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD), has issued a warning to several Rangoon-based journals not to try to take advantage of the PSRD's new post-publishing censorship regulation.

Editors at several weekly journals have been ordered to sign statements promising not to violate press regulations either in print or in photography. At least six journal signed the pledge the first day, said a Rangoon-based sports journal editor.

Beginning on June 10, publishers were permitted to run stories on sports, entertainment, technology, health and children's literature without PSRD approval. However, they were instructed that they still have to follow rules protecting the Three National Causes---the basic principles espoused by Burma's military rulers---and avoid any writing that damages state instability.

Update: Business and Crime

17th December 2011. See article from google.com  

Myanmar has loosened press censorship on business and crime publications, local media reported.

A total of 54 journals, magazines and books will no longer have to submit their content to censors before publication, according to a report in the Myanmar Times, after changes introduced on December 9.

News media will continue to be subject to pre-publication censorship.

In the first press suspension under the new Burmese government, the Rangoon-based True News newspaper has been suspended for two weeks for reporting controversial information, according to local journalists.

The publication's editors were summoned to the censor board office and ordered to sign a pledge not to violate press regulations, a source close to the editors told Mizzima. It was the first suspension of a newspaper under the new government led by President Thein Sein.

The cause of the dispute and suspension was information in volume 3, number 34, which reported: Everyone who owns a 1.5 million kyat (US$ 1,660) GSM phone is qualified to buy a 500,000 kyat GSM phone at a price of only 180,000 kyat. Local journalists said the information had appeared in print in an earlier report.

According to a source close to the journal, the Posts and Telecommunications office reprimanded True News, threatened to sue, and the censorship board stepped in and punished the journal for the report.

A picture of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on the cover of the Rangoon-based Dharma Yeik Buddhist magazine has been banned, according to the editor of the magazine. The religious magazine carries news, poems, cartoons and articles on Buddhism.

In the photo, Suu Kyi is shown donating a robe to a young Buddhist novice. It was to be used as the cover of the magazine's July issue. The magazine has substituted a picture of a flower for Suu Kyi's photo on its front cover.

We submitted the manuscript with the cover featuring Suu Kyi's photo; the censor board told us to use another photo. Suu Kyi's photo was not allowed, the editor, Moe Tun, told Mizzima.

Under Burma's new censorship policy, religious publications still must pass their manuscripts and pictures through the censorship board and also the Directorate of Religious Affairs.

According to Rangoon-based editors, the censorship board has allowed some Suu Kyi photos and news about Suu Kyi, but her photo on a front cover and photographs larger than 3 x 5 inches may not be allowed.

 Censorship of the Burmese media is still needed and freedom should not be granted to newspapers and journals at this time, Information and Culture Minister Kyaw Hsan told the Lower House of Parliament.

The minister made his comments in reply to a motion to enact a law which can protect the rights to freedom of expression and opinion by the media and the right to disseminate and publish the news by Rangoon Region Thingangyun constituency MP Thein Nyunt during deliberations.

Kyaw Hsan said:

Although laws and courts have come into operation in Myanmar, press scrutiny still plays a role. If media personnel face their problems in court under the law, their losses may be heavier. In its control tasks, the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division may sometimes issue only warnings to the offenders and negotiate with both sides. Therefore, the division scrutinizes inappropriate writing against the nation and the people under the law for the sake of those from the literary world and the people.

The head of Burma's powerful press censorship department has called for greater media freedom in his country.

Tint Swe said censorship was now incompatible with democratic practices and should be abolished in the near future...BUT...He cautioned that all publications should accept the responsibilities that go with press freedom.

The comments will be seen as further evidence that the new civilian-military hybrid government is trying to soften its stance.

Some previously blocked websites have also recently been made accessible.

The Burmese government has also freed about 200 political prisoners as part of a general amnesty, activists say.