Myanmar has loosened restrictions on dozens of business and crime publications, local media reported yesterday, but kept news titles in the grip of strict censorship rules.
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 Friday.
News media will continue to be subject to pre-publication censorship that is criticized by press freedom groups as among the most restrictive in the world, although officials told the newspaper that this would ease over time.
Myanmar’s army-dominated government, which came to power after a controversial election in November last year, has launched a series of reformist moves in an apparent move to end its international isolation, and welcomed a landmark visit from US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton earlier this month.
Measures have included dialogue with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, whose picture is now permitted to be printed in the media.
Publishers were told in June that sports journals, entertainment magazines, fairytales and the winning lottery numbers would not require prior approval from the Burmese Ministry of Information.
According to the Myanmar Times, Tint Swe from the Press Scrutiny and Registration Department said that news, education and religious titles would also shift to “self-censorship” before a new media law is enacted — without giving a timeframe or details of the legislation.
An executive editor from 7Day News Journal told the Myanmar Times that he was disappointed that the changes had not gone further, but welcomed the relaxation on business publications.
“As our country is implementing economic reforms, it is crucial that we have the freedom to write and criticize freely,” he said.
A report in the state-run New Light of Myanmar yesterday said that Burmese Minister for Information and Culture Kyaw Hsan had suggested film and video censorship would also be relaxed, without indicating when this would happen.
In September, Myanmar’s Internet users were able to see banned media Web sites for the first time, including the BBC and exiled media organizations such as the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB).
However, the move, which was not officially announced, came in the same week that a court added an extra decade to the sentence of a journalist jailed over his work for DVB. He now faces 18 years in prison.
Cambodian fishers on the Mekong River got a shock when they inadvertently hooked an endangered giant freshwater stingray 4m long and weighing 180kg, scientists said yesterday. The female leviathan, one of Southeast Asia’s largest and rarest species of fish, was caught by accident last week in Stung Treng Province when it swallowed a smaller fish that had taken a baited hook. An international team of experts on the US-funded Wonders of the Mekong project worked with the fishers to unhook the ray before weighing and measuring it, and returning it unharmed to the river. The Mekong is a crucial habitat for a vast
A tweet by Elon Musk saying Japan would “eventually cease to exist” without a higher birthrate yesterday set off a flood of sarcasm and anger — but much of angst was aimed at a Japanese government many said has done little to address the issue. Musk, the head of electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc, on Saturday wrote on Twitter: “At risk of stating the obvious, unless something changes to cause the birth rate to exceed the death rate, Japan will eventually cease to exist. This would be a great loss for the world.” The comment hit a nerve among Japan watchers and
The head of Australia’s foreign intelligence service has used a rare public address to suggest that an increasing number of disillusioned Chinese officials are willing to cooperate with the agency. Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) director-general Paul Symon addressed a range of topics related to Australia’s foreign intelligence operations, including the recent Solomon Islands-China security pact and the need to recruit new spies “with more vigor and urgency” than ever before. Speaking at a Sydney event hosted by the Lowy Institute to mark ASIS’ 70th anniversary, he said the audience, which included high ranking members of Australia’s intelligence community and top diplomats,
A glimpse of a possible Picasso in the home of Imelda Marcos filmed during a visit by her son after his presidential election win has set off a flurry of speculation in the Philippines, where the family that once plundered billions is set to return to power. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the late dictator, won a landslide victory in Monday’s presidential election, an outcome that has appalled those who survived his father’s regime. Images released by the family showed Marcos Jr visiting the home of his mother, who had displayed Picasso’s Femme Couche VI (Reclining Woman VI),
RSS