Myanmar press still far from free
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The life of former military dictator Senior General Than Shwe and the plight of the Rohingya people are key issues which remain virtually taboo in Myanmar's media, which is supposedly free today, said Chit Win Maung, a member of the Myanmar Press Council
“I can’t openly criticise or dare to say something on this issue [of sectarian violence],” said Chit Win Maung, during a discussion organised by the Bangkok-based Media Inside Out Group (MIO) in Bangkok on Thursday. Asked if there existed any media organisation in Myanmar that could be openly sympathetic to the plight of the Rohingya people, Chit Win Maung was not able to name one.
“There are problems in discussing the Rohingya people. Even the name itself is problematic,” he said, drawing attention to the fact that even the local media refers to the Rohingya people as illegal migrants from Bangladesh. “We do not want to make the conflict grow.”
A similar scenario applies to the life of Than Shwe, said Chit Win Maung, adding however that it was not exactly a taboo topic, although “you need to be careful”.
On a positive note, Chit Win Maung said April this year saw many private daily newspapers being allowed to publish and this had greatly widened the political debate. He acknowledged, however, that due to economic and transportation constraints, the circulation of the majority of these newspapers was still limited to one or two big cities. Besides two Mon-language newspapers, there are no other ethnic-minority-language newspapers, said Chit Win Maung, explaining that many ethnic minorities were illiterate.
“Now we’re very open … most journalists can criticise President Thein Sein, no problem now,” said Chit Win Aung, who admitted, however, that Thailand’s media was much more open compared to Myanmar’s.
Jimmy, a Burmese correspondent for Asahi TV since 1998, said no matter where journalists went they were still monitored by the authorities. His television film was recently confiscated by authorities and sending video files to Asahi TV’s bureau in Bangkok is particularly time consuming due to what he believed to be the control of the Internet line by authorities.
“I have to try the whole night to send it to Bangkok,” he said, adding that though the level of press freedom is much higher than before, journalists need 100 per cent freedom.
