Press freedom needs time: Minister
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Meanwhile, people can 'sue lawmakers guilty of misconduct'
Minister for the President’s Office Soe Thein has challenged people to sue government ministers they believe guilty of wrongdoing.
“Sue any minister if you are sure the minister or a group of them are guilty of misconduct,” Soe Thein said in a press conference held on Saturday in Nay Pyi Taw.
The minister made the statement while speaking about press freedom. He said the degree of freedom enjoyed by the media in Myanmar would take time to catch up with the equivalent situation in the United States but it was relatively improved.
“We [ministers] can be reached and questioned [by journalists] at appropriate times more easily now. That was impossible before. You [reporters] can write reports,” he said.
“In the two years of our new government, [ministers] have sometimes faced big problems over petty accusations, and sometimes we have encountered accusations that targeted us despite not mentioning our names,” he added.
Myanmar’s reformist government scrapped censorship of the press in August 2012 and for the first time allowed the publication of private newspapers.
However, its moves to transform state-controlled media into “public service” outlets have been widely criticised by press-freedom advocates as a bid to maintain the government’s control over information in the public sphere.
Private media outlets have alleged they are being barred from ministry press conferences and government events, to which state media have been given privileged access. Many have also alleged a lack of transparency in the funding of the proposed public-service media.
