State papers to cut ad rates by 40%

 

The move came despite calls from politicians and journalists for the termination of state-owned newspapers, which have been used by the government as its mouth-pieces and operating at a loss.

Although private newspapers have won licences during the Thein Sein administration, some of them had to stop publishing within a year as state-owned newspapers running on the public budget are being sold at a loss for Ks50 (US$0.05) per copy.

“The current government’s way of preventing the survival of private newspapers has become more obvious day by day. The private newspapers need to exist for long for not only the remaining ten month-term of the government, but also after any new government takes office. The government will use many methods to oppress the media. The only difference is whether they are doing it obviously or not,” said Kyaw Min Swe, secretary of the Myanmar Press Council.

He also claimed that there was also an imposter private newspaper, widely believed to be publishing under the instruction of the President’s Office, have been lobbying the Thein Sein government and selling the newspaper at a cheap price. 

“This is a kind of attack on private newspapers that are operating with their own hard-earned money. No matter what it is, we – the private newspapers – will need to try to continue to survive in order to carry out the news duties for the public and the country,” he said.

In his address to Union Parliament on Thursday, Minister of Information Ye Htut insisted that the two papers showed operating profits - over Ks6 billion (US$6 million) in the 2011-12 fiscal year and over Ks3 billion ($3 million) in the 2013-14 fiscal year. From April 2014 through December, the operating profit was over Ks6 billion.

However, when asking for a total budget of Ks36.566 billion ($36.566 million) for the ministry for the 2014-15 fiscal year, Ye Htut's predecessor Aung Kyi said that Ks3 billion ($3 million) would be for News and Periodicals Enterprise, the publisher of the dailies.

In the previous fiscal year, it was granted a budget of Ks82 billion. Aung Kyi said the ministry saw losses of Ks52 billion due to declining income at the Myanmar Motion Picture Enterprise and from the dailies.