rsf

[david.buss@xxxxxxxxxx]

(Reporters Sans Frontieres, founded in 1985 as an independent 
organisation, defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom all over 
the world; considering that more than half the world's countries ban, 
confiscate and censor publications everyday, with two billion men and 
women lying directly under governments which restrict their right to 
know the truth. Currently RSF has seven branches in Europe and 
Canada, with members in 71 countries, and works alongside major 
international organisations, having consultative status with the Council 
of Europe, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and 
UNESCO. 
 
RSF writes protest letters to help threatened journalists and censored 
media, in addition to providing lawyers and supplies equipment when 
finances allow. International Press Day is organised every year on May 
3. A monthly newsletter is published, in addition to an annual report on 
particular countries or regions of the world which aims to describe 
infringements of the right to information. Obviously, the reader should 
not judge the overall state of press freedom in any particular country by 
the length of the text or the among of detail given. In some countries 
that are particularly closed to the outside world, it is difficult to obtain 
any reliable information at all .)
 
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>From Reporters San Frontieres 1994 REPORT:
 
 
MYANMAR (formerly BURMA)
 
Population: 43.7 million
Area: 261,217 square miles
Form of government: Military dictatorship
Per capital GDP: 562 dollars
Illiteracy: 19.4%
School attendance: 26.7%
Languages: Burmese, English, minority dialects
 
 
Five years after the introduction of martial law by the State Law and 
Order Restoration Council (SLORC) the military junta is still in power 
ruling the country with an iron fist. Only the official media are 
authorised: people caught listening to a foreign radio station or reading 
an underground newspaper may be imprisoned and tortured. 
 
State radio and television and the "Working People's Daily", official 
organ of the SLORC, have an effective monopoly on information in 
Myanmar. Only one cosmetic change occurred in 1993: in April the 
"Working People's Daily" acquired a new look and was renamed 
"Myanmar Alin" ("The New Light of Myanmar"). The original 
"Myanmar Alin", founded in 1914, was closed down by the junta in 
1988 along with the rest of the country's newspapers except the 
"Working People's Daily". By reviving the old name the authorities 
hope to give the daily a politically neutral image. In fact its editorial line 
has not changed at all. Myanmar also has 20 or so nongovernment 
literary magazines which publish poems, drawings and many short 
stories recounting the details and problems of daily life. These 
magazines have no freedom about what they publish: officials of the 
state-run Press Scrutiny Board go through every item with a fine-tooth 
comb, especially the short stories. Certain subjects cannot be 
mentioned such as democracy, human rights, the events of 1988 and the 
SLORC leaders, and there is a blacklist of authors whose work must not 
be used. Pressure is so strong that the magazine editors actually use 
self-censorship. 
 
Since mid-1991 another sort of publication has appeared in the country 
and has proved extremely popular. Magazines such as "Guide to 
Prosperity", of poor technical quality, offer a selection of carefully 
censored features from "Newsweek" and "Time alongside reports by 
local journalists. Myet-hkin-thit publishes stories discrediting 
opposition movements operating abroad and vividly detailed accounts 
of crimes committed in countries that have criticised the SLORC s 
exactions. 
 
Arrests imprisonment and torture 
 
At least six journalists were still being held in Myanmar jails on 1 
January 1994. Two of them had their sentences reduced under the 
amnesty of 1 January 1993. Min Nay arrested in October 1988 and 
accused of giving false information to the BBC, had his sentence of 14 
years hard labour reduced to 10 years. He is reported to have been the 
victim of ill-treatment. Tin Win, arrested in July 1989 because of his links 
with the opposition, saw his 11-year prison sentence reduced to 10 
years. Held in Insein prison north-west of Yangon (Rangoon), Tin Win 
is reported to be in poor health and deprived of medical treatment. 
 
Myint Nyein Myo and Sein Hla Aung began serving seven-year jail 
sentences in September 1990 for helping to publish a banned cultural 
magazine, "What's Happening", which was highly critical of the 
government. Kyaing Ohn was sentenced to seven years hard labour on 
17 October 1990 probably because of his links with the National League 
for Democracy, whose leader, Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu 
Kyi, has been under house arrest since 1989. Although her party won 
the May 1990 parliamentary elections by a large majority the junta 
simply ignored the result and hung on to power. Poet and journalist Tin 
Moe editor of the banned literary magazine Palm Leaf Manuscript, was 
sentenced to five years in prison in December 1991. 
 
At least five of these journalists are being held in Insein prison where 
14,000 people are kept 200 to a cell. One former inmate said political 
prisoners were guarded by common law prisoners with whips. Beatings 
and torture are said to be commonplace. 
 
Interventions by Reporters Sans Frontieres 
 
Reporters Sans Frontieres took part in the action day organised on 18 
November 1993 by international organisations defending freedom of 
speech. The date was chosen to mark the fifth anniversary of the 
introduction of martial law. RSF issued a statement deploring the 
situation of journalists in Myanmar.