by Maung Dee
Tuesday, 05 February 2008 00:00
The health of a woman member of Burma's prominent 88 generation students group, Mie Mie, is said to be deteriorating in the notorious Insein prison because jail authorities refuse to provide adequate medical attention, an opposition party official said.
Nyan Win, spokesperson of Burma's main opposition party – the National League for Democracy – told Mizzima on Tuesday that Mie Mie, who was arrested along with a fellow 88 generation student Htay Kywe on October 13, is suffering from a heart problem. She is being denied proper medical treatment.
"She is suffering from a heart disease. And we heard she is being denied medical attention," said Nyan Win adding that he was informed by a family member about Mie Mie's health condition.
Nyan Win said, he was informed by a family member, who said Mie Mie had earlier suffered from a heart problem and expressed concern over the situation inside the prison precincts.
Mie Mie, a second rung 88 generation student group leader, was at the forefront during the September protests exhorting and leading students and civilians.
Due to her political involvement, she was arrested and detained in Hantharwaddy prison in 1996.
Mie Mie is married to Hla Moe and has two children -- a son and a daughter.
Like Mie Mie, her colleagues – Thet Thet Aung, No No, and Ni Ni Oo – who were arrested along with her for their involvement in the September protests, are also contending with deteriorating health, Nyan Win added.
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
February 5, 2008
An annual report on press freedom around the world by a leading watchdog organization concludes that there was no improvement in 2007 in the working conditions of journalists in Burma. In several respects, the report adds, the situation has worsened in the aftermath of last year's protests and subsequent government response.
Released yesterday, the Committee to Protect Journalist's (CPJ) report, entitled Attacks on the Press in 2007, states that 2007 has the potential to be the deadliest year on record for journalists, with the death of Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai on the streets of Rangoon in September contributing to the tally.
Though Nagai's death is the only journalist fatality chronicled in Burma in 2007, the report emphasizes that the pervading atmosphere of censorship, threats and arrests contribute to Burma being "one of the world's most repressive media environments".
"Censorship of the media was pervasive, with no improvement since CPJ ranked Burma as the world's second-most censored country, after North Korea, in a May 2006 special report," CPJ says of the situation in Burma.
According to CPJ, six journalists were arrested in Burma for their chronicling of September's protests and the military's response, with one of those detained still remaining in custody. However, inclusive of the continued detention of 77-year old U Win Tin, CPJ ranks Burma as the sixth leading jailer of journalists in the world.
During last year's turmoil, the report states that journalists were subjected to ever increasing forms of repression and intimidation by the state sector. These measures are said to include the cutting of phone lines, pulling the plug on the Internet, the closure of independent journals and news outlets and the arbitrary confiscation of photographic and recording equipment.
CPJ maps an expanding and darkening cloud for media freedom encompassing a large swath of Eurasia and extending from Russia in the west, covering much of South and Central Asia and culminating with China in the east.
The report is highly critical of China, with regard to both the domestic environment and China's influence abroad.
China is often viewed as the dominant foreign actor inside Burma, and several governments and activists are urging the international community to pressure China on foreign policy and human rights reforms or risk an embarrassment at this summer's Beijing Summer Olympics.
"If the Olympic Games occur while China is still the word's leading jailer of journalists, still censoring and controlling access to the Internet, still restricting the global media, then it will have demonstrated that it's possible to join, even lead, the international community without honoring the basic right to express ideas and circulate information freely," reads the report.
However a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. told reporters in October that "irrelevant issues should not be linked to the Beijing Olympic games."
The true number of those killed and detained in Burma last year, due to the lack of transparency inside the country, remains uncertain. The problem of an accurate estimate for journalists is further obfuscated by the role, and classification, of citizen journalists during and after the uprising.
Thus far CPJ recognizes the deaths of 64 journalists in 2007, with 22 additional cases still under investigation. The current high water mark was in 1994, which witnessed the confirmed killings of 66 journalists in the line of work.
The U.S. War on Terror is largely responsible for the spike in journalist deaths around the world since 2002, with CPJ documenting 31 deaths of journalists in Iraq alone for 2007. Somalia places a distant second, with seven journalists killed for their work last year.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
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