Wednesday, 27 January 2010 19:23 Salai Pi Pi
New Delhi (Mizzima) - Two imprisoned Burmese journalists have been named this year’s recipients of an award in honor of a Japanese journalist killed during the 2007 monk-led protests in Burma.
Tokyo-based Japanese News Agency together with Burma Media Association (BMA) on Tuesday announced they had selected imprisoned Burmese journalists Hla Hla Win and Win Maw, arrested by Burmese military authorities for sending information and reports to the Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma, as recipients of the 2010 Kenji Nagai Memorial Award.
“We decided to honor them in recognition of the sacrifice they both had made in sending out information on what really happened in Burma to audiences across the world," Son Moe Wai, Secretary of BMA, told Mizzima on Wednesday.
Son Moe Wai said the Burmese regime arrests and suppresses journalists with the intention of creating an information blackout across the country.
“I think they detained them unnecessarily as they did not commit any crime. They just practiced freedom of expression in the country,” he added.
The Japanese News Agency and BMA established the Kenji Nagai Memorial Award in remembrance of Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai, killed by a Burmese soldier while covering protests in Rangoon in September 2007. The honorees of the award will share a US$ 1,000 cash prize and crystal trophy this year.
A ceremony to acknowledge the winners of the second annual Kenji Nagai Award will be conducted during BMA’s upcoming conference, to be held this February in Thailand.
Toru Yamaji, a representative of Asia Press Front (APF), told Mizzima on Wednesday that he congratulated both Kenji Nagai winners, saying, “ They are working for the future of Burma and for the Burmese people who want to get peace in the country.”
Hla Hla Win was recently sentenced to 27 years in prison under the charges of violating Burma’s Electronic Act and for riding a motorcycle without a license, while Win Maw was given 17 years for breaking the Electronic Act.
Meanwhile Win Myint, father of Hla Hla Win, said he felt proud of his daughter who selflessly worked for the Burmese people.
“I feel really proud of her. She is a hero,” Win Myint told Mizzima, adding, “But I think it is too much for her being given a seven year sentence for riding a motorcycle [without a license] while thousands of motorcycles [without licenses] are brought into the country from different corners.”
The inaugural Kenji Nagai Award in 2009 was presented to Eint Khaing Oo, a female journalist detained for covering Burma’s delta area after it was devastated by Nargis Cyclone in May 2008. Eint Khaing Oo was released from jail in 2009.
Toru Yamaji, in the joint statement with BMA issued on Tuesday, expressed its distrust concerning the Burmese military regime’s planned election for later this year, questioning whether it can truly be held in a free and fair manner.
He encouraged Burmese journalists to cover the reality of the ground situation in the forthcoming general election.
“I don’t think the regime’s upcoming election will be fair. However, the people have to decide for a change as the election is likely to be inevitable and come to happen,” said Toru Yamaji. “Journalists have a responsibility to reveal the truth on what the people have decided and the nature of the election.”
Thursday, January 28, 2010
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