Tuesday, 21 June 2011 12:36 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Burmese censorship board banned four pages of The Bangkok Post this week that highlighted Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s potential tour across the countryside.
The censorship board banned the pages in Sunday’s weekly Spectrum section which featured a full-page picture of Aung San Suu Kyi under the headline ‘History Repeating’ followed by a story titled ‘Aung San Suu Kyi Steps Back into the Firing Line’ by Australian journalist Phil Thornton.
Suu Kyi’s last national tour was attacked by a pro-government mob and scores of people were killed and injured. Fears for her safety have increased after she announced plans for her current trip.
‘It’s usual that they will censor everything if it does not follow their policy. The Bangkok Post featured Suu Kyi so they said that the story was controversial and did not accord with their policy and ordered us not to distribute the pages’, Myo Aung, the owner of Success International Publisher’s Distributors, told Mizzima.
After removing the four pages, the newspaper was distributed to ministries in Naypyitaw, businesses and hotels.
The controlled distribution of two Thai daily newspapers, ‘The Bangkok Post’ and ‘The Nation’, was begun in Burma on June 1. The price is 2,100 kyat (about US$ 2.50 per copy).
Recently, the Burmese government relaxed some censorship rules freeing 178 journals and magazines to publish without submitting stories to the censorship board prior to publication. But, news-orientated publications still need to pass their stories through the censorship board before publication.
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Burmese censorship board banned four pages of The Bangkok Post this week that highlighted Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s potential tour across the countryside.
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| A copy of the Bangkok Post which has been allowed controlled circulation in Burma. |
Suu Kyi’s last national tour was attacked by a pro-government mob and scores of people were killed and injured. Fears for her safety have increased after she announced plans for her current trip.
‘It’s usual that they will censor everything if it does not follow their policy. The Bangkok Post featured Suu Kyi so they said that the story was controversial and did not accord with their policy and ordered us not to distribute the pages’, Myo Aung, the owner of Success International Publisher’s Distributors, told Mizzima.
After removing the four pages, the newspaper was distributed to ministries in Naypyitaw, businesses and hotels.
The controlled distribution of two Thai daily newspapers, ‘The Bangkok Post’ and ‘The Nation’, was begun in Burma on June 1. The price is 2,100 kyat (about US$ 2.50 per copy).
Recently, the Burmese government relaxed some censorship rules freeing 178 journals and magazines to publish without submitting stories to the censorship board prior to publication. But, news-orientated publications still need to pass their stories through the censorship board before publication.
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