Mizzima awarded global JTI certificate for reliable news on Myanmar

-
Image
Mizzima Mizzima, one of Myanmar ’s most prominent news outlets and a press freedom advocate, obtained the Journalism Trust Initiative ( JTI ) certification from global audit firm Bureau Veritas , JTI says in a press statement 5 January.  Operating in clandestine mode within Myanmar and supported by an exiled team, Mizzima strives to fulfil its role as reliable source of news and information for the Myanmar public. “Your Journalism Trust Initiative certification affirms what audiences already know: that principled, transparent journalism matters. Congratulations on this achievement and on your continued contribution to informing citizens about Myanmar,” says Benjamin Sabbah , director of Journalism Trust Initiative “Myanmar’s ongoing conflict has created an intensely contested media landscape, where mis- and disinformation are increasingly deployed to reinforce state propaganda and the prevailing “official” narrative. Although Mizzima is already regarded as one of the most trusted ...
Post a Comment

Student union history writer freed

-
by Mizzima News
Thursday, 24 September 2009 13:15

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Aung Tun, leader of the All Burma Federation of Students Union (ABFSU), who penned the history of the ‘Burmese Student Movement’ was released from Tharyawady prison in Pegu Division on September 18 after serving a prison term for over 11 years.

He is among the 7114 prisoners granted amnesty by the military regime.

“He was arrested in 1998. Now he is at his home,” the Thai based Association of Assistance to Political Prisoners – Burma’ (AAPP-B) Secretary Teit Naing said.

Aung Tun was charged under section 5(j) of the Emergency Provisions Act and sentenced to 17 years in prison on 17 February 1998 for compiling the 88-year long history under the title ‘The history of Burmese Students movement – 1903-1991’. Section 5(j) is usually used against political activists by the regime.

The 42-year old former Rangoon Institute of Technology student Aung Tun was a leader of RIT Student Union and took part in student movements in 1988-99.

He served as a secretariat member of ABFSU (Lower Burma) in 1990 April when it was formed. And in 1990, he was elected as secretariat member of ABFSU at its conference held in Mandalay.

In the Mandalay conference, the line of ‘rallying around the election winning National League for Democracy (NLD) party’ was adopted to help them convene Parliament within 30 days. He was one of the student leaders in this movement.

When ABFSU led the pre-Gandhi Hall NLD movement in 1990, he led this movement also. After the Gandhi Hall Conference, he was arrested on 1 September along with other student leaders and was sentenced to 5 years in prison on 28 October that year.

After being released from prison, he was readmitted and completed his study at the RIT on 1997.

He then started compiling the book ‘The History of Student Movement in Burma’. He was arrested again in January 1998 for distribution of the book and was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

The 700-page history book was published by ABFSU Foreign Affairs Committee in April 2007.

Aung Tun was awarded Hallman/Hammett Grant in 1999. This award is given to honour the politically oppressed writers around the world.

Member countries of world writers club ‘International Pen’; Norway, Canberra and Canada declared Aung Tun as an honourary member of their organizations.

(Reported by Salai Han Thar San)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

World's longest internet shutdown ends in parts of Myanmar

-
Image
Rakhine people travel by motorcycle in Sittwe, Rakhine State, Western Myanmar, 02 February 2021. Photo: Nyunt Win/EPA By AFP The world's longest internet shutdown -- affecting more than a million people for 19 months in one of Myanmar's ethnic conflict zones -- has come to an end, according to a mobile operator based in the region. The internet in parts of Myanmar's troubled northern states of Rakhine and Chin was suspended in June 2019 following "emergency" orders issued by the telecoms department under Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government. Following Monday's military coup, mobile operator Telenor Group confirmed it had reinstated full services in eight townships in Rakhine and Chin states on Wednesday. "Telenor Group and Telenor Myanmar have been advocating for the restoration of services and emphasised that freedom of expression through access to telecoms services should be maintained for humanitarian purposes," the company said in a stateme...
Read more

First ministerial meeting held

-
Image
Mizzima Myanmar held the first meeting among newly appointed ministers after a recent major cabinet reshuffle by the military in capital city of Nay Pyi Taw on Tuesday morning, according to a release from the Military True News Information Team Xinhua reported. The Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, acting President U Myint Swe and nine newly appointed union ministers were present at the meeting held at the Presidential Palace, the release said. Min Aung Hlaing unveiled plans to include reopening religious buildings and pagodas, resuming domestic travel and hotel businesses as well as industries in line with COVID-19 rules and regulations, and revitalizing the country's economy.
Read more

Indonesia detains British woman on terror suspect list

-
Image
File photo of Indonesian police personnel standing guard. (Photo: AFP) AFP Indonesia has detained a British woman named on a list of global terror suspects and plans to deport her for visa violations, authorities told AFP Tuesday. Tazneen Miriam Sailar -- a Manchester-born convert to Islam married to an Indonesian jihadist who was killed in Syria -- is not charged with terror offences. But she and her late husband are on an Indonesian police list of suspected extremists that includes several foreigners notorious in the West. Sailar, 47, and her 10-year-old Indonesia-born son, were being held in Jakarta after being picked up last year without documents allowing her to remain in the Southeast Asian nation, her lawyer Farid Ghozali said. "She was put (in detention) while awaiting her return, which will be facilitated by the British embassy," Indonesian immigration directorate spokesman Ahmad Nursaleh told AFP. The embassy declined to comment, and it was unclear when...
Read more