Mizzima awarded global JTI certificate for reliable news on Myanmar

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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 ...

Junta pressures KIO to move its liaison office in Tanai

Wednesday, 13 October 2010 22:58 Phanida

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The main ethnic Kachin political group is being pressured by the junta to move out of its existing liaison office in the district that governs the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina, sources said.

The Tanai Township Peace and Development Council today again pressed the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) to seek alternative premises for its communication office in Tanai before November.

The KIO and its armed wing has rejected junta’s demands to bring its militia under Burmese Army command within a Border Guard Force (BGF), and has been under increasing military pressure in the past few months, with travel and weapon bans imposed on members.

Its liaison office is located on land owned by a structural engineers’ organisation, and the KIO has used the space since its ceasefire agreement with the junta in 1994.

The engineers’ organisation sent the KIO an eviction notice on Friday and today the township council again pressed it to move, a KIO source said. The instruction failed to say where the office must move but said that it had to be as soon as possible.

Mizzima tried to contact Captain Khaung Lwan, the KIO liaison officer in Tanai, but calls were unanswered or not returned.

The Kachin rebels have opened 67 offices as points of liaison with the junta since the ceasefire agreement 16 years ago. Each office is manned by one officer and between two and 10 staff.

According to unconfirmed reports, the directive was issued by recently appointed North Command chief Major General Zeya Aung, who has never officially met KIO officers because of its rejection of the BGF proposal.

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