Zero growth in Burma press freedom, watchdog says

Thursday, 21 October 2010 19:37 Thomas Maung Shwe and Joseph Ball

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Despite persistent calls for enhanced press freedom in Burma ahead of November’s general election, a leading media watchdog reports no improvement in the status of media freedom in the military-ruled country.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), based in Paris, has ranked Burma 174th out of 178 countries surveyed for its Press Freedom Index this year. The only countries Burma was able to rank ahead of in the poll were Iran, Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea, for the second year running.

“Freedom is not allowed any space in Burma,” cites the NGO, “where a parliamentary election is due to be held next month, and the rare attempts to provide news or information are met with imprisonment and forced labour.”

Reached for comment on the RSF report, Burma Media Association vice-chairman Zin Linn said that in the run-up to the first national election in two decades, the Burmese regime had shown a total hostility to journalists and independent media.

He said the recent announcement by the national election commission that it was barring foreign reporters from covering the polls was a clear indication of ominous things to come. He expected the ban and severe restrictions imposed on domestic journalists meant that the coming election would be “full of fraud”.

The respected columnist in the Burmese community living in exile added that the Union Election Commission’s announcement that it would restrict journalists’ activities on poll day was yet another sign the regime was cracking down on journalists so the military could maintain real power over the country.

RSF singles out Burma as ‘internet enemy’

“They are brazenly taking advantage of a highly repressive piece of legislation, the Electronic Act of 1996, which pertains to the internet, television and radio,” the RSF report says. “By arresting these internet users and journalists, the junta is trying to intimidate potential critics and impose self-censorship on its citizens.”

The Net in Burma is tightly monitored and connection speeds are known to slow in periods of political tension. During the crackdown on the uprising in 2007, the junta pulled the plug entirely on internet services.

Serving as a cautionary tale for those who envision positive changes in a post-election media environment, RSF secretary general Jean-François Julliard warned: “More than ever before, we see that economic development, institutional reform and respect for fundamental rights do not necessarily go hand in hand.”

Julliard’s assessment comes as press freedom in such burgeoning economic environments as India and China continues to fall. Burma’s giant neighbours, however, are in familiar company concerning regional respect for press freedom.

None of Burma’s territorial neighbours or Asean co-members colleagues managed to enter the top 100 in the rankings, a crucial benchmark in the realisation of media rights, according to RSF.

Indonesia scored the highest of all regional countries, checking in at 117. Meanwhile, the Philippines tumbled 34 points to register at 156, trailing Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. The poll was again topped by a coterie of Scandinavian countries led by Finland who shared first place with Sweden, and joined by the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Unlike Amnesty International and other independent human rights groups that shun state funding, RSF receives part funding from the French government and has been criticised for maintaining a world view that mimics French foreign policy, including turning a blind eye to undemocratic African governments that the French government aids.

RSF recently condemned the website Wikileaks for releasing thousands of pages of leaked documents about Nato’s involvement in Afghanistan. It believed that many of the Afghans named in the leaked documents were put at risk because Wikileaks opted to self-censor only a small number of the thousands of documents it released.

Many journalists still detained by Burmese junta

The Burma Media Association and RSF have noted that in the wake of Cyclone Nargis and the May 2008 constitutional referendum, at least 12 journalists and several dozen unpaid media workers including writers, poets and freelancers were jailed or remained in labour camps.

Last week, Kandarawaddy news journal editor Nyi Nyi Tun was sentenced to a 13-year jail term at an Insein Prison court for his “crimes against the state”. The journal based in Karreni (Kayah) State was shut down following the arrest of its editor in October last year.

Another recent arrest came in September last year when a female video journalist working for the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) was detained after filming at a monastery in Magway Division. Hla Hla Win later received a 20-year sentence for “an illegal act of journalism” and over her association with the banned DVB, based in Oslo.