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 ...
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Regional stability and Burma’s human rights situation

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Monday, 28 February 2011 17:11 Thea Forbes

(Mizzima) - The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, said last week that Burma’s lack of human rights is placing a heavy burden on regional neighbours who must deal with refugees.

UN special envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana, right, held talks
with Tin Oo, center, and six other senior leaders of the
opposition party, the National League for Democracy, in
Rangoon last year. (Photo: UN)
Speaking from Malaysia, Quintana told that despite the Burmese government’s  promises to improve its record on human rights abuses, the situation in the country is still grave.

Southeast Asian countries that play host to Burmese refugees have an interest in encouraging the military government to improve its human rights situation, he said.

In March, Quintana submitted a report to the UN Human Rights Council stating that Burma’s government exercised a  pattern of “gross and systematic” human rights abuses that indicate they have become state policy. The report led to calls to create a UN commission of Inquiry (CoI) to investigate alleged war crimes and human rights violations in Burma.

So far, several international governments have come out in support of a CoI, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Australia. So far, no country in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has spoken in favour of a CoI.

Aung Myo Min, the director of the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB) based in Thailand, told Mizzima, ‘The situation of refugees is no longer solely a matter of internal affairs, but an international one that concerns the entire region.’

He said Asean countries should support a CoI because it is in their interests ‘to have a peaceful and healthy Asean region’, and a CoI is ‘a way to solve the root cause of the refugee influx.’

Thailand had suffered the greatest burden of Burmese refugees, but  there is also a growing number of Burmese who are seeking refuge in Malaysia and Indonesia, he said.

Aung Myo Min said Asean’s recent initiative in the Thailand-Cambodia border dispute, sets a good example.

‘They [Asean] should take a more active role in approaching the problem of refugees which reflects the situation of human rights abuses in Burma,’ he said.

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