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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USDP members directly appointed as Burmese village administrators

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Friday, 24 June 2011 19:33 Tun Tun

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burmese township authorities have directly appointed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) members as ward and village administrators, according to political parties that contested in the election.

‘These reports were sent to us from Rangoon and Bago regions and some townships from Magwe Region’, National Unity Party (NUP) spokesman Han Shwe told Mizzima.

He said the 2008 Constitution Chapter 5 Executive Article 289 stipulated, ‘The administration of wards or village-tracts shall be assigned in accord with the law to a person whose integrity is respected by the community’. It offers no detailed provisions in this regard.

‘The necessary laws for this matter must be made by Parliament. Our party wants, as the Constitution stipulates, the administrators to be people whose integrity is respected by the community’, Han Shwe said.

Unity and Diversity Party chairman Nay Myo Wei said such appointments also occurred in Mingaladon Township and in Bogale. I have been told by my party members that there were no invitations or prior information. All these administrators were appointed directly by an order given by higher authorities’.

Rangoon Region government minister Nyan Tun Oo was quoted by Rangoon journalists in May 2011: ‘The ward and village tract administrators will not be members of any political party'. He also said that the appointments must be made by coordination with local elders and respected community figures.

Observers said only USDP members were appointed as ward or village-tract administrators.

Thirty-five people from Rangoon Region, North Htaukkyat Ward, have sent a letter to the district administrator objecting to the appointments.

‘The USDP manipulated these appointments and no local elders were informed in advance. When you look at what Minister Nyan Tun said and what actually happened it’s clear. There was no transparency’, Shwe Nyein, one of the local elders who signed the letter, told Mizzima.

Residents in wards including Ye Su, Ye Su South, Lay Su Taung, Ywama and Bawlonekwin will also send similar objection letters.

There are 33 townships in Rangoon Region with 2,056 village tracts and 657 wards, according to a domestic news journal quoting Region Command commander Major General Win Myint in January 2010.

Ward and village-tract administrators are influential in handling petty crimes in local areas, making sale deeds of property and performing religious functions, social functions and funerals. They are also the key person in communicating with the township, district and region chairmen for the area. Since the time of the former military regime, local administrators have been directly appointed by higher authorities.

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