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

Hotel chains eyeing Burma as new market

-

Thursday, 26 January 2012 15:15 Mizzima News


(Mizzima) – The topic of hotels in Burma came up in Davos Switzerland this week when two international hoteliers said they would like to open hotels in the once-isolated country.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts – which runs hotel chains such as Westin, Sheraton and W – and Marriott International, said during the World Economic Forum in Davos they wanted to expand into Burma.

“Marriott would love to be there if the conditions are right,” said Arne Sorenson, president and CEO-elect of Marriott International, according to Reuters news agency. “Burma has captured people's imagination for decades.”

Recently, the Burmese tour industry has voiced frustrations at the limited number of hotel facilities, and its poor tourism infrastructure, including guides, transportation, airlines seats and promotional activities.

The only chain hotels now are Asian-based companies such as Shangri-la Hotels & Resorts, which runs the Traders Hotel in Myanmar’s commercial capital of Rangoon, according to Reuters.

Burma’s tourism authority said this month that about 300,000 tourists visited last year, according to government figures, a mere trickle compared to neighbors Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia.

“I think it’s time for people like us to look at Burma,” Vasant Prabhu, vice chairman and chief financial officer of Starwood Hotels & Resorts was quoted as saying.

A key to international hotel chains entering the Burmese market will be the lifting of economic sanctions by the U.S., European Union and other countries. There has been talk that selected sanctions might be lifted as early as April, following the country’s by-election.

U.S. and European sanctions, imposed in response to years of human rights abuses, have left much of the country in poverty. One-third of its estimated 60 million people live on less than a dollar a day.         

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