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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Rohingyas not ‘illegal immigrants’ in Myanmar, say Nobel laureates

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Thursday, 21 February 2013 16:01 Mizzima News

The charge that the Rohingya are illegal immigrants to Myanmar is false, say Jose Ramos-Horta and Muhammed Yunus, respectively the 1996 and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winners.

On November 20, 2012, President Ramos-Horta (left) visited the Yunus Centre and Grameen Bank with fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus. (Photo: ramoshorta.com)

“There is evidence that the Rohingya have been in present-day Myanmar since the 8th century,” they said, writing for the Huffington Post. “It is incontrovertible that Muslim communities have existed in [Rakhine] State since the 15th century, added to by descendants of Bengalis migrating to Arakan [Rakhine] during colonial times.”

The comments by Ramos-Horta, the former President of Timor-Leste, and Bangladeshi banker and philanthropist Yunus are sure to raise eyebrows in Myanmar where historical facts surrounding the origin of the Rohingya community are hotly contested.

“The minority Muslim Rohingya continue to suffer unspeakable persecution, with more than 1,000 killed and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes just in recent months, apparently with the complicity and protection of security forces,” the laureates wrote.

Ramos-Horta and Yunus also criticized Myanmar’s 1982 Citizenship Law which failed to recognize the Rohingyas as citizens of the country, and condemned the travel, marriage and reproduction restrictions imposed on the Rohingyas by the State. The pair called for the Myanmar government to protect the Rohingyas and welcome them as full citizens of the country.

The outspoken support for the Muslim Rohingya minority group comes in stark contrast to the silence and refusal to become embroiled in the situation of a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate—Myanmar’s own Aung San Suu Kyi.

It also contrasts with a comment made by Deputy Immigration and Population Minister Kyaw Kyaw Win who, speaking at the House of Representatives in Naypyitaw on Thursday, said that “there is no so-called Rohingya ethnic race in Myanmar,” according to a report in the state-run media.
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For more background:
  • Rohingya camps ‘more like prisons’, says UN envoy
  • ASEAN cannot support Rohingyas’ citizenship claims: Surin
  • The plight of the stateless Rohingyas

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