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

Myanmar's Suu Kyi detained by army in apparent coup

-

AFP

Myanmar's military has detained the country's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in an apparent coup, her ruling party's spokesman said Monday.

The military, which ruled the country for nearly five decades, had this week refused to rule out seizing power over its claims of voter fraud in November's elections, won by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

Myo Nyunt, the spokesman for the NLD, said Suu Kyi, along with President Win Myint, had been "detained" in the capital Naypyidaw.

"We heard they were taken by the military," he told AFP, adding that he was extremely worried about the pair.

"With the situation we see happening now, we have to assume that the military is staging a coup."

He added that the circumstances of the country's newly elected MPs -- who were expected to sit Monday for the opening of parliament -- were unclear.

Communications appeared to be disrupted, with phone numbers in Naypyidaw seemingly unreachable.

Myanmar's polls in November were only the second democratic elections the country has seen since it emerged from the 49-year grip of military rule in 2011.

The NLD swept the polls and was expecting to renew the 75-year-old leader's lease on power with a new five-year term.

But the military has for weeks alleged the polls were riddled with irregularities, and claimed to have uncovered over 10 million instances of voter fraud.

It has demanded the government-run election commission release voter lists for cross-checking -- which the commission has not done.

Last week, the military chief General Min Aung Hlaing -- arguably the country's most powerful individual -- said the country's 2008 constitution could be "revoked" under certain circumstances.

Min Aung Hlaing's statements -- released amid already increasing tensions over rumours of an imminent coup -- raised alarm within Myanmar, as well as from more than a dozen foreign missions and the United Nations.

The last time Myanmar saw its constitution repealed was in 1962 and 1988 -- when the military seized power and reinstated a junta government.

Suu Kyi -- a former democracy icon whose image internationally has been in tatters over her handling of the Muslim Rohingya crisis -- remains a deeply popular figure.

She spent 20 years off and on under house arrest for her role as an opposition leader, before she was released by the military in 2010.

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