(RSF/IFEX) – RSF and the Burma Media Association (BMA) have urgently demanded that the government abolish its censorship bureau after a magazine was suspended for two months over an advertisement for Valentine’s Day, which is banned in Burma. The two organisations condemned the suspension of “Han Thit” for such a “trivial” reason and repeated their […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF and the Burma Media Association (BMA) have urgently demanded that the government abolish its censorship bureau after a magazine was suspended for two months over an advertisement for Valentine’s Day, which is banned in Burma.
The two organisations condemned the suspension of “Han Thit” for such a “trivial” reason and repeated their call for an end to prior censorship, which is imposed on all media. RSF and the BMA also called attention to a two-week ban against another weekly for publishing a false report.
The privately-owned monthly “Han Thit” (“New Style”) was told in mid-February 2005 that it was suspended for the months of April and May for carrying, in its February edition, a Rangoon restaurant’s advertisement for a Valentine’s Day celebration.
The military junta has banned the holiday, which it sees as a “negative Western influence.” A “Han Thit” journalist told RSF that the paper’s management had appealed to the censorship bureau for the sentence to be reduced to one month. The authorities were expected to give their decision on 1 March.
“Han Thit” was previously sanctioned in September 2004 for allowing the headline of a censored article to appear in its contents’ list. It was also banned for one month in October 2002 for referring to a writer who had been blacklisted by the censorship bureau (see IFEX alert of 30 October 2002).
Three other publications sanctioned by the censorship bureau
Two monthly publications, “Nwe Ni” and “Myanma Dana”, were banned from publishing in February 2005 because their cover pages had not been approved by the censorship bureau.
In a separate incident, the weekly “The Voice Journal” was suspended for two weeks, from 14 to 27 February, for allegedly publishing an item in its 6 February edition about the construction of a government hotel in Chin State, western Burma. According to the censorship bureau, the report was false.
These measures come as the censorship bureau’s director, Major Aye Thun, was forced to retire on 17 February for his links with ousted former prime minister Khin Nyunt. Several journalists in Rangoon have reported that the bureau is now under the direct control of officers in the War Office.
