(RSF/IFEX) – On the eve of the Rangoon annual meeting of Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) finance ministers, RSF requested that Rodolfo Certeza Severino Jr., secretary-general of this regional organisation, “…intervene, in his talks with the Burmese authorities, on behalf of the twelve journalists still in prison”. RSF expressed its indignation at the […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On the eve of the Rangoon annual meeting of Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) finance ministers, RSF requested that Rodolfo Certeza Severino Jr., secretary-general of this regional organisation, “…intervene, in his talks with the Burmese authorities, on behalf of the twelve journalists still in prison”. RSF expressed its indignation at the fact that the inter-ministerial meeting was being held in Burma, the country with the most journalists in jail in the world. This meeting is also taking place a few days after the United Nations Human Rights Commission condemned Burma for massive violations of fundamental rights. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard expressed his concern regarding “the conditions of detention of Burmese journalists and, in some cases, the state of their health, especially U Win Tin and Daw San San Nweh, detained at Insein prison”.
In its letter, RSF mentioned the cases of: U Win Tin, former editor-in-chief of “Hanthawathi”, arrested in 1989 and sentenced in 1993 to ten years’ imprisonment; Sein Hlaing and Myo Myint Nyein, journalists with various cultural publications, arrested in September 1990 and sentenced twice, in 1990 and 1995, to seven years in jail; Aung Wint (Ohn Kyaing), formerly a journalist with “Kyemon”, jailed in 1990 and sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment; U Sein Hla Oo, journalist for the daily “Botahtaung” and writer, arrested in 1994, currently serving a fourteen-year jail sentence; Daw San San Nweh, Reporters sans frontières – Fondation de France 1999 award-winner, writer and managing editor of several magazines, arrested in 1994 and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment; Sonny (Khin Maung Win), freelance photographer and cameraman, arrested in June 1997 and sentenced to seven years in prison; U Tha Ban, journalist with the daily “Kyemon”, arrested in March 1997 and sentenced to seven years in prison; Aung Zin Min, journalist with the magazine “New Style”, arrested and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment in 1996; U Thein Tan, sixty-year-old journalist, arrested in 1990 and sentenced to seven years in prison; and Cho Seint, freelance journalist, arrested in 1996 and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Burmese law prohibits all criticism of the authorities. The press law provides for a twenty-year jail sentence for publication of articles which “disrupt and sabotage stability of the state”. Foreign journalists cannot work freely in the country. It is against the law to read publications by the opposition in exile or to listen to international radio stations. On 19 January 2000, seventy-year-old U Than Chaum was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment by virtue of article 505(b) of the penal code, for listening to the international station Voice of America in the tea-room he owns.
