(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a 28 September 2004 WAN and World Editors Forum letter to Sr. Gen. Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council: Sr. Gen. Than Shwe Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council Rangoon, Myanmar c/o Permanent Representative to UN E-mail: myanmar@un.int 28 September 2004 Dear Chairman, We […]
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a 28 September 2004 WAN and World Editors Forum letter to Sr. Gen. Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council:
Sr. Gen. Than Shwe
Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council
Rangoon, Myanmar
c/o Permanent Representative to UN
E-mail: myanmar@un.int
28 September 2004
Dear Chairman,
We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 100 countries, to renew our vigorous protest at the continued imprisonment of at least nine writers, including U Win Tin, and to appeal to you to annul these sentences and release them.
The Myanmar military government continues to stifle criticism of any sort through censorship boards, restrictive licensing laws and the jailing of journalists. At least nine journalists and writers reportedly remain in prison for publishing views critical of the government, including U Win Tin, who has been held in prison since 1989 for exercising his right to freedom of expression.
Recent incidents of state censorship and intimidation include the closure of the bi-monthly current affairs journal Khit-Sann, the censorship of privately-owned publication Khit-Thit and the harassment of two pro-democracy writers.
On 1 September, military censors reportedly ordered the privately-owned Khit-Sann’s closure because of articles it published on international affairs and US political ideas. This followed the reprimanding of editor Kyaw Win by censors in August because the journal’s editorial line was considered to be “pro-American”.
Khit-Thit recently received warnings from the censorship bureau and the cover of an issue on celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the allied landings in Normandy was banned because its photograph of American combat troops was deemed to be “too aggressive”.
The government also continues to harass two writers who are close to the opposition National League for Democracy. Ludu Sein Win and Dagon Tayar have been targeted by authorities since they gave interviews to the Burmese-language services of Radio Free Asia and Voice of America. The government press has openly criticised them and Ludu Sein Win’s telephone line was cut for two weeks.
We respectfully remind you that the censorship of publications and the jailing and intimidation of writers is a clear violation of the right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by numerous international agreements, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers.”
We respectfully call on you to free U Win Tin and all those held in prison for exercising their right to freedom of expression and to halt state censorship and intimidation of journalists. We urge you to take all necessary steps to ensure that Myanmar fully respects international standards of press freedom so that it might take its proper place in the international community.
We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Yours sincerely,
Seok Hyun Hong
President
World Association of Newspapers
George Brock
President
World Editors Forum
cc : Mr Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations
Mr Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General, UNESCO
