Burma’s Ministry of Information has hit back at “Piano” Tin Win Hlaing, who spoke out against bribery in the movie and music business when he collected his Academy Award last week.

Posting on its Facebook page on Monday, the Ministry wrote that if an artist was indeed asked to pay a bribe, he or she “could file a complaint to the relevant ministry and the anti-corruption commission.”

Receiving his award on stage for “Best Music” at the ceremony on 23 March, Tin Win Hlaing thanked his colleagues before launching a stinging attack on endemic corruption in the industry, saying, “We [artistes, producers] need to pay a lot of money just to register our music. No ministry will perform such a service without tea money.”

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The Ministry of Information went on to say that such a “blanket attack” on the industry would be taken as an accusation against all the relevant ministries and organisations”.

Meanwhile, state-run Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) echoed the ministry’s sentiment, issuing its own statement in this morning’s state-run press in which it threatened to sue the Burmese pianist over his “false accusations”.