Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on Burma’s Parliament to amend or repeal laws that continue to be used to jail activists and average citizens for peacefully exercising their right to free speech.
The case against Hla Phone, who is accused of posting insulting images of Burma’s military chief and former president Thein Sein on Facebook, is based on a controversial telecommunications law.
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A new report by Human Rights Watch notes that lawsuits and arrests aimed at curtailing free speech have continued under the NLD government.
“Our mission is a society of dignity, but I feel that our mission has failed,” said Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, who established the Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival in 2013.
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Defamation charges stemming from a speech last year will see the former NLD information officer in court later this month.
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Panellists on DVB Debate discuss whether the government is trying to remain in control of the press by invoking current laws that actually stop journalists from doing their jobs.
DVB’s Aye Nai spoke with Aung Myo Min, the director of Equality Myanmar and co-founder of the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma, about “free speech” and “hate speech”, and how to solve the spread of hatred by promoting peaceful understanding among different races and religions.
Parliamentarian Thein Nyunt called on journalists to use “polite usage” and have a “positive attitude” when criticising the country’s parliament
Burma launched its first international literary festival by Rangoon’s Inya lake over the weekend. The British ambassador to Burma, Andrew Heyn, said the event was ‘groundbreaking’ as international and local[…]
Burma’s ministry of mining has agreed to drop its defamation lawsuit against the Voice Weekly news journal, which was launched after they printed corruption allegations against the agency in March last year
Dozens of lawyers protested this morning in front of a courthouse in downtown Rangoon against government’s plan to privatise historical buildings
Swedish journalist Bertil Lintner, who has been covering Burma for more than two decades, is set to visit Rangoon after being blacklisted by the government since the 1980s
[scrollGallery id=28 – insert relevant ID number for gallery here] Hundreds of people, including farmers and members from various ethnic groups, participated in a march against civil war on 21[…]
The activists who organised the International Day of Peace demonstrations in Rangoon and several other towns last Friday have been charged for protesting without a permit
Performance artist Sue Myint Thein was briefly detained after walking around Mandalay wrapped in blue duct tape ahead of International Peace Day, which falls on Friday
Despite a government announcement that more than 2,000 names were removed from the country’s blacklist, a number of journalists and academics are still unable to secure Burmese visas
The indefinite suspension of two prominent news journals, The Voice and Envoy, has journalists calling for better protection of Burma’s fourth estate
The Burmese government’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Division announced last week that the government would not longer be censoring literary works
The editors at Hot News journal are standing by a controversial interview with Agriculture and Irrigation Minister Myint Hlaing after the official claimed his remarks were made off the record
For the first time in its history, journalists and government officials in Rangoon and Mandalay observed World Press Freedom Day
Thangyat performances, a traditional music that accompanies New Year’s Thingyan Water Festival, is now legal in Burma. The historic art is a cornerstone in the country’s New Year celebrations, where[…]
While the Burmese government have made nascent moves to prevent censorship, media watchdog groups claim stronger policies are needed to protect free speech
