Four years on, still no consensus on Press Council
Burma’s media community is divided over whether to back the country’s government-sponsored Press Council or to push for further reforms.
Burma’s media community is divided over whether to back the country’s government-sponsored Press Council or to push for further reforms.
A final appeal against the verdict for five Unity Weekly journal employees — who were sentenced to ten years in prison with hard labour in July — was submitted to Magwe regional court on Thursday.
A case filed against more than 50 journalists in mid-July for a demonstration demanding greater media freedoms has been dropped, according to Rangoon’s Kamayut Township police.
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Interview Lead Story Media News
DVB interviewed Interim Press Council member Chit Win Maung to learn what transpired at the Council’s meeting with new information minister, Ye Htut.
Charges against five employees of the Bi Mon Te Nay news journal and one activist were reduced on Monday.
Health Lead Story Media News Politics
Burma’s Information Minister Aung Kyi and Health Minister Dr Pe Thet Khin have been “allowed for resignation of their own volition”, the president’s office announced on Tuesday.
Burma’s first private journalism school in more than half a century opened its doors in Rangoon on Monday morning, poised to prepare aspiring reporters for the country’s turbulent media environment.
Amnesty International said it was a “dark day for freedom of expression” in Burma, while Reporters Sans Frontières referred to the sentencing as a “grave setback for press freedom” in the country.
Five employees of the now-defunct Unity Weekly journal have each been sentenced to ten years in prison with hard labour after being convicted of revealing state secrets.
An appeal by DVB reporter Zaw Pe, sentenced to one year’s imprisonment in April on charges of trespassing and disturbing a civil servant on duty, took place on Tuesday at Magwe Divisional Court.
One month after a court in Magwe handed DVB video journalist Zaw Pe a year-long prison sentence, more than 200 protestors took to the streets of the central Burmese city to stage an unauthorised demonstration in support of press freedom.
Burma’s reporters took to the streets of two cities on Friday to rally support for greater press freedom. About 100 demonstrators amassed in Prome, Pegu Division, while dozens gathered in Mon State capital Moulmein.
Fellow DVB staff in Rangoon, wearing matching black t-shirts, and carrying placards calling for the release of journalists and greater press freedom, gathered at the east gate of Shwedagon Pagoda in a prayer session.
The US and British embassies speak out, as do other members of the international community, against the jailing of a DVB reporter and an apparent ongoing government policy of backsliding on media reform.
Zaw Pe, a reporter for the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), was sentenced to one year imprisonment on Monday by a court in Magwe after being found guilty of “trespassing” and “disturbing a civil servant on duty”.
Burmese authorities have introduced new visa regulations for foreign correspondents as of early February, limiting foreign journalists to one month visas, instead of the previous three month stay.
Lead Story Media News Politics Uncategorized
Burma’s ‘democratic spring’ may be cooling down as progress towards media freedom stagnates, according to the 2014 World Press Freedom Index.
A bid by journalists and activists in Mandalay for permission to protest against the detention of reporter Naw Khine Khine Aye Cho was rejected by local police on Sunday.