Myanmar journalists protest against censorship

Photo: @ AP/Khin Maung Win

Myanmar journalists rally were held last Saturday in Myanmar against the officials of the Board of Censors for suspending two weekly magazines such as Voice Weekly and Envoy. Numbering about 60 of the media groups were dressed in black T-shirts with prints written on it “Stop Killing Media”. The journalists were gathering the signatures of six other media companies in an effort to make a formal appeal to President Thein Sein to stop media censorship.

Media censorship is one of the series of reforms implemented by the government but they were surprised that the government still govern their freedom of expression. According to the Press Scrutiny Board, the suspension came involving them on a write up of an article regarding the expected reshuffling of Cabinet members in which the government has regarded it as a violation, AP news reported.

The Committee for Freedom of the Press was formed and organized by one hundred journalists just a day after the publications were suspended and eventually came up with a protests rally. They stressed that despite the reforms on censorship, media are treated negatively, and they come to face threats and grave coercion from the government.

Kyaw Naing, an editor from Voice Weekly who has rendered media services for almost 14 years was disappointed and frustrated upon the latest incident on media. Journalists were deprived to say and exposed the truth and Freedom of the Press is slowly robbed off from them. Most of the journalists who were at the rally described the event as Historic, news report from Associated Press said.

Moreover, Myanmar’s board of censors disclosed that the process of making the news event available to the public is not appropriate, the reason why the government has to stopped its publication, according to news reported from Associated Press.

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Myanmar journalists