Burmese Junta censors Cyclone cartoons

by Than Htike Oo & Nem Davies

Wednesday, 23 July 2008 18:37

Burma's military authorities on Tuesday banned several cartoons at a fund raising exhibition for victims of Cyclone-Nargis, for allegedly violating censor policy. Officials of the Cartoon Exhibition Supervisory Committee under the Ministry of Information on Tuesday ordered to remove four cartoons from an exhibition named 'Wakeup from Storm' that showcase a total of 146 cartoons sketched by 64 cartoonists. An organizer of the fund raising exhibition, who wished not to be identified told Mizzima that five officials came to the exhibition and order the cartoons to be removed citing that they violate censor rules. "Two officers and three staff members came to the exhibition and inspected for about two hours from 10:30 a.m. Then they ordered to remove four cartoons and signed their approval of the exhibition and left," the organizer said.  The censored cartoons were sketched by cartoonists Win Aung, October Aung Gyi and Aung Kaung, and that the organizers of the exhibition did not object from removing them, one of the cartoonists said.  "It is a common practice. At least four or five cartoons are removed from every exhibition. It's not surprising. The officials order us to remove paintings and cartoons when they feel it violates their policy," he said.  Prominent cartoonist Aupikye, who is one of the organizers, said.  "I saw the censored cartoons they depicted the cyclone as a consequence of deforestation. The cartoons with such themes are considered excesses so they censored it."  Similarly, the authorities imposed some restrictions on Rangoon based reporters who came to the Martyrs' Day ceremony on July 19 though these journalists and reporters were officially invited to the function, an editor from a weekly journal said on condition of anonymity.  "They invited us to attend the function, but we had to tell them what we would bring with us in advance along with the ID. They let us come and gather the news but didn't allow us to interview the guests attending the ceremony," he said.  "They didn't allow persons who came without official invitations to take photographs and ordered them to delete the photographs that they took at the ceremony," he added.  Burma's censorship board is infamous for its iron-grip control over the flow of news and information. It has popularly banned every publication or even writings that are critical to the government or have political intentions, suppressing freedom of expression and civilian's rights to information. < Prev   Next >