Mizzima News

New Delhi - In a renewed effort to streamline the flow of information, Burma's censorship board under the ministry of Information in September issued a ten point directive to media groups and publishing houses.

Authorities at the censor board, in September, summoned a meeting of chief editors and editors of media groups and publishing houses and informed them of the new directives along with the penalties they will bear for violating them, a Rangoon-based editor of a privately owned journal told Mizzima.

"There is nothing much new, most of them have already been told to us. The only thing new is the order to re-submit the cover pages if changes are made after the censors have passed them. Before, we would not have to re-submit," the editor, who wished not to be named, told Mizzima.

The secret directives, a copy of which was received by Mizzima through the international media watchdogs Reporter Without Borders (RSF) and Burma Media Association (BMA), states that penalties will be enacted if journals alter even the size of photos and pictures that are already passed by the censor board.

The directives also prohibit the addition or modification of photos, drawings, paintings, articles, novels or poems after being passed by the censors.

The second part of the directives, which includes five points, states the penalties for publications that violate the directives.

It says that violation of the directives will result in confiscation of the publications, suspension of the right of publication, confiscation of the printing press used for the publication, suspension of the right of publication and application of the 1962 laws, which provide for heavy prison sentences.

An editor of a weekly journal in Rangoon said he was shocked to see the second part of the directives, as it includes even confiscation of the printing press as punishment for violating the directives.

"In earlier directives, it never included confiscation of the printing press, so this time they [authorities] are even threatening the printing press," the editor said.

The Burmese censorship office in early October suspended two Rangoon-based Weekly Journals – The Action Times and True News – one month each for violating censorship regulations.

RSF and BMA in a joint statement said the new directives confirm that "Burma continues to be a paradise for censors. And the military stops at nothing to ensure that no embarrassing news items slip through the net."

Son Moe Wai, secretary of the BMA, said the new directives not only increases the burden on editors, but threatens them.

"Since editors are the ones dealing with the censor board, they are the most responsible persons, and if anything happens they will be the ones bearing the consequences. So, these new directives threaten the editors," Son Moe Wai said.

Similarly, the Burmese Ministry of Information in late October issued directives to other ministries to form press committees to deal with journalists and media groups. The press committees, reportedly, will be the only legitimate bodies to speak to the press on issues concerning their respective ministries, which critics view as a step to channel and limit the flow of information from the government ministries.