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Posts Tagged ‘Freedom of Expression’
Advances and Challenges to Media Freedom in Burma
World Press Freedom Day was held on 3 May, marking an eventful year for media freedom and freedom of expression in Burma. There have been both advances towards increased freedoms, but also serious challenges.
Most notably, the government ended pre-publication censorship and the disbanded the censorship board, the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD). Independent organizations such as the Myanmar Journalist Association, Myanmar Journalist Network and Myanmar Journalist Union, have been permitted to form in order to promote the rights and welfare of journalists, replacing the government affiliated Myanmar Writers and Journalists Association. The Ministry of Information and Communications granted permission for 16 privately owned journals to publish dailies for the first time in 50 years starting on 1 April, with an additional 10 journals granted permission at the end of April. Many exiled journalists have returned to Burma and foreign news agencies, such as Associated Press, NHK and Kyodo News, are opening offices in Rangoon.
Despite these positive steps, there remain many challenges to the freedom of expression of journalists and publications. One of the largest threats of repression is that the Printers and Publishers Registration Act (1962) and other restrictive laws remain on the books, providing legal grounds for the government to repress critical voices [...]
Burma: Human Rights Groups Condemn Ongoing Crackdown on Protests and Peaceful Assemblies
Report Highlights Violations of Freedoms of Expression, Peaceful Assembly and Association
The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), together with its member Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB), and Burma Partnership, called on the Burma government to respect the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association [...]
Gains Need Consolidation in Landmark Year for Change in Burma
This report summarizes the current state of press freedom and freedom of expression in Burma, as a part of SEAPA’s report “Southeast Asia Press Freedom Challenges for 2013.” It examines the expanding space for media in the country, increasing journalist solidarity and the turbulent transition that still lays ahead, especially when it comes to divisive issues such as violence against Muslims. In summary, the reforms have not yet been institutionalized and the government still seems bent to retain control of the press and right to freedom of opinion and expression [...]
| |Myanmar: Analysis of Government Press Law
The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) and International Media Support (IMS) today released Comments on the draft Printing and Publishing Enterprises Law (draft Law) released by the Ministry of Information of Myanmar in early March 2013. In August 2012, the Ministry tasked the Interim Press Council with preparing a draft Press Law, and the release of the draft Law by the Ministry came as a surprise to many observers. As the Comments make clear, the draft Law fails in important ways to conform to international standards regarding media freedom [...]
| |Myanmar: Ministry’s Draft Press Bill Would Restore Prior Censorship and Full Government Control
A draft press bill put before parliament by the Minister of Information and Communications should be withdrawn or rejected when it has its first reading in June as it would be a major step backwards for freedom of expression and freedom of the media, restoring prior censorship and full governmental control over the press [...]
| |Retrograde Bill Threatens Tentative Progress
Although eight privately-owned dailies are to be launched on 1 April in a development that is without precedent in the past 40 years, Reporters Without Borders is very concerned about a proposed new law on printing and publishing that was submitted to parliament on 4 March [...]
| |Burma/Myanmar: New Forms of Control and Threats to Freedoms of Expression, Assembly and Association Amidst Reforms Fanfare
An international fact-finding mission was conducted by Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) on 24- 30 October 2012 to assess the situation of freedoms of expression, assembly and association in Burma, against the backdrop [...]
| |Draft Media Law a Step Backward for Burma
Draft legislation designed to govern the media in Burma threatens to reverse fragile press freedom gains recently achieved under President Thein Sein’s democratic reform program, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today [...]
| |Myanmar: Press Bill Falls Far Short of International Law and Would Leave Press Open to Abuse
Despite promises of reform, a new press bill to be presented in parliament retains a vagueness that will leave the print media open to abuse from the government and other powerful actors.
The draft Press Law Bill (2013) says that the media should become “a fourth pillar” of democracy “watching and guiding the other three”. The media will not however become a fourth pillar under this draft because it undermines their role and overly restricts their work [...]
| |Burma Continues to Repress Critical Voices
According to Freedom House’s annual global survey on political rights and civil liberties released this week, Burma is still rated as “Not Free.” A “Not Free” country is one where basic political rights are absent, and basic civil liberties are widely and systematically denied.
This could come as a surprise after the reforms that President Thein Sein and his government have started implementing but as Freedom House explains freedoms of expression and association improved in the last two years “but they depend more on current government policy than on deep institutional changes.”
One of the noticeable areas of reform is freedom of information. Thein Sein released bloggers and journalists, ended pre-publication censorship, and authorized the publication of privately-owned dailies. Regrettably, as explained in a report released this week by Reporters Without Borders, “as things stand, the possibility of the reforms being perverted cannot be ruled out.” The Press Scrutiny and Registration Division is still in place and can suspend any weekly that publishes “forbidden” content, there is no law providing protection to media and journalists, the old oppressive laws remain unamended and privately owned weeklies have been facing legal proceedings [...]
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