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An award commemorating slain Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai was announced at the Sixth Burma Media Conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand, granted to a female journalist who reported about an area of the country that was devastated by Cyclone Nargis last year.
The Burma Media Association, a group of Burmese journalists and writers in exile, awarded the first Kenji Nagai Award to imprisoned reporter Eint Khaing Oo during its sixth annual conference, which concluded Monday.
The award, in honor of a Japanese journalist killed in Rangoon while reporting on the Saffron Revolution of 2007, was given to Eint Khaing Oo, a 24-year-old reporter from Eco-vision journal. She was arrested on June 10 last year while covering a peaceful rally by Nargis victims. Police accused her of taking photos of the victims with the intention of sending those pictures to foreign media.
Eint Khaing was charged with committing a crime against public tranquility and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. According to her lawyer, Khin Maung Shein, she was merely doing her job. The news she reported was based on trustworthy sources and she did not send false news reports to other agencies. She is now in the notorious Insein Prison.
Burma was at the forefront of press freedom in Southeast Asia before the 1962 military coup. The country enjoyed a free press without censorship. As many as three dozen newspapers, including English and Chinese dailies, existed between 1948 and 1962 under a civilian government. Not even the prime minister’s office was closed to journalists in those days. They were also free to set up relations with international press agencies.
The situation changed in 1962 when the military seized power. All newspapers were nationalized by the junta led by Gen. Ne Win. It established a Press Scrutiny Board to enforce strict censorship on all forms of printed matter, including advertisements and obituaries. Since then, the military junta's censorship and self-censorship are commonplace in Burma and have severely restricted political rights and civil liberties.
The Press Scrutiny and Registration Division is a major oppressive tool of the incumbent military regime. Not surprisingly, Burma stands downgraded from a free state to a prison state. All news media is strictly censored and tightly controlled by the military – all daily newspapers, radio and television stations are under the junta’s supervision.
Whatever privately owned journals and magazines exist are strictly under the PSRD scanner. Nothing can be printed without permission.
The stratocracy took control of the censorship bureau after the purge of Prime Minister Khin Nyunt and his military intelligence office in October, 2004. The Ministry of Information took charge of censorship and a new Press Scrutiny and Registration Division was established in April 2005. All publications had to reregister with the PSRD. All periodicals had to provide detailed information about their editorial staff, ownership and financial sponsorship.
The junta also dominates the media industry through publication companies owned by generals and their cronies. Photos, cassette tapes, movies and video footage all need the censor's stamp before reaching the people. At the same time, the military concentrates on stopping the flow of uncensored radio news in Burmese available from international broadcasting stations.
Radio, television and other media outlets are monopolized for propaganda warfare by the military regime; opposing views are not allowed. The regime does not even allow religious discourse. The media is a special tool for the military regime, and there is no space for the opposition.
Political debate is not allowed even at the National Convention. That is why the National Convention has lost all credibility and is regarded as a sham.
Foreign periodicals with news reports on Burma have not been seen on newsstands since September 2007. The owners of Internet cafes have been forced to sign an agreement to follow restrictions by the authorities; they dare not allow users to slip through the regime's filters. Moreover, the owners have to provide details about their customers to the authorities.
Currently, the situation of the press in Burma is getting worse and worse. Media-related people are feeling defenseless. The voices of the people are constantly blocked.
Amid salvos of international condemnation over the lack of improvement on human rights abuses, especially freedom of expression and freedom of association, and demands for talks with Aung San Suu Kyi, the junta decided to soften the pressure by allowing the United Nations special rapporteur for human rights, Tomas Ojea Quintana, to visit Rangoon’s notorious Insein Prison on Feb.16.
U Win Tin, a famous journalist who spent 19 years in the junta’s jails, dismissed the special invitation to Quintana as a mere show, an attempt by the junta to soften international pressure.
The International News Safety Institute organized a regional conference on “Creating a Culture of Safety in the Media in Asia-Pacific” in December last year, assembling participants from 11 countries. A member of the Protection Committee for Burmese Journalists, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the junta had set up rules under a 2006 law on electronic media and 1996 law on film and computers that restricted how journalists could work.
Under these laws, journalists are not allowed to take pictures that might "pose a threat" to the regime, with wrongdoers facing up to 59 years in prison. Internet users are also under strict surveillance by the regime, which requires service providers to check every five minutes the websites visited by users and to immediately report suspicious or dangerous activities.
In 2008, 12 journalists and bloggers were arrested in Burma, the Burmese Journalists Protection Committee says. Several popular websites, including yahoo.com and hotmail.com, have also been blocked as the junta further isolates its people from the outside world.
Nay Phone Latt, 28, was arrested in January 2008 and sentenced to 20 years and six months in prison in November 2008 under the video law and electronics act. He was then moved to Pa-an Prison in Karen state from Insein Prison in Rangoon.
Kyaw Ko Ko and Nyan Linn Aung, from the All Burmese Federation of Student Unions, were each sentenced to three years in prison by a Rangoon township court on Feb. 9 under the infamous 1996 Television and Video Law.
However, on Saturday, Eint Khaing Oo became the first winner of the Kenji Nagai Award, which seeks to recognize those who report the truth about the junta-ruled country.
To give confidence and courage to the new blood in the field of journalism in the military ruled country, the Burma Media Association and Tokyo-based APF News Agency jointly founded the award in honor of the late Kenji Nagai. He was shot dead while videotaping anti-junta demonstrations in Rangoon, in a brave effort to cover the Saffron Revolution in September 2007.
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(Zin Linn is a freelance Burmese journalist living in exile. He currently serves as information director of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma in Bangkok, Thailand. He is also vice-president of the Burma Media Association, which is affiliated with the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontiers. He can be contacted at uzinlinn@gmail.com. ©Copyright Zin Linn.)
