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Subscribe to RSSYANGON, Myanmar -- Myanmar abolished press censorship on Monday, the latest in a series of dramatic economic and political reforms by the quasi-civilian regime and one that carries risks for its ability to manage change.
The government's announcement marks a U-turn from the oppressive policies of the military that ran Myanmar for almost 50 years until March 2011. The military government's censors not only kept tight control over the media but monitored every song, cartoon, book and piece of art for subversive content.
After lifting some restrictions on publications in June last year, the authorities on Monday extended press freedom to the remaining 80 political and six religious journals.
'Great day for all journalists in Myanmar'
"Any publication inside the country will not have to get prior permission from us before they are published, effective today," said Tint Swe, head of the press censorship board at the Ministry of Information.
He explained the move to editors and publishers at his department earlier on Monday.
"From now on, our department will just carry out registering publications for keeping them at the national archives and issuing a license to printers and publishers," he said.
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"This is a great day for all journalists in Myanmar, who have labored under these odious restrictions for far too many years," an editor at a Yangon weekly publication who preferred not to be named told AFP.
"It is also another encouraging example of the progress that the country is making under (President) Thein Sein's government," the editor told AFP.
In 2011-12, the international news media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders ranked Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, number 169 out of 179 countries in press freedom.
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The Committee to Protect Journalists has ranked Myanmar as the seventh-most censored country in the world.
Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi addressed the World Economic Forum in Bangkok saying, "we just want to improve the state of Burma" and urged the international community to not be overly optimistic about her country's reform process. NBC's Ian Williams reports.
In its January 2012 report, Reporters Without Borders noted that Myanmar had "showed signs of beginning to carry out reforms including partial amnesties and a reduction in prior censorship, but it remained largely under the control of an authoritarian government run by former members of the military junta reinvented as civilian politicians."
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Earlier this month, two journals were briefly suspended for publishing articles without prior approval from censors, prompting journalists to take to the streets in protest.
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State-run newspapers only
Privately-run daily newspapers in Myanmar are still not permitted, leaving a monopoly to state-run newspapers that have changed little in style or substance since the military was in control.
Asked about the chance of private dailies being allowed to start up, Tint Swe said: "We can say it has become closer than before. It could happen after enacting the necessary media law."
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Journalists welcomed the lifting of restrictions but some were worried their reports could still fall foul of various laws on the statute book.
"It's a big improvement on the past. I do welcome it but there will be more responsibilities on the editors since there are some existing laws under which action can be taken against journalists for their writing," said Wai Phyo, chief editor of the Weekly Eleven journal.
Zaw Htike, a senior reporter and secretary of the Myanmar Journalists Network, which has more than 200 members, had a similar view, and added that journalists would now have to take more responsibility for what they wrote.
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"I believe we also need to promote a code of ethics among journalists," he said.
In a major foreign policy announcement, President Obama said his administration will renew diplomatic conversations with the isolated government of Myanmar, formerly Burma. NBC's Chuck Todd has more.
Some censorship remains
Still, film censorship remains in place, an information ministry official told AFP. In addition, TV journalists "self censor" by asking for instructions about sensitive news, the official told AFP.
Shawn Crispin, the Committee to Protect Journalist's Southeast Asia representative in Bangkok, told The Associated Press that "if the government is sincere in ending pre-publication censorship, it would represent a significant step forward for press freedom in Burma."
But Crispin also told the AP that if press laws were not reformed as well, "then all of these promises can be easily rolled back if they feel a free press threatens government security."
Reuters contributed to this report.
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"Myanmar abolished press censorship on Monday, the latest in a series of dramatic economic and political reforms by the quasi-civilian regime and one that carries risks for its ability to manage change."
.....meanwhile in the US the President no longer has press conferences, some press outlets are banned from getting into the now nonexistant press conferences and press secretary briefings, FOIA reqeusts are not being processed, Presidential executive privilidege is being invoked to supress information form a Congressional panel as well as the press, the federal government set up new policies and structures to shut down the internet and cell phones, set up new policies to use drones to monitor civilians, Congress fails to have a national budget in over 3 years, deficit spending is at an all time high, more Americans are on government programs than since the depression. All in all a dramatic series of economic and political reforms by the quasi-civilian government to managing change.
Meanwhile anything and everything that happens anywhere in the world is turned into a US presidential campaign story by certain trolls.
perhaps so "mug" .....but how does that change the facts joe mentions?
i have an idea...lets vote to collapse his post....you know like ...censorship.........:)
And again (as I responded below first):
You do know that collapsing someone's comments isn't censorship, right? The collapsed comment is... still there? Or maybe you didn't know that?
And when someone's comment gets fully deleted it's generally because they've violated the terms they agreed to when they signed up.
They probably did the right thing in the begining to keep from being overthrown and have avoid a lot uncontrolled violance.
yet it continues here on the vine, just open ANY article and see how many comments were collapsed by those self appointed,self righteous, narrow minded, censors who disagree with someone.
The vine is privately owned and can censor whatever they want.
TIDudai
how true, one distinct difference however, the vine itself generally has tyler,sally , etc. do so from time to time, and they ALWAYS come on and tell people why, the others ....well...i covered that.
You do know that collapsing someone's comments isn't censorship, right? The collapsed comment is... still there? Or maybe you didn't know that?
And when someone's comment gets fully deleted it's generally because they've violated the terms they agreed to when they signed up.
It never seize to amaze me how you and your TeaParty's twisted minds manufacture and fabricate stories and managed to trun one-sided blindly to anythign agaisnt Obama. This story is about a 50 years of opressed unfortunate people of Burma finally getting to tast some freedom. NOT about your self serving rightwing's agenda.
It is great to see news like this. There is of course room for improvement (this is pretty much true for most countries) but hopefully they will be able to continue on this path of freedom and democracy. I wish them, the government and the citizens, all the best.
It's Obama fault! Or it would be better if it weren't for him. He is a socialist, a muslim, a spawn of the devil and any other negative term I can think of......
Off to troll some other website/article in order to further vent the hate that is ultimately born out of my insecurity.
Wonder how long it will take before the journalist over there turn into propaganda machines for their particular political agendas like here in the US!
Glad to hear the guys in Myanmar are finally ending the censorship that they weren't ever supposed to do in the first place. (As Chris Rock reminds us, sometimes you just shouldn't brag.)
Anyway, we'll see whether they're actually living up to those words, and whether they continue to roll back those unacceptable media rules. I hope they do, for their sake.
Where is the US or US Media outrage over the Burmese genocide of Muslims?