Two weekly publications have been suspended by Burma’s notorious censorship board, after being accused of violating rules and regulations, according to local journalists.
True News was ordered to suspend publication for two months after a large photograph depicting a Burmese child working on a construction site in Thailand appeared on the front page of its Tuesday issue.
The photograph that appeared in Tuesday’s True News ran with the caption: “A Burmese child working on a construction site in Phuket, Thailand.”The second journal, The Action Times, was ordered to suspend publication for one month after defying a censorship board instruction to drop a brief report on dissident journalist Win Tin, who was released last week after 19 years imprisonment.
“The Press Scrutiny and Registration Board summoned the editors of True News and The Action Times [on Tuesday] and ordered them to stop publishing their journals for two months and one month respectively,” said a Rangoon-based journalist with connections to staff at the two publications.
The editor of The Action Times declined to comment on the ban on his publication when approached by The Irrawaddy. The journal was ordered to drop a brief report on the release of Win Tin and a profile of the journalist—formerly editor of the influential newspaper Hanthawaddy and vice-chairman of the Writers’ Union, who served a total of 19 years in prison for his part in the 1988 pro-democracy uprising.
“I think this is why The Action Times has been banned for a month,” a Rangoon journalist told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.
A freelance journalist in Rangoon who requested anonymity told The Irrawaddy that the censorship board’s order suspending the publication of True News for two months was related to the sensitive photograph published on its front page.
The caption under the photograph read: “A Burmese child working on a construction site in Phuket, Thailand.”
The censorship board reportedly accused the editors of failing to submit clear draft layouts to its office for inspection.
According to the board’s regulations, every journal in Burma must submit a draft of its final layout with clear photographs, captions and pullouts.
However, another source, who claimed to have spoken to a reporter at True News, said the censorship board had passed the photo and its caption, so the journal published it.
According to a source within the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division, certain authorities were annoyed by the photo and the censorship board’s failure to spot it.
The source said the head of the censorship board, Maj Tint Swe, was reportedly admonished by Minister of Information Kyaw Hsan over the incident.
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