Naypyidaw to Launch New Daily

By THE IRRAWADDY

Burma's Ministry of Information plans to launch a new daily newspaper in January, according to sources in Naypyidaw.

As with other state-run newspapers published by the Ministry of Information, the new Burmese-language daily, which will reportedly be named “Nay Pyi Taw,” will cover the official routines of the country's ruling generals and feature propaganda articles about the military regime.

"The coverage in this newspaper will not be much different from other state-owned publications,” a source close to the ministry told The Irrawaddy. “But it will focus more on news related to the 2010 election."

In Burma, all media are controlled by the junta. The military government runs three Burmese-language daily newspapers—Rangoon-based Myanma Ahlin and Kyemon, and Mandalay-based Yadanabon—and one English-language daily, The New Light of Myanmar.

In recent months, sources have reported that the Ministry of Information was ready to give the go-ahead for the privately owned weeklies to go daily.

Journalists sources in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy that Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan has met several times recently with officials of Burma’s censorship board and leading weeklies, including The Myanmar Times and Weekly Eleven News.

During the meetings, Kyaw Hsan reportedly said the regime would likely grant permission to start publishing daily ahead of the election, but did not give a precise date.

Meanwhile, Burmese journalists have expressed worries that the military authorities will intimidate reporters in the lead-up to the 2010 general elections. A Mandalay-based editor said, "Just look at what happened this year. We, journalists, constantly faced intimidation, torture and arrest."

Last month, Thet Zin and Sein Win Maung, editor and manager respectively of the privately-owned Myanmar Nation, were each sentenced to seven years in prison for being in possession of documents deemed to be subversive, including a UN special rapporteur’s human rights report on Burma.

Also in November, Ein Khaing Oo, a 24-year-old reporter for the Rangoon-based weekly Ecovision, was sentenced to two years imprisonment for writing about a protest by a group of Cyclone Nargis survivors in front of a UN office in Rangoon.

Two other journalists, Khin Maung Aye, the editor of the News Watch weekly journal, and Htun Htun Thein, a reporter for the same publication, were arrested on November 5 for publishing an article about corruption in the country’s courts.

According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners—Burma, 44 people who are either journalists or citizens involved in freedom of expression are currently being detained in prisons across Burma.