Myanmar’s gov’t ends media censorship

YANGON - Agence France-Presse

Myanmar democracy leader Suu Kyi waves to her supporters in Yangon. EPA photo

Myanmar’s government said yesterday it would no longer censor local media outlets, the most dramatic move yet toward allowing freedom of expression in the long-repressed nation.

The Southeast Asian nation’s media had long been regarded as among the most restricted in the world. But President Thein Sein’s reformist government began easing media controls over the last year, allowing reporters to print articles that would have been unthinkable during the era of absolute military rule.

The Information Ministry, which has long controlled what can be printed, made the announcement on its website yesterday. The head of the ministry’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Department, Tint Swe, also conveyed the news to a group of editors in the country’s main city Yangon. Under the new rules, journalists will no longer have to submit their work to state censors before publication as they have for close to half a century.

However, reporters will still have to send their stories to the Press Scrutiny Department after publication so government monitors can determine whether their work violated any publishing laws, journalists said.