Yangon Weather Forecast, Burma

Censorship body eases grip on business, crime genres

ANOTHER 54 publications will no longer have to submit their content to the censorship board before publication, after the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division lifted restrictions on business and crime publications last week.

The changes came into effect on December 9, with journals, magazines and books in those two genres to face only post-publication scrutiny.

Six months ago, the government relaxed curbs on almost 200 publications from five genres – entertainment, health, children’s, technology and sport – while the rest continued under the established system of pre-censorship.

At a meeting in Yangon on December 6, division director U Myo Myint Mg said the success of the first phase of the program to shift to self-censorship had encouraged the government to make further changes.

“After monitoring the results of first step, we found that editors can do self-censorship very well. We also expect that the second step will be successful. We are also planning to relax restrictions on the remaining genres to be in line with the new media law,” he said.

Publications are divided into two groups, with Group 1 scrutinised after publication and Group 2 as before.

Each group has a scrutinisation team: Team 1 comprises senior members of the Myanmar Writers and Journalists Association, while Team 2 has officials from PSRD. The groups flag potential problems and submit them to an analysis board, which decides whether to take action.

U Myo Myint Mg said that since the system was introduced, 86 warnings had been issued to journals and 37 to magazines in Group 1. The analysis board issued only three formal warnings.

He said the greatest challenge was the publication of “sexy” photos, especially in entertainment journals.

“Incomplete credit boxes are also a minor problems but the major problem is the photos that are not suitable to be published from a cultural point of view. We still have to keep an eye on this,” he said.

Deputy director general of the division, U Tint Swe, said he expected the remaining genres in Group 2 – news, education and religion (including gambira, or occult sciences) – would also shift to self-censorship before the new media law is promulgated.

“When the media law comes out, there will be no system of press scrutinisation, only registration. In the period before the law is enacted we will gradually release [all publications] to be ready to work under the media law. We are expecting to relax censorship on the education genre soon,” he said.

“Publications in Group 2 will also get … more freedom to write, although they will still need to send their drafts to the division.”

An executive editor from 7-Day News said that while the changes hadn’t quite met his expectations, he expected to see a more flexible policy for news publications soon.

“I appreciate their continuous efforts over the past six months to implement [the changes], although I expected it to have gone further,” he said.

“I also welcome the relaxation of censorship on business publications. As our country is implementing economic reforms, it’s crucial that we have the freedom to write and criticise freely. I’m also expecting that news journals will get more freedom in our business coverage.”