6:46 PM
Waa Haa Haa
YANGON, Myanmar
(AP) -- The media in Myanmar have gained new freedoms but also face a
new threat in the form of lawsuits filed against them by the
government.
The state-run Kyemon daily
reported Wednesday that the Ministry of Mines plans legal action against
a reporter and the publisher of private weekly The Voice for a report
alleging misappropriation of funds.
The Modern
weekly journal has already been sued on defamation charges by an
engineer from the Construction Ministry. He sued over a story alleging
that truck drivers had bribed local engineers to allow them to use a
bridge even though their vehicles exceeded its weight limit.
Journalists
were jailed, beaten and blacklisted while Myanmar was under decades of
army rule, and the new elected but military-backed government continues
to censor reporting about politics and other subjects it deems
sensitive.
But since last year, when the
nation's long-entrenched military junta stepped down, censorship has
ended on subjects such as health, entertainment, fashion and sports, and
reporters are testing the limited freedom emerging.
Publishers point out that the press is still not free.
"The
international media have wrongly reported that Myanmar is enjoying
media freedom, but the censorship board continues to delete many stories
and local journals are being sued one after another," said Dr. Than
Htut Aung, CEO of the prominent Weekly Eleven Media group. He described
the report in The Voice - not published by him - as correct and meeting
ethical standards.
He warned that the recent reforms could be reversed "any time."
The
Voice in its Sunday edition, citing unnamed members of Parliament, said
a report by the auditor general's office to the Public Accounts
Committee had found misappropriation and irregularities in the accounts
of the Information, Mines, Agriculture, Industry One and Industry Two
ministries for the 2009-2011 financial years, before the ostensibly
civilian current government replaced junta rule.
Kyemon
said that the story in The Voice "was wrong, tarnishes the dignity of
the (Mines) ministry and could adversely affect public confidence."
"The ministry will take legal action against the publisher and reporter of the article for its false accusations," it said.
Kyaw
Min Swe, chief editor of The Voice, told The Associated Press he has
"full confidence in the authenticity of the story because it was based
on a copy of the report sent by the auditor general's office to the
public accounts committee.
"We have no
intention to tarnish any ministry but we did it with a constructive
attitude," he said. "Transparency is key to creating clean government
and good governance as the President has declared, and our story is in
support of greater transparency."
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