News & Articles on Burma-Friday, 12 August, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Friday, 12 August, 2011
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Icon Suu Kyi Joins Fight Against China Dam in Myanmar
Aung San Suu Kyi: China's dam project in Burma is dangerous
Myanmar government and opposition leader Suu Kyi to "avoid conflict"
Myanmar government urges Suu Kyi to register party
‘Emotions’ get the better of Burma minister
Myanmar opposition leader calls for reassessment of dam project
Myanmar vows ongoing Suu Kyi dialogue
Myanmar's new government vows not to harm the Irrawaddy
Jailed video journalist faces additional charge
New Myanmar government to drop foreign exchange certificates
Burma to cancel FECs
Burma forms 'spokespersons and information team' to control news leak-out
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: August 12, 2011, 7:08 PM HKT
Icon Suu Kyi Joins Fight Against China Dam in Myanmar

A powerful moral force is now standing in opposition to a China-funded dam project in Myanmar: icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ms. Suu Kyi this week released a letter calling on backers of the Myitsone hydropower project to “reassess the scheme,” citing concerns that dams on Myanmar’s Irrawaddy River degrade the environment, disrupt rice production, displace minority peoples, hurt livelihoods and risk unleashing devastating consequences during earthquakes. Her letter was distributed by a U.S. organization opposed to the project.

The Myitsone project is a 6000-megawatt cascade-style hydropower station being built as a joint venture by government-run China Power Investment Corp., Expected to come online in 2018, the project is a major symbol of China’s deepening political and economic relationship with the military regime in Myanmar.

China Power Investment Corp did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.

“We believe that, keeping in mind the interests of both countries, both governments would wish to avoid consequences which might endanger lives and homes,” Ms. Suu Kyi wrote.

By voicing opposition to widespread river damming, Myanmar’s most well-known opposition figure may boost international awareness of the project, long criticized by environmental and human rights groups. The dams, which represent a major source of foreign project finance for the government, are likewise stirring widespread discontent domestically.

Dams are also a growing political factor in China’s relations elsewhere in Southeast Asia, a region increasingly dependent on the world’s most populous nation for trade but worried its efforts to alter the flow of rivers could, among other detrimental effects, reduce their ability to irrigate rice fields.

Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while meeting regional officials in Indonesia, offered to spur a two-year-old Lower Mekong Initiative that is aimed boosting U.S.-backed development in the region, thereby countering Beijing’s influence in poorer parts of Southeast Asia. In some cases, China’s dam building is a big irritant, including Vietnam.

Analysts say China already has strong influence with Myanmar’s military leadership, a country that promises vast natural resources, a potential channel to new sea channels and geopolitical proximity to rival India.

The Myitsone hydroelectric dam and smaller projects in Myanmar also reflect Beijing’s ambitions to export technology developed at home and showcased in its own electricity producing facilities, like the giant Three Gorges Dam. But just as China’s ambitions to export high speed rail technology have been tripped up by a recent accident, its dam-building techniques have also been questioned on quality grounds.

Ms. Suu Ky’s letter, distributed by a group opposed to the dam, Berkeley, Calif.-based International Rivers, was measured in its criticism of what the Nobel Peace laureate called “the Burmese-Chinese venture” and acknowledged that the region needs power and economic development.

“While recognizing that large sums of money have already been spent on the realization of the project, we would urge that in the interests of both national and international harmony, concerned parties should reassess the scheme and cooperate to find solutions that would prevent undesirable consequences and thus allay the fears of all who are anxious to protect the Irrawaddy,” Ms. Suu Kyi said in the letter.

An op-ed published Wednesday in the state-run New Light of Myanmar defended the project, saying it had already provided more than 2,600 jobs, according to a translation by Burmanet. “State leaders will not give the green light to implement a project that is not beneficial to the nation and the people,” it added. http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/08/12/icon-suu-kyi-joins-fight-against-china-dam-in-myanmar/
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Aung San Suu Kyi: China's dam project in Burma is dangerous and divisive
Jonathan Watts, Asia environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 August 2011 11.56 BST

The leader of Burma's pro-democracy opposition joins chorus of alarm over China's plan to build dams on Irrawaddy river.

Myanmar workers standing on the bank of the Irrawady river, Kachin state
Workers in Burma's Kachin state wait for river transport on the Irrawaddy, where China plans to build up to eight dams. The project will displace thousands, devastate ecosystems and stoke conflict. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's pro-democracy opposition, has called for a halt to a massive Chinese hydropower project on the Irrawaddy river that has alarmed environmentalists and added to a long-running conflict between tribal militias and the government in Rangoon.

The Nobel laureate stepped into the fray on Thursday with a personal statement calling for greater protection for Burma's most important river, which is threatened by logging, pollution and the construction of a cascade of at least seven dams, a project managed by China Power Investment.

The biggest of them – the 3,600MW Myitsone Dam – is already under construction on the Irrawaddy despite fierce opposition from the Kachin Independence Organisation, which recently broke a 17-year-ceasefire after warning that it would fight to block the project.

The China Gezhouba Group is building the dam on the confluence of the Mali and N'Mai rivers in Kachin state, one of the world's most important biodiversity hotspots.

Once completed, it will flood the rainforest with a reservoir the size of New York city and displace 10,000 people, mostly Kachin people, as well as submerging cultural heritage sites central to Kachin identity, according to International Rivers.

The Burma Rivers Network, an NGO which represents communities along the river, said China's massive hydropower investments had widened the gulf between the government – which wants to benefit from cross-border electricity sales – and Kachin independence groups, which fear the dams will bring environmental, cultural and social disruption.

The environmental group has released what it says is a leaked environmental assessment jointly commissioned by the Burmese and Chinese authorities that recommends scrapping the project because it would cause immense damage to biodiverse ecosystems as local livelihoods as well as posing great risks in the event of an earthquake.

These concerns were reiterated by Aung San Sui Kyi, who said the dam was dangerous and divisive. "Since the commencement of the Myitsone project, the perception long held by the Kachin people that successive Burmese governments have neglected their interests has deepened," she said in her statement. "We would urge that in the interests of both national international harmony, concerned parties should reassess the scheme and cooperate to find solutions that would prevent undesirable consequences and thus allay the fears of all who are anxious to protect the Irrawaddy." http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/aug/12/suukyi-china-dam-irrawaddy-conflict
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Myanmar government and opposition leader Suu Kyi to "avoid conflict"
Aug 12, 2011, 10:42 GMT

Yangon - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the country's newly elected government have agreed to 'avoid conflicts,' Suu Kyi said in a joint statement with a government representative.

'We will avoid conflicts and will cooperate together,' Suu Kyi said in a joint statement made with Myanmar Labour Minister Aung Kyi, whom she met in Yangon for the second time since her release from house arrest on November 13. Suu Kyi last met with Aung Kyi, the government's main liaison person for the Nobel laureate, on July 25.

'We will meet frequently in the future,' Suu Kyi and Aung Kyi said after a one-hour meeting.

The international community and Myanmar's Asian allies have repeatedly called on the government to open dialogue with Suu Kyi and other opposition groups.

Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar independence hero Aung San, has spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest. She was last released on November 13, from a seven-year detention term.

Since she was incarcerated, she could not contest the November 7 polls. Her National League for Democracy party boycotted the election and was disbanded afterwards.

'Even though the NLD is an illegal party, the government has been dealing with them patiently,' Myanmar Information Minister Kyaw Hsan said Friday.

He urged the NLD to reregister as a party if they wished to participate in politics.

Kyaw Hsan said the government's willingness to talk to Suu Kyi was in keeping with President Thein Sein's inaugural speech on March 30 when he said the government was ready to work with everyone for the development of the country.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party won the November 7 polls, which observers labelled neither free nor fair.

Myanmar ranks among the world's pariah states for its poor human rights and political reform record, but Kyaw Hsan hinted that changes were in the wind.

He noted that the ICRC had resumed prison visits and aid programmes on 1 July.

'And I can inform you now that the UN rapporteur on Myanmar's human rights situation, Tomas Ojea Quintana, is going to visit soon,' Kyaw Hsan said. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1656590.php/Myanmar-government-and-opposition-leader-Suu-Kyi-to-avoid-conflict
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Myanmar government urges Suu Kyi to register party so it can legally take part in politics
Article by: Associated Press
Updated: August 12, 2011 - 5:11 AM

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar - Myanmar's government is urging pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to officially register her National League for Democracy as a party so it can legally take part in politics.

Information Minister Kyaw Hsan told a rare news conference Friday that the government has not cracked down on the group so far in the interests of national reconciliation.

His suggestion came two days before Suu Kyi plans to make her first political foray into the countryside since her release from seven years of house arrest last November. She was detained after her last such trip in 2003.

The government ordered the NLD's dissolution after it failed to register for last November's general election, which it called unfair and undemocratic. http://www.startribune.com/world/127576528.html
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‘Emotions’ get the better of Burma minister
By AHUNT PHONE MYAT
Published: 12 August 2011

Burma’s information minister Kyan Hsan was forced to leave a government press conference today after refusing to answer questions pitched by journalists which he said made him “emotional”.

Kyan Hsan, who effectively acts as Naypyidaw’s spokesperson, had led the first press conference of the new government in the capital this afternoon.

But he reportedly broke down in tears after being asked when the government would begin dialogue over the multiple conflicts raging in Burma’s border regions and issues regarding the woeful state of the country’s economy. The meeting was then suspended for several minutes.

“He began to have tears in his eyes and cried as he was answering questions [from a reporter] about how [the government’s] worked for the good of their country,” a source at the conference told DVB today.

A secret audio file obtained by DVB quoted Kyaw Hsan as saying, upon his return to the meeting, that “it [the breakdown] happened as I was speaking.

“I would like to tell [the journalists present] to keep this private as the media may think I did this because I didn’t want or wasn’t able to answer the questions. I want to tell you to understand me for feeling emotional as I was giving my answer.”

The 40-minute long conference featured questions from more than 10 journalists. It follows the recent formation of the Spokespersons and Information Team, led by Kyaw Hsan, which effectively acts as a public relations arm of the new government.

Thein Sein’s administration has gone on something of a media offensive as it has struggled to shed its reputation as a civilian extension of the military junta that ruled Burma in various guises since 1962.

Although it released opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi shortly after the November 2010 elections and appears to be opening up somewhat towards the political opposition, critics claim that the escalation of civil wars in the border regions and continued human rights abuses show that little reform has taken place. http://www.dvb.no/news/%E2%80%98emotions%E2%80%99-get-the-better-of-burma-minister/17015
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Myanmar opposition leader calls for reassessment of dam project
Aug 12, 2011, 4:35 GMT

Yangon - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called on the governments of Myanmar and China to reassess a 6,000-megawatt dam project due to safety and environmental concerns.

'We believe that, keeping in mind the interests of both countries, both governments would wish to avoid consequences which might endanger lives and homes,' Suu Kyi said in a statement made available Friday.

The dam is planned for an upper stretch of the Irrawaddy River, the longest in Myanmar, starting in the northern Kachin State and traversing the central plains before emptying into the rice-growing Irrawaddy delta and the Indian Ocean.

Given the economic, social and environmental importance of the river, Suu Kyi appealed to the international conservationist community 'to join us in a campaign to create a worldwide awareness of the dangers threatening one of the most important rivers in Asia.'

Construction on the estimated 3.6-billion-dollar Myitsone hydro-electric dam project began in 2009, as a joint venture between the Myanmar government and the state-owned China Power Investment.

'Under the current proposal, the dam will displace up to 12,000 people from 63 villages and flood critical cultural heritage sites,' said the International Rivers environmental group, adding that the project already faced 'violent opposition from the local Kachin population.'

The Kachin are one of five ethnic minority groups that are waging insurgencies against the Myanmar army, which has ruled the country since 1962 and continues to dominate the current elected government.

The project site was reportedly hit by a series of bombs in April 2010.

Suu Kyi also questioned the geological safety of the project. 'The presence of fault lines in the vicinity of the dams and the sheer immensity of the reservoir raises the spectre of horrendous devastation in the event of an earthquake.'

Suu Kyi is Myanmar's chief opposition figure, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest. She was released from a seven-year house detention sentence on November 13.

Although she has no official position, and her National League for Democracy party has been dissolved, Suu Kyi remains a powerful political force.

The pro-military government's chief liaison officer, Labour Minister Aung Kyi, was scheduled to meet with Suu Kyi Friday afternoon, according to opposition sources.

Suu Kyi is planning a 'political tour' to Bogo, 50 kilometres north-east of Yangon on Saturday, despite government warnings against the trip. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1656521.php/Myanmar-opposition-leader-calls-for-reassessment-of-dam-project
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Myanmar vows ongoing Suu Kyi dialogue
Published on Aug 12, 2011

Myanmar's army-backed regime held out an olive branch to its critics on Friday, pledging to continue talks with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and to allow a visit by a UN human rights envoy. -- PHOTO: AP

NAYPYIDAW (AFP) - Myanmar's army-backed regime held out an olive branch to its critics on Friday, pledging to continue talks with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and to allow a visit by a UN human rights envoy.

In a rare news conference, information minister Kyaw Hsan said the nominally civilian government, which came to power after a controversial election last November, hoped to get 'successful results' from cooperating with Ms Suu Kyi.

The comments came shortly before Ms Suu Kyi and labour minister Aung Kyi began a second round of talks in Yangon.

'We will continue these kinds of meetings for the benefit of the people,' Mr Kyaw Hsan told around 50 reporters and some 250 officials invited to the new government's first media briefing in the capital Naypyidaw since taking power. http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_701366.html
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Myanmar's new government vows not to harm the Irrawaddy
Aug 12, 2011, 9:10 GMT

Naypyitaw, Myanmar - Myanmar's new government will conduct an environmental impact study of a dam on the Irrawaddy River before going ahead with the project, which has been criticized by opposition figures and environmentalists, officials said Friday.

'We love the Irrawaddy,' Information Minister Kyaw Hsan told a press conference in Naypyitaw, the capital. 'We will protect the Irrawaddy just like other citizens would.'

The government spokesman said a downstream environmental impact study of Myitsone dam in the Kachin State will be carried out before the hydro-power plant is put into operation.

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi issued a statement Thursday night calling on the governments of Myanmar and China to reassess the 6,000-megawatt dam project due to safety and environmental concerns.

'We believe that, keeping in mind the interests of both countries, both governments would wish to avoid consequences which might endanger lives and homes,' Suu Kyi said.

The dam is planned for an upper stretch of the Irrawaddy River, the longest in Myanmar, starting in the northern Kachin State and traversing the central plains before emptying into the rice-growing Irrawaddy delta and the Indian Ocean.

Given the economic, social and environmental importance of the river, Suu Kyi appealed to the international conservationist community 'to join us in a campaign to create a worldwide awareness of the dangers threatening one of the most important rivers in Asia.'

Construction on the estimated 3.6-billion-dollar Myitsone hydro-electric dam project began in 2009, as a joint venture between the Myanmar government and the state-owned China Power Investment.

'Under the current proposal, the dam will displace up to 12,000 people from 63 villages and flood critical cultural heritage sites,' said the International Rivers environmental group, adding that the project already faced 'violent opposition from the local Kachin population.'

The Kachin are one of five ethnic minority groups that are waging insurgencies against the Myanmar army, which has ruled the country since 1962 and continues to dominate the current elected government.

The project site was reportedly hit by a series of bombs in April 2010.

Suu Kyi also questioned the geological safety of the project. 'The presence of fault lines in the vicinity of the dams and the sheer immensity of the reservoir raises the spectre of horrendous devastation in the event of an earthquake.'

Suu Kyi is Myanmar's chief opposition figure, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest. She was released from a seven-year house detention sentence on November 13.

Although she has no official position, and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party has been dissolved, Suu Kyi remains a powerful political force.

'Even though the NLD is an illegal party, the government has been dealing with the them patiently,' Kyaw Hsan said. He said the treatment was in accordance with President Thein Sein's inaugural speech of March 30, in which he said he would work with everyone.

The pro-military government's chief liaison officer, Labour Minister Aung Kyi, met with Suu Kyi Friday afternoon in Yangon.

The two sides issued a joint statement to 'avoid conflicts and to cooperate together.'

Suu Kyi is planning a 'political tour' to Bogo, 50 kilometres north-east of Yangon on Sunday, despite government warnings against the trip. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1656566.php/Myanmar-s-new-government-vows-not-to-harm-the-Irrawaddy
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Jailed video journalist faces additional charge
Published on Friday 12 August 2011.

Reporters Without Borders condemns the new charge that was brought on 10 August against Sithu Zeya, a Democratic Voice of Burma video journalist who has been detained since April 2010 and who is already serving an eight-year sentence for filming the damage caused by a grenade explosion in Rangoon.

Aged 21, Sithu Zeya could now receive an additional sentence of 7 to 15 years in prison on a charge of circulating material online “that can damage tranquillity and unity in the government” under the Electronic Act.

“They gave him the [first] sentence based on the confession he gave to the police under torture,” his mother told Democratic Voice of Burma. “They will use the same confession to sentence him this time. [The judicial system] now is no different from the previous one.”

Reporters Without Borders fears that any changes to the Burmese judicial system since the end of military rule are no more than window dressing and urges the international community to step up pressure on Burma for a real political opening, one that guarantees basic freedoms for its citizens including media freedom.

Reporters Without Borders also hopes that the pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi raises the case of imprisoned journalists and bloggers when she has a second round of talks with the government today.

An Oslo-based exile radio and TV station, Democratic Voice of Burma launched a campaign in May for the release of its 17 video reporters who are currently imprisoned in Burma. As well as Sithu Seya, they include his father, Maung Maung Zeya, who is serving a 13-year jail sentence.

More than 15 journalists and three netizens are detained in Burma, which is on the Reporters Without Borders list of Enemies of the Internet and is ranked 174th out of 178 countries in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. http://en.rsf.org/burma-jailed-video-reporter-faces-12-08-2011,40770.html
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New Myanmar government to drop foreign exchange certificates

Aug 12, 2011, 10:10 GMT

Naypyitaw, Myanmar - Myanmar's new government is planning to withdraw foreign exchange certificates (FECs) from the market, after imposing them on foreigners for almost two decades, officials said Friday.

'In the near future there will be no more FECs, just kyat and foreign currencies,' Information Minister Kyaw Hsan told a press conference, one of the first held by Myanmar's new elected government since it took office in April.

The FECs were first introduced in 1993 as a means of keeping foreign currency under government control.

Visiting foreign tourists were required to purchase 200 US dollars worth of FECs at the airport on arrival and foreign businessmen and aid workers were required to use the FEC for official transactions, often at an exchange rate loss.

The FEC was intended to prevent all foreign exchange from being traded on the black market, which offered rates of about 1,000 kyat to the dollar compared with the government's official rate of 6 kyat to the dollar and 450 kyat for one FEC.

'Burma's multiple exchange rates make conversion and repatriation of foreign exchange very complex, and ripe for corruption,' one US State Department report said of the system.

In recent months, the local kyat currency has strengthened against the dollar and FEC, apparently on account of a huge influx of dollars into the economy.

Kyaw Hsan said holders of FECs should not worry, because the government will buy back the currency from them with dollars or kyat, although he did not specify at what rates.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1656582.php/New-Myanmar-government-to-drop-foreign-exchange-certificates
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Burma to cancel FECs
By Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Naypyitaw, Myanmar
Published on August 12, 2011

Myanmar's new government is planning to withdraw foreign exchange certificates (FECs) from the market, after imposing them on foreigners for almost two decades, officials said Friday.

"In the near future there will be no more FECs, just kyat and foreign currencies," Information Minister Kyaw Hsan told a press conference, one of the first held by Myanmar's new elected government since it took office in April.

The FECs were first introduced in 1993 as a means of keeping foreign currency under government control. Visiting foreign tourists were required to purchase 200 US dollars worth of FECs at the airport on arrival and foreign businessmen and aid workers were required to use the FEC for official transactions, often at an exchange rate loss.

The FEC was intended to prevent all foreign exchange from being traded on the black market, which offered rates of about 1,000 kyat to the dollar compared with the government's official rate of 6 kyat
to the dollar and 450 kyat for one FEC.

"Burma's multiple exchange rates make conversion and repatriation of foreign exchange very complex, and ripe for corruption," one US State Department report said of the system.

In recent months, the local kyat currency has strengthened against the dollar and FEC, apparently on account of a huge influx of dollars into the economy. Kyaw Hsan said holders of FECs should not worry, because the

government will buy back the currency from them with dollars or kyat, although he did not specify at what rates. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/08/12/business/Burma-to-cancel-FECs-30162631.html
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Burma forms 'spokespersons and information team' to control news leak-out
Fri, 2011-08-12 03:31 — editor
By - Zin Linn

The President Office of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (Burma) issued Notification No.75/2011 - “Formation of Spokespersons and Information Team” - dated 10 August 2011, the state media announced today.

In accord with Section 24, Subsection (a) of the Union Government Law, Spokespersons and Information Team has been formed with the following persons in order that it can assume the duties of releasing news and information and holding press conferences occasionally regarding the political, economic, security, military and natural disaster affairs of the State, the state newspapers said.

Spokespersons and Information Team has been formed with 11 members and the team leader is Kyaw Hsan, Union Minister, Ministry of Information.

The purpose of the info team seems to bar other government officers and staff engaging the public communication activities. They are already warned not to leak out information to the media especially to exile media. So, the government information team will act as an info filter mechanism which will prevent government confidential facts and statistics from leaking out.

Burma's parliament nominated Thein Sein as the country's eighth president on 4 February 2011. The same day, a Rangoon court sentenced Maung Maung Zeya, a journalist working for Democratic Voice of Burma, an independent exile radio and TV station, to a total of 13 years in prison for violating the Unlawful Association Act, Immigration Act and Electronics Act.

Three journalists - Zarganar, Zaw Thet Htwe and Thant Zin Aung - who were given long prison terms by a kangaroo-court in November 2008, are still in prison.

An information ministry statement to exempt sports and entertainment periodicals from prior censorship by the notorious Press Scrutiny and Registration Department (PSRD) is just a showcase tactic to deceive the international media watchdogs.

In his inaugural address on 30 March, President Thein Sein portrayed the new cabinet as a constructive body.

"We must also respect the role of the media as a fourth estate," he said. But, in spite of a rhetoric, address was measured to provide the military-backed government a more trustworthy image, as journalists remain under constant close watch. Those suspected of sending video footages or reports on day-to-day situation to exile media are always under close watch by the special branch of the intelligence units.

For instance, during 10 May press conference by the Rangoon regional government, Nyan Tun Oo, regional minister for education, health, foreign affairs and immigration, hinted journalists of the government’s intention that government will not allow media coverage, which they think probably be sensitive to national security.

“On the subject of freedom of press, reporters can record stories if they are not sensitive to the state. If media coverage causes danger to the state or our citizens’ security, no one can cover it,” Nyan Tun Oo said during a press conference at the city’s parliament building.

The press conference was the first official meeting of regional government ministers and the media personnel held by the Rangoon administration since the USDP regime was sworn in on March 30.

According to then “Irrawaddy” news report, when the editor of Snap Shot Journal, Myat Khaing, questioned the minister, he responded by saying that he would stop the press conference immediately if journalists cross-examined him or asked “colored” questions.

The President Thein Sein oversees a cabinet whose 30 members are mostly former army officers and has inherited the "directed democracy" system created by his predecessor, Gen Than Shwe, head of the previous military junta.

Freedom of expression, information and association is controlled by more than half a dozen laws, the violation of which, may be, and in fact is, widely sanctioned by 3 to 20 years in prison.

Burmese People are suspicious on this Formation of Spokespersons and Information Team as the information minister who controlled the PSRD becomes team-leader. This information team will take responsibility to answer the media including private journals through press conference. The team certainly will pay attention to cut questions made by journalists so as to avoid secrets of the government.

It looks like a kind of limitation to the press freedom plus freedom of expression since the hardliner information minister Kyaw San, who also took the same post in previous junta, takes charge of the team.

The Paris-based watchdog, Reporters Without Borders ranked Burma 174 out of 178 countries on its latest Press Freedom Index. More than 25 media workers are in jail, including 17 video journalists for DVB. Burma is "Asia's biggest prison for journalists and bloggers after China," says the watchdog.

- Asian Tribune - http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2011/08/11/burma-forms-spokespersons-and-information-team-control-news-leak-out
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