Burmese Censorship board warns print media not to post additional material online

The Press Scrutiny Board, a division under Burma’s Ministry of Information, recently summoned periodical and journal editors to its office in the former capital Rangoon to warn them from inserting in their web edition articles and news reports that have not been checked by the censors.

The Director General of the Press Scrutiny Board, Major Tin Swe, separately met with editors and publishers of 15 periodicals, including “Tharaphu (Crown) Magazine”, “Flowers Journal”, “Seven Days”, “Weekly Eleven”, “Fashion Image” and “People Magazine”.

Action will be taken against those who violate the rules and the warning, a Rangoon-based reporter told Mizzima.

“I think they gave us this warning because some blogs and bloggers are giving them some problems. We don’t need to worry about this warning as we are posting only authorised articles, photos and news on our website,” an editor of a weekly journal told Mizzima.

The junta strictly censors for content that damages “national security”, exposes the state of the economy, health and other human rights concerns, as well as any opinion that challenges state propaganda or criticises the military government in power. The clampdown on freedom of expression is extended to the Internet, making it one of the most extensively censored in the world, according to the Open Net Initiative (ONI), a Harvard-led joint research project on online censorship.