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A NEW ERA is to begin in Myanmar tomorrow when decades of restrictions on the country’s print media are relaxed.
The previous military junta’s 50-year-old restrictions on private media – with only state-run newspapers allowed to publish on a daily basis, as other titles were relegated to weekly (or even more infrequent publication) – are to come to an end at the turn of the month.
16 titles – which were previously only issued in heavy, bound ‘journal’ format – are being allowed to publish daily editions as part of the relaxation of censorship rules by the semi-civilian administration that has been in power since 2011.
Last year the administration lifted its requirement that all printed works be pre-approved – a rule which meant that even non-threatening works like children’s storybooks had to be submitted for official inspection before being released to the public.
Since then, criticism of the administration has become commonplace – while reporting of parliamentary affairs, and in particular of the contributions from opposition parties like Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, is no longer the taboo it once was.
That party’s newspaper, ‘D-Wave’, is one of the 16 papers which will turn daily in the coming months.
“Newspapers are really important because they are the mirror of the people,” said Nyan Win, a party spokesman, who told AFP that the party was likely to see extra revenue from newspaper sales – though it could be difficult to find enough content for daily editions given the relatively poor journalistic history in the country.
He said the party had not decided whether to expand editorial coverage to include general, non-political news – but that the question would not arise until July, when the paper gathers enough editorial staff to begin a daily edition.
The developments could prove an interesting experiment in seeing how news is consumed in developing countries. Having been a virtual no-go area for foreign investment under military rule, Myanmar is now aggressively marketing itself as being ripe for an economic boom.
However, the country’s population is still largely centred around the capital, Yangon – and transport difficulties mean only those living in the capital will be able to receive a paper on a daily basis.
But that could change dramatically as economic development increases, and a reliance on foreign corporations brings the inevitable wave of mobile phones.
As the Nieman Lab reports, mobile phone ownership in Yangon and the second city of Mandalay has exploded in the last year – bringing with it a wave of interest in websites like Facebook.
The immediate surge in mobile ownership has already seen some of the restricted titles move to a digital-first model, where news is posted to the web in order to allow immediate distribution before censors can step in.
In many cases – including that of The Irrawaddy, the news website with the largest global profile – it is easier to provide news from abroad, with journalists living just over the border in Thailand or India posting updates for the native population.
It remains to be seen whether economic expansion will mean a wider proliferation of mobile phones, and of resulting internet use – but the effects of an independent media being spread to the 90 per cent of residents who don’t have bank accounts, let alone an internet connection, could be very profound.
Additional reporting by AFP
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The knives are out, his own party are currently scheming against him. There is a coup a brewin. Watch your back Kenny.
I thought the same thing… Does Mr Deasy ever wear a brown shirt?
wake up people FG FF LAB are self serving and are in politics for them selves and are un democratic.
Every great opinion ever starts with ‘wake up people’
maybe thats true Bill,
might be the very reason Kenny gets the knife in the back too
@PaulRoche
Do you mean Ernst Róhm, Nazi Brown Shirts, Night of the Long Knives and all that?
If so, why, pray tell.
I’m sure I am missing something here!!
Exactly Connaghtabú
I have commented earlier on this site that fascist comparisons to the current FG leadership will become more common.
I see the trend towards centralising power at a time of economic crisis to be extremely worrying. Thankfully, we have voted to retain the Seanad, but my fears will continue while Enda remains at the helm.
no that would be SF, same leader and deputy leader for the past 30 years and no sign of an election
Conor,
If a political party does not have an elected leader that is something that should be investigated. I hope for your sake you are right, because otherwise you’d look a little silly. The people of Louth gave Adams a seat, which is an indication of an election, and I understand that SF have been elected to some positions in the Northern Irish government.
What confuses me most is when people who claim to be pro democracy, misrepresent what happens when it occurs.
sf , ff , fg , lab . vote for any of these and you will get more of the same , ,
ddi is the way forward
“The knives are out, his own party are currently scheming against him. There is a coup a brewin. Watch your back Kenny.”
In fairness the ‘schemer’ is John Deasy who has been scheming against Enda Kenny since 2004.
DDT for you, Ben (Brown boy).
Poor old Deasy savaged by a wet sheep.
Poor old Deasy savaged by a wet sheep Kenny
More like two wet sheep so close to each other that no one can tell if they are fighting or hugging and no one wants to find out.
Like most sheep soon to be lamb chops in the locals.
More power to Deasy.this Kenny lad becoming something of a bullying dictator
Deasy fell out with nearly everyone in his party when he decided to light up in the Dail bar the day after the smoking ban came in. His attitude to being told put it out was not very nice. He fell out with everyone because of that.
The man is a grade A plonker.
Deasy is the Timmy Dooley/Dara Calleary of Fine Gael. Anyone who takes him serious is only an on par fool.
Kenny again seeking publicity for himself. Would you ever shut up and resign.
Don’t worry enda will whip him back in line
its hardly surprising that they fall out with him they didnt even want him as party leader going into the general election
The cracks are beginning to show….publicly. Kenny’s fall will be epic. #Wallop
I am being pedantic again, I see a spelling mistake on the 10th line. :)
…………and too many “with” in the para under the ‘photo’. Do jounos’ no longer take English ?
hahahaha
If we’re going to be pedantic:
1. What’s with the 12 full stops at the start of your post? Do you not realise that the country is in recession, tighten your belt and use a more conservative 3 (2 after the budget)
2. You start a sentence with a lower case conjunction, this is wrong on precisely 2 levels
3. Why are there single quotes on the photo, is it in fact not a photo? (The photo is a lie)
4. What’s a jouno and why did you use a possessive plural?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9YoN9mkyctI#t=130
Sean, mea culpa. Trying to rush a post when I should have been in my car heading for a meeting. Will restrict the full stops in future; wouldn’t want to use up the whole of Ireland’s 2013 quota in one go. A jouno is mis-spelt journo – see above. ‘photo’ is merely how I was taught, (more years ago than I care to remember), to style the diminutive of photograph.Thank you for caring.
Just so we’re clear, I was joking… You got that, right? :)
I hoped I’d detected a certain tongue-in-cheek attitude and glad I was correct, (“Thank you for caring” was my contribution).
Kinda hard to tell humour from deranged on Journal.ie sometimes
Have a great weekend when it arrives – or you arrive at it, whichever is more appropriate.
I voted to keep the senate. But last night watching a report from the senate I wondered why. A Tipperary senator took to his feet for some time to complain about RTE not reporting the results of GAA county finals on the main evening news !!
What is “Senaad” ?
“Seanad” is the new upper house. It will be run by Clannad so at least it will be entertaining.
Deasy would fight with himself! Does he do anything other than argue? Record in Dail not up to much I’d say
now people of ireland your next referendum is to vote to get us out of europe demand a general election get rid of hitler kenny dum and dumber gilmore and get dictator merkel out of ireland as well imagine the amount of relieve taken of the irish people shoulders it would be a 21 centuary reliefe so send your letters to hitler kenny for these demands stand firm they are on the ledge now just push
In fairness to Deasy – his was the only action resulting in a conviction for the scandals of planning in the last decade … all hail Fred Forsey
direct democracy is the way to go
have your say