Burma censor chief calls for more media freedom

[alp227]

Source: BBC

The head of Burma's powerful press censorship department has called for greater media freedom in his country.

Tint Swe said censorship was incompatible with democratic practices and should be abolished in the near future.

The comments will be seen as further evidence that the new civilian-military hybrid government is trying to soften its stance.

Burma is said to have the world's most heavily censored media.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15227175

[Overseas]

1. K&R. Yes please!

[renate]

2. The story on page 7 of the government's official newspaper is interesting

Here's the link, updated daily (even though it says "archives"), to a PDF of The New Light of Myanmar:

http://myanmargeneva.org/NewsArchives/n1.pdf

The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission has been established to promote and protect the fundamental rights of citizens enshrined in the
Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and it has opened its office at No. 27, Pyay Road, Hline Township, Yangon.

I was really surprised to see that there would be a story about the Human Rights Commission opening, and details about how a citizen can register a complaint. It probably wouldn't get any further than that--and it might even get someone on a sh*t list for lodging a complaint in the first place--but the implied admission that there could even be a human rights issue in Burma would seem to be a pretty big step forward.