The Falam Township Administration Office sent the newspaper a letter on 15th October telling them to stop publishing because they were not properly registered.

Ko Maung Maung a journalist from the Falam Post said: “If we continue to publish without official registration we will face legal action. We will publish our final edition today and we will stop from tomorrow [16th October].”

The Falam Post is the second Chin Language newspaper to be banned by the Chin State Government. On 30th September they banned the Chin Language Hakha Post Newspaper, which is based in Hakha Township.

Salai Holly the editor of the Chinland Post, another Chin newspaper said: “The [authorities] reason [for banning the paper] is that the Falam Post has no official registration but I think they just want to stop them reporting the news and their opinions and used the lack of official registration as their reason.”

According to him the 2008 constitution states that all ethnic groups are free to use, teach and propagate their native languages. These rights were also included in the peace agreement signed between the government and the Chin National Front (CNF) so the Chin State Government should not be banning ethnic language newspapers.

He said: “Newspapers from Chin State are at the mercy of the state government. If they wanted to let us publish it would be possible because we heard that the banning order did not come down from the Union Government. The state government has to be asked whether it is prepared to allow ethnic languages to be used and promoted.

The Falam Post started in May this year and was published five days a week.