The Burmese Press Scrutiny Board's delay in reviewing the articles in "Cherry Magazine" forced the Rangoon-based monthly to skip its August issue, according to SEAPA partner Mizzima News Agency.

The August issue, meant to be published by end of July, was released only on 12 August, prompting the publisher to designate it as the September issue instead.

Despite the delay, the censorship board approved only five poems out of the 16 submitted for scrutiny, according to a Rangoon-based magazine editor, who regularly reads and monitors the magazine publications in the country.

The source, who requested anonymity, said the censors usually take a week to review the contents of a particular magazine. This time, though, it took them two weeks to approve only four poems for publication.

"Normally the magazine carries seven poems in each issue, so the editors submitted more poems than usual. By the time the censors have made their decision, the regular publication date of 20th of every month had already passed," the editor, who is close to the "Cherry Magazine" staff, told Mizzima.

To solve the dilemma, the source said the magazine editors changed the issue month from August to September.

"This was supposed to be a special anniversary issue, but the censorship board rejected many articles and several paragraphs were deleted in some stories. Each article runs for about 20 pages," he added.

The Burmese Press Scrutiny Board said it lacked the manpower as the chief scrutiny officer is on leave and other junior officials read articles from other publications.

The editor, however, said it was a lame excuse. He said the real reason is that the government has tightened the censorship rules on "Cherry Magazine" after it published last month a controversial poem, entitled "Depayinga."

"All other magazines received their approved articles on time," the editor added.

Mizzima said that in Burma, it is standard practice for monthly magazine publishers to submit more articles then they actually print to cope with the tight censorship and to have enough articles and poems to print even if the censorship board rejected several articles.

"Cherry Magazine" was first published in August 1984; the August issue was supposed to be its 24th anniversary special issue. The publisher suffered financial loss as a result of the publication's delay.