The Burmese junta’s censorship board has imposed restrictions in the coverage of the anniversary of cyclone Nargis, sources in local journals in Rangoon said.
"We can report on the Nargis anniversary. There have been many news reports appearing in the media this week. But the censorship board has rejected some news based on the content of the story,” an editor of a local weekly journal told Mizzima.
“The censorship board mainly rejected stories and pictures that show the severity of destruction and the victims’ attempts of recovering from the tragedy a year later," he said.
"We have to be careful while writing the stories. We cannot be critical of the government’s efforts on recovery. Our stories that say that victims are still suffering are rejected. We must publish only optimistic reports," he added.
Cyclone Nargis, which lashed Burma on May 2 last year, left about 140,000 dead or missing and affected 2.4 million people.
The censorship board has also restricted and banned stories that speak of the relief efforts being carried out by international and local non-governmental organizations.
However, news reporting on rehabilitation work in the cyclone-hit region in Irrawaddy Division, Laputta, Bogale and Pyinsalu are being allowed to be published.
But an editor of another local weekly journal said that their journal was allowed to report on the rehabilitation work.
"We had a special issue on the Nargis anniversary. Only a few stories and articles were censored. We reported on the rehabilitation work being conducted in Laputta and Pyinsalu", he said.
The editor said most of the stories run in the local journals are filled with the government’s efforts on recovery written in an optimistic manner, because only such stories are passed by the censorship board.
The censorship board reportedly instructed editors of local journals not to criticize the government on its work in cyclone-hit regions and to refrain from reporting about the victims of the cyclone.
In the wake of the cyclone’s devastation , the junta arrested a total of 21 journalists and aid volunteers who provided voluntary services to victims. They were charged and handed out prison terms.
The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists, in its statement released on April 30, ranked Burma as one of the worst countries for journalists, bloggers and Internet users.
In a related development, the censorship board ordered local journals not to break the news of fish paste products containing chemical substances, which are unfit for consumption, until the state-run newspaper could report the matter.
But the Myanmar Fishery Federation, during its regular meeting on May 5, decided that journalists would be allowed to ask them whatever information they wanted.
However, the executive officer of the fishery also said that the organization would check and scrutinize first the news regarding the fishery sector.
