Rangoon – Local journalists are up in arms over censorship but can do little but unanimously voice that they are facing severe censorship at a time when the Chief of the Censor Board is on tour.

Journalists attached to periodicals said that  censorship has became more severe while the director of the notorious 'Press Scrutiny Board' popularly known as 'Literary Kempetai', Maj. Tint Swe, is out of station.

A monthly magazine editor said the Deputy-Director Maj. Aung Kyaw Oo imposed stricter restrictions on magazines and journals to avoid unnecessary mistakes which can put him in trouble.

"He censors many more news and articles whenever Maj. Tint Swe is on official tour. We are pained when we see these censored manuscripts. He seems not to want to take responsibility and tries to avoid trouble," he said.

He also requested not to quote him in reporting news arguing that the junta is watching domestic journalists and imposing tighter restrictions on them.

The print media in Burma is incurring heavy losses due to the overcautious and stricter censorship. The publishers of print media in Burma have to submit their draft printed copy to the censor board. They have to remove the censored articles, news and re-typeset it again for the final copy and have to submit it for final approval. Only after these stages have been crossed the publishers can distribute their papers and magazines in the market.

Mizzima learnt that the Censor Board wanted removed about half of the 80 domestic news items from a weekly journal at the draft copy stage.

"The Director could be approached for reconsideration of censored news and articles after slight modifications. We cannot do this with the new person," a weekly journal editor said.

In news censorship, a directive was issued to delete all news covering government ministries and departments without interviewing the responsible person of the departments concerned.

"He's been in this office for about four months. He is tough. He has no literary or journalistic background. But Maj. Tint Swe has a background in journalism. He behaves sympathetically and has some attachment with journalists," a magazine editor said.

The censorship chief is a writer of junta's propaganda material and he is known to use the pen name Ye Yint Tint Swe.

Maj. Tint Swe is still in Naypyitaw (the new capital) attending the departmental monthly coordination meeting at the Information Ministry even after the press conference has been held. The domestic journalists are facing these difficulties for a week after he left to attend the press conference.

Literary magazines such as Mahaythi, Cherry, Ahtwe Ahmyin, Nwe Ni, Sabephyu are severely hit by the strict censorship. The circulation of these monthly magazines has declined significantly.

A monthly magazine which had a previous circulation of over 10,000 copies is now selling 7,000 copies and a magazine with an earlier circulation of 3,000 copies is now selling at just below 1,000 copies.

"The censor board badly cuts and deletes widely read popular articles and it is hardly readable with so many deletions and omissions. On the other hand, the people cannot afford to buy these magazines as the prices are rising, in an already bad economic situation," a veteran magazine editor who wished not to be named said.

As the market for the monthly literary magazines shrink they are relying more on advertisement revenue to cover production costs.

"Future magazines might rely on advertisement revenue which will be an alternative source of income. The market is shrinking in Burma day by day for magazines with only literary content," he said.

In this competitive and difficult situation faced by the Burmese journalistic fraternity, the authorities are imposing stricter restrictions, monitoring journalists and there are less news and official prees releases.

(Rangoon based Mizzima undercover reporter wrote this news with additional inputs by Nam Davies)