The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) condemned the Burmese military junta for cracking down on freedom of expression, called for the release of all jailed journalists and urged its neighbouring countries to pressure the junta for change.
Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, Public Relations of WAN said, the Board of directors of WAN which represents more than 18,000 publications in five continents, met on December 15, 2008 in Beirut, Lebanon and urged the military junta in Burma to release all detained journalists and to end restriction on freedom of expression.
"The Board of directors from WAN, while issuing the resolution and condemning the lack of press freedom in Burma, urged the military junta to stop arrests and the crackdown on the press," Kilman said.
"There is no press freedom in Burma. It is one of the most repressive regimes and is an embarrassment to the entire region," added Kilman.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on December 4 that Burma is the third worst country in terms of imprisoning journalists in the world after China and Cuba. Burma has at least 14 journalists behind bars.
"The Burmese regime, one of the most repressive in the world, recently stepped up its attack on freedom of expression," said WAN.
WAN also called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) "To abandon their discredited policy of non-interference and mount pressure on Burma's rulers to adopt international norms of free expression."
Despite condemnation and pressure from the international community the Burmese military junta arrested journalists and bloggers and sentenced them to long terms in prison. They were sent to prisons in remote areas where their family members would find it difficult to visit.
The blogger and well know comedian Zargarnar (Maung Thura) were sentenced up to 59 years in prison for disseminating information about the September 2007 protests and in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis.
Blogger Nay Phone Latt was sentenced to 20 ½ years in jail for posting free writing that fired the feelings of Burmese youth in his blog site. Journalist Ein Khaing Oo from Ecovision weekly Journal was sentenced to two years in prison for covering a story about Cyclone Nargis victims.
"For press freedom in Burma the best solution is democracy and that is not there," said Larry Kilman.
A Rangoon based veteran editor of a privately owned monthly journal said the journal had fallen in quality because of extreme censorship by the junta authorities. It has been reducing its print order every month.
"We are more and more disappointed with the government's censor board. They are rejecting whatever they want without following exact rules," the editor who wished not to be named told Mizzima.
"It is Impossible to publish stories relating to political issues. The junta is also prohibiting news and write ups which are not political in nature," he added.
Now they have reduced the print order. While earlier they published over 10,000 copies monthly now it is well below that figure.
"We have to reduce the number of journals because the demand has fallen and the censor board destroys the quality of journals," he added.
