MEDIA IMMEDIACY: ASIA ONLINE

L o c a l  A s i a

Burma

Burmanet News http://theburmanetnews.editthispage.com
In a country where unauthorised use of a fax machine or simply logging onto the Internet without permission can earn a 15-year prison sentence, freedom of information is tightly controlled through phone-tapping and government control of the only Internet service provider. Membership of ASEAN has brought with it a new need for governmental email and Internet access that may ultimately lead to a loosening of the strict control by the military regime. Burmanet News, published in Burmese, English and Burmese, is primarily a daily newsletter e-mailed to subscribers. The content is provided by news agencies, human rights organisations and guest editorials. The editors are aware of their inability to reach ordinary Burmese people:

  • Not even 1 percent of the 46 million people in the Union of Burma can read this article online. Unlike neighboring countries India and Thailand, where technology is making inroads, Burmese military dictatorship has actively kept Internet access out of bounds from its citizens. The military junta — the State Peace and Development Council — has been so effective in closing down Burma that it has been included in the "top 20 enemies of the Internet" list released by Reporteurs Sans Frontieres last year.
    • The Golden Land www.myanmar.com/
    The umbrella site for the Burmese government contains links government-sponsored news and information websites - including The New Light of Myanmar and The Myanmar Times. While the on-line newspapers fall over themselves in their efforts to praise the government, the webmasters have made no attempt to censor their own guestbook, resulting in a few entries like the following:
  • Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2000  I am really really sick to see all propaganda of military thugs on the net. But I hate to admit that seeing my motherland in its news on the net is somehow helping my homesickness. - noel USA
    • The New Light of Myanmar www3.itu.int/MISSIONS/Myanmar/news01.htm
    In-print and on-line mouthpiece of the government; excellent examples of Orwell's "newspeak". Emphatically supports the army and military dictatorship and directs its venom at "foreign colonisers" (e.g. Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi):
  • We must, however, beware of those who have no qualms about driving wedges between patriots or compatriots, disturbing the peace, disrupting peaceful intellectual pursuits, or, worse, breaking up the Union. No one in his right senses can be fooled into believing alien intruders can work toward getting their lackeys into running this nation by proxy or getting their whims [to] see fruition, for we are indivisibly bound together by Union Spirit that is the hallmark of Myanmar's wellbeing.

    •     - The New Light of Myanmar, Monday, 28 August, 2000
    The Soros Foundation www.soros.org/burma/latest_news.html
    This news service, part of the Burma Project, compiles wire service stories and newspaper articles about Burma. The foundation supports free media, human rights and education for Burmese people. It also helps fund the Democratic Voice of Burma and other Burmese language media .

    Democratic Voice of Burma www.communique.no/dvb/about/goals.html
    Radio Station with on-line clips, mostly in Burmese, but you can hear Daw Aung Sung Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders deliver speeches in English.

    Burma Daily www.burmadaily.com/
    World News Service with links to all the Burmese media sites.
     
     

    Know a good site that we've missed so far? Please send us the URL and we'll credit you as contributor!

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