ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

By VIOLET CHO | Burmese journalists working inside the country are in a no-win situation, say Rangoon reporters. They know the full extent of the Cyclone Nargis story, but they can’t report it to the Burmese people because of the military regime’s draconian censorship policy.

It’s been two months since the tropical cyclone slashed through the Irrawaddy delta, yet still there are refugees who have never received any relief assistance from the government or private relief organizations.

The military regime’s censorship board routinely bans journalists from publishing anything critical of the government’s actions in aiding the refugees, say journalists in Rangoon.

A Rangoon-based senior editor who asked that his name not be used said no journals or magazines in Burma have written anything critical of the military regime’s handling of the disaster, including its failure to allow aid to reach all of the victims and refugees.

“We are forbidden to report anything about the problems of cyclone victims and refugees,” he said. “We know that many cyclone survivors still haven’t received any assistance, but we can not say anything on their behalf.”

Most Burmese journalists have a sense of guilt because they are allowed to report only one side of the story, giving positive accounts where they can be found while ignoring the other side of the story in which people are still suffering great hardship because of the regime’s lack of concern, organizational ability and distrust of Western governments and nongovernmental agencies.

“I met an old woman who didn’t get any assistance, and she was eating raw bananas to stay alive,” he said. “I wrote her story, but the press scrutiny board censored the story, and we couldn’t publish it.”

Another Burmese reporter in Rangoon said words such as “refugees” and “people are starving” are very sensitive and automatically deleted from their stories.

The press scrutiny board is also very sensitive to photographs from the affected area. “They only allow pictures that show minor destruction,” said one reporter.

He said pictures taken from the air that show the destruction of entire villages are routinely censored, along with images of long lines of people waiting for food or relief supplies. In one case, a photograph was censored which showed people using leafs for plates because they had no plates, he said.

According to the Burma Media Association (BMA), an exile-run press freedom group, at least four Burmese journalists have been detained by authorities this year for publishing material considered harmful to the regime. .

They are Aung Kyaw San, the editor-in-chief of the Myanmar Tribune; Ma Eine Khine Oo, a journalist with Ecovision Journal; popular commentator, comedian and blogger, Zarganar, whose real name is Maung Thura; and Zaw Thet Htwe, a freelance journalist based in Rangoon.

The international Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) recently urged Burma’s military government to release all detained journalists.

Bob Dietz, the CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, said the military regime only wants journalists to write stories that help it to maintain control.

The draconian press policy prevents the media from informing the public of the true conditions in the delta and the needs of the people who have lost homes, jobs and loved ones, he said.