Yangon, Myanmar (dpa) – Did the cartoon that was to appear in The Voice depicting a gavel with a worm in it allude to a rotten judiciary? In any case, state censors in Myanmar struck it from an advance copy of the weekly newspaper. On the whole, though, the censors have become quite lenient since power was transferred from a military junta to a civilian, albeit pro-military, government after parliamentary elections in November 2010, the first in Myanmar in 20 years. Indeed, the easing of press censorship is one of the most conspicuous signs of change. And in the run-up to by-elections on April 1, which are likely to put pro-democracy icon Auug San Suu Kyi into parliament, the media are enjoying their newfound freedom. “We still have to submit our paper before publication, but the censors are so much more relaxed,” said Kyaw Min Swe, chief editor of The Voice, which has a circulation of about 83,000. He spread out the latest edition on his desk the Yangon office. Some paragraphs had been crossed out, some because they criticized the authorities. In an article on school bullying, the censor had objected to a quotation by a mother who complained that school officials were not doing anything about the problem. A joke that could have been construed as scepticism of the new government's seriousness had also been red-penciled: “Why are you drinking so much?” a woman asked her husband. “It's like before,” he replied. “A lot has changed, but people have hung on to their old habits.” Kyaw Min Swe saved a censored issue from 2008 in which entire articles and half of some pages were expurgated. “We couldn't write about Suu Kyi, criticize China or mention corruption,” he said. “We're testing the boundaries now.” There has been no backlash yet. In a remarkable interview with US-funded Radio Free Asia, Tint Swe, director of the censorship board, essentially called for his own redundancy. “Press censorship is non-existent in most other countries as well as among our neighbors, and as it is not in harmony with democratic practices, press censorship should be abolished in the near future,” the Press Scrutiny and Registration Department chief said. Former general Thein Sein, who became president a year ago, has surprised everyone with the pace of his reforms. The press is beginning to flourish after decades of harassment. Apolitical magazines devoted to economics, sports and entertainment no longer have to pass the censors before publication. Journalists cleverly exploit this. Under the innocuous headline Youth and Change, the Burmese magazine Teen interviewed recently released political prisoners on the “change” – meaning their imprisonment – in their youth. “We received no complaints,” publisher Ma Thida said. A physician and fiction writer who spent five years in prison for her anti-government activities, Thida is also pressing ahead with daring work of her own. She wrote a short story for a literary magazine about a woman's recollection of her time in a refugee camp during the army's war against her people. Military operations against ethnic minority rebellions had hitherto been a taboo issue. Although the military junta saw schools and universities as hotbeds of the opposition and let them deteriorate, the hunger for education remains. “There are already more than 200 weekly magazines,” Ma Thida said. She said she would test the government's tolerance again in May by launching a political weekly called the Myanmar Independent, focusing on issues involving ethnic minorities. Such a project would have been unthinkable a few months ago. The media bear a special responsibility in times of change, Kyaw Min Swe said. “We need to characterize the situation fairly,” he said. “We're also victims of the dictatorship, and we have frustrations, too, but it would be misleading if we analyse emotionally. We need to appreciate the efforts by the government. Then they will take us seriously and listen to us.” The Voice editor Kyaw Min Swe now takes calculated risks. If he cannot understand a censor's objection, he ignores it – so far with impunity. “I would have wound up in prison for something like that before,” he said. He backed down in the case of the wormy gavel, though. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/fCq4e Tags: Censorship, featured, Freedom, Myanmar, Press Section: Features, Latest News, Media, Southeast Asia
