Sunday June 28, 2009, 3:22 am
Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association today condemned the military junta for intimidating the press trying to cover recent national and international events, as a journalist was jailed for two years after being arrested near the home of Aung San Suu Kyi.

“Since the UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari arrived in Burma one might expect greater tolerance on the part of the authorities, but on the contrary, the trial of Suu Kyi is being held in a climate of repression and censorship,” the press freedom organisations said.

“We call on the UN envoy to show firmness in his talks with the authorities, including on the release of all political prisoners and an end to prior censorship. Without this, there can be no approval of any reconciliation process or elections,” they said.

The two organisations strongly condemned the two-year sentence imposed on freelance journalist Zaw Tun on 18 June. A former journalist with the magazine The News Watch, he was arrested near the Suu Kyi’s home by a police officer who claimed he had shown “hostility” towards him. He was found guilty at a court in Bahan, near Rangoon, of obstructing the work of an official. A Rangoon journalist said that Zaw Tun was taken immediately to jail after the verdict.

Military intelligence agents on 23 June went to several media offices to demand lists of journalists who had taken part in journalism training sessions at the US Embassy in Rangoon.

The renowned journalist U Win Tin, who was cited as a defence witness in the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under constant surveillance by the special police. The prosecutor refused to accept the former political prisoner as a witness because he criticises the government, particularly in foreign media.

The junta has imposed strict censorship on both national and international news items. The censorship bureau, the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division, banned the publication of news on the arrival of a North Korean cargo ship, Kang Nam 1, in a port near Rangoon, which is suspected of transporting weapons.

A journalist in Rangoon told the magazine Irrawaddy that “most newspapers have tried to report on the arrival of the cargo vessel but the government censor rejected all the articles”.

The censorship bureau also banned some articles on demonstrations that followed the disputed elections in Iran.

The press was refused the right at the start of June to publish information about the investigation into the collapse of the Danoke pagoda in Dala, near Rangoon, in which several people died. “We cannot publish articles or photos about this incident, because it was the wife of [junta leader] General Than Shwe who installed the sunshade on the pagoda on 7 May 2009", one journalists explained. She is known to be very superstitious.

The censorship bureau on 1st June threatened the privately owned weekly True News for carrying an article in its 19 May issue by the famous journalist Ludu Sein Win who said that “many governments cannot tolerate criticism from journalists”. The censors alleged that the paper changed the front page after it had been passed by the censors.

Reporters Without Borders revealed at the end of 2008 that the censorship bureau sent all media offices a document detailing ten rules imposed on editors, who would be punished if changes were made after the article had been checked.

The state-run media reported the charges against Suu Kyi, without giving anything the full statements by the defence. The daily New Light of Myanmar reported the main developments in the trial insisting there was complicity between the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the American William Yetaw, who swam to her lakeside home on 3 May. In its 27 May edition, the daily published the full questioning of Suu Kyi by the judge, but the cross examination by defence lawyers were only briefly summarised in the official press.

The state press also relays the junta’s threats against the opposition, as happened on 5 June, when the New Light of Myanmar carried threats by the authorities against the youth branch of the National League for Democracy for putting out a statement.

Sunday June 28, 2009, 1:10 pm
Court adjourns Suu Kyi's trial to July 3.
New Delhi (mizzima)
- The special court in Insein Prison on Friday adjourned the hearing of the testimony of a second defense witness in the trial against opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to July 3rd, as the country’s High Court has yet to rule on an appeal to allow the remaining two defense witnesses.

Nyan Win, a member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team, said the court on Friday convened at about 10 a.m. (local time) and adjourned about thirty minutes later with the judge scheduling the testimony of Khin Moh Moh, the second defense witness, for July 3rd.

“Since the decision from the High Court has not yet been announced, the lower court cannot go ahead with the case,” Nyan Win iterated.
Earlier in the week, the High Court heard arguments by defense lawyers to allow the remaining two defense witnesses – Tin Oo, Vice-Chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD), and Win Tin, a veteran journalist and Central Executive Committee member of the NLD – to take the stand.

On Thursday, Burma’s Chief of Police, Khin Yi, told journalists and diplomats at a rare news conference in Rangoon that Aung San Suu Kyi is responsible for the secret visit by the American man, John William Yettaw, as she failed to immediately report the incident to the authorities concerned.
Khin Yi accused the detained Nobel Peace Laureate of delaying notification of Yettaw's initial visit at the end of 2008 by four days, putting authorities in a difficult situation to trace the case.

He added he suspects a mastermind behind Yettaw’s visit to the Burmese democracy icon’s house on the shores of Inya Lake in Rangoon, and that authorities are still trying to find out which group is responsible for the breech in security.

But opposition groups, including the NLD, have accused the junta of using the incident as a pretext to continue detaining Aung San Suu Kyi in order to remove her from the public realm prior to and during their planned election in 2010.

Thursday July 2, 2009, 9:27 am
Ban Ki-Moon Says He’ll Urge Junta to Free Suu Kyi. (Irrawaddy)
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon assured reporters on Tuesday during a Tokyo stopover on his way to Burma that he will urge the Burmese military junta to release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, when he visits the country this week.

Speaking after talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, he said he was aware of concerns about his July 3-4 visit coinciding with the trial of Suu Kyi, the main opposition leader, who has been under house arrest for a total of more than 13 years.
The UN Information Center in Rangoon said on Wednesday that it could not provide any details about Ban Ki-moon’s Burma schedule.

Suu Kyi, 64, is on trial in Rangoon on a charge of breaking the terms of her house arrest.
“It may be the case that the trial may happen during my visit in [Burma]. I am very much conscious of that. At the same time, to find the most appropriate timing has been a challenge for me, too,” Ban told reporters.

"I try to use this visit as an opportunity to raise in the strongest possible terms and convey the concerns of the international community of the United Nations to the highest authorities of the [Burmese] government," he added.
“We have received no notification yet from the Burmese authorities regarding a meeting with Ban Ki-moon.” said Ohn Kyaing, a member of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.
More:
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=16242

Thursday July 2, 2009, 9:38 am
FREE AUNG SAN SUU KYI!
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!
FREE BURMA!
I not NOW - WHEN???
http://internationalcampaignforfreedom.blogspot.com/

Thursday July 2, 2009, 10:50 am
Thank you Ben for every detailed information.The world needs to know what is really happening in Burma. The Burmese people need help, urgently.