CENSORING THE BURMESE PRESS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 RANGOON 000114

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/MLS, DRL, AND IO
PACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/12/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM BM
SUBJECT: CENSORING THE BURMESE PRESS

REF: A. A: RANGOON 67


B. B: RANGOON 57

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Classified By: Poloff Chelsia Wheeler for Reasons 1.4 (b) & (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY. The Printing and Press Scrutiny Board,
comprised of 20 low-level officers, reads and censors every
written publication in Burma. The board deletes all taboo
material from printed media in the country, including
anything critical of the government. Because of low wages
for these officers, corruption throughout the censorship
process remains rampant, and sensitive material slips past
the board. The censorship law provides the GOB with a useful
tool to imprison political prisoners and those associated
with them. END SUMMARY.

The Publication Process
--------------


2. (C) Publication in Burma starts with obtaining a
publisher's license, said Thiha Saw, editor and owner of
Myanma Dana Business Magazine, a monthly publication he has
run since its founding in 1990. The Ministry of Information
controls licenses. The same Ministry can revoke licenses at
any time, he said, although usually officials wait until they
have issued a few warnings before revoking a license.
Printers and publishers lease their licenses from the
Ministry and can only publish on the topic described in their
contract. Thiha Saw noted that no hard news licenses are
given to independent publications. Therefore, most of the
publications specialize in sports, business, or fashion news.


3. (SBU) According to Burma's 1962 Printers and Publishers
Registration Law, all informational materials, including
video and print media, must get the advance approval of the
Printing and Press Scrutiny Board. Even handwritten
statements must be licensed and approved before they can be
photocopied and distributed to the public. Violating this
law can land a person in prison for up to seven years, and
the GOB notoriously uses the law to justify imprisoning
political activists.


4. (C) The Press Scrutiny Board consists of approximately 20
low-ranking government officers who must read everything that
is published in the country, said Thiha Saw. Overseeing
their work are four or five section heads who all report to a
director, currently Major Tin Swe of the Ministry of
Information. The 20 low-ranking officers rotate to different
topics every three months in order to avoid developing
sympathy for any particular publication. To clear the
censorship process, publications can take anywhere from a few
days for private weekly papers to years for books and artwork
that the board may deem inappropriate.


5. (C) Once a publication passes the Press Scrutiny Board,
and the publisher has made all the required changes, it may
be distributed. To illustrate the process, Thiha Saw showed
Poloff an edition of his magazine with the Scrutiny Board's
edits and the final published version. Sometimes whole
articles had been deleted, but more often paragraphs of
articles and cartoons were censored. In order to avoid
reworking the layout for the entire magazine, and because the
board requires that they leave no blank space where articles
have been censored, Myanma Dana inserts self-advertisements
to fill up space.

Taboo Topics
--------------


6. (C) Publications in Burma, according to the Press Scrutiny
Board, must all promote national unity, said Thiha Saw. This
means that anything that is political, relates to labor
strikes, criticizes China, or discusses the poor economy
cannot be published. Anything critical of the United States
or that discusses casualties in Iraq, on the other hand, will
pass the board. The board even censors international new
magazines, such as "Newsweek" and "Time," by ordering shops
to cut out all taboo articles individually before they can

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sell the journals.


7. (C) The uncensored version of Thiha Saw's magazine
contained cartoons that discussed the booming transistor
radio industry in the country and paragraphs critical of
China's poor policy on electronic waste. These were replaced
by advertisements in the final copy. With some pride,
however, Thiha Saw showed Poloff a cartoon in the final
version that was written in English and showed people holding
signs saying "Overthrow the government" and "Revolt." He
attributed the oversight on the part of the Press Scrutiny
Board to a continuing severe work overload.


8. (C) Taboo topics, however, change with the directors of
the boards and the political situation, asserted Ko Mrat of
Embassy-funded group Art.com who has been awaiting final
approval for his poetry and art anthology books for several
months. Since September 2007, he complained, all art
exhibits must be photographed and submitted to the board.
Artwork with slanted pagodas, too much red, and too much
black is banned because the government believes they display
hidden political messages referring to the September
protests. Censors will ban shows displaying the work of
politically active artists or those with the same names as
such artists, including artist U Win Pe who currently resides
in the United States. Additionally, said Ko Mrat, artists
and publishers must have captions that identify all people in
their paintings, and all video images of karaoke movies must
match the lyrics of the song.

Corruption Throughout the Process
--------------


9. (C) Because the 20 members of the Printing and Press
Scrutiny Board make only approximately 40,000 kyat (USD 33)
per month, corruption runs rampant throughout the process,
declared Thiha Saw. While publishers cannot pay bribes to
slip taboo material past the censorship board, they can pay a
little extra to make sure their publications pass quickly.
In this way, Thiha Saw estimates that the junior board
members make as much as $100 extra per month. He also said
that all of the amenities at the director's residence such as
air conditioning units are "donations" from printers and
publishers.


10. (C) In rare instances, and in exchange for a bribe,
police will turn a blind eye on material published without
the requisite licenses. One example of this, said Ko Mrat,
is the booming pornography industry. In Burma, the staple of
the industry are small hand-written cartoon books sold in
large quantities on the streets of major cities. A friend of
Ko Mrat, who publishes these books, sells approximately 5,000
copies per month, making a profit of 400 kyat (USD 0.33) per
book. His monthly income, therefore, is approximately USD
1,650, an enormous sum by Burmese standards, where most
people earn less in an entire year.

Using the press law to justify arrests
--------------


11. (C) The GOB frequently uses the Printers and Publishers
Registration Law to file charges against political prisoners.
Recently ten 88 Generation Students, including Min Ko Naing
and Ko Ko Gyi, were charged under the law for failing to
register pro-democracy materials that they published (Ref A).
Thiha Saw also asserted that the government set up the poet,
Saw Wai, who was arrested on January 22 for publishing a poem
with a hidden anti-government message (Ref B). Saw Wai, who
has become known recently as a political activist, runs a tea
shop that provides a popular rendezvous point for young
activists. He sent the poem to the magazine over a year ago,
said Thiha Saw, and when the government needed an excuse to
arrest him, they had one available.


12. (C) Comment. The Than Shwe regime uses censorship to
maintain its hold on power. Through censorship, the GOB
tries to control the information the people living inside the
country can access. However, people all over Burma receive

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uncensored information through the radio, Internet, and other
sources. Many of the journalists working with the private
press have become skillful at getting relevant information to
their audiences over the eyes of the censors. For instance,
a fashion magazine published an article about child soldiers
in Africa. Few people take the government newspapers
seriously. The government may control the media, but it does
not control hearts and minds. End Comment.
VILLAROSA