Myanmar junta suspends two journals for violating rules: media
Source: 07-OCT-2008 Intellasia | AFP
Oct 7, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM Myanmar authorities have temporarily suspended publication of two weekly journals for "violation of the rules", according to editors.

Newspapers are being prepared for dispatching in Yangon, as seen in this file photo. Myanmar authorities have temporarily suspended publication of two weekly journals for "violation of the rules", according to editors. They said the ruling junta's censorship board withdrew licences for The Action Times and True News in a first warning to both publications. (AFP/File/Hla Hla Htay)

They said the ruling junta's censorship board withdrew licences for The Action Times and True News in a first warning to both publications.

"The suspension will start from October 8 for one month for the Action Times journal and two months for True News journal.

"The censor board said it was because of violation of the rules and regulations without elaborating," a news editor said on condition of anonymity, on Friday.

Exiled media reported The Action Times had received the suspension for its reporting of the release of former journalist and democracy activist Win Tin from a Myanmar prison.

New Delhi-based Mizzima news agency said the journal had referred to Win Tin as "Sayagyi" or "Great Master" in contravention of censorship laws.

It also reported an editor saying the True News may have received its temporary ban for writing an unapproved caption alongside a photograph of a child working on a construction site in the Thai resort Phuket.

Media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders has referred to Myanmar as a "paradise for censors".

All in-country publications are controlled by the military or subject to massive censorship, and most people do not have access to international news outlets.

Media watchdogs estimate at least 10 journalists and one blogger are imprisoned in Myanmar.

In June two editors were arrested for travelling to the cyclone-hit Irrawaddy Delta to help deliver relief supplies and bury the dead.

Aung Kyaw San, editor of the Myanmar Tribune, was arrested along with 16 other people, while sports writer and editor Zaw Thet Htwe was detained during a visit to his ailing mother, the organisations said.