Journalists remain under threat of the Printer and Publisher Registration Act that was implemented after military takeover and that allows for imprisonment for "harming the ideology and views" of the government. The vague and arbitrary Ministry of Informaton's 12-point censorship policy still broadly bars any reporting on matters considered a threat to national unity or security.
The minister said the press council would eventually replace the government's current censorship arm, the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD), but the council would remain under his ministry's control. The proposed regulations stipulated that the press council must ensure that journalists abide by the 1962 Printer and Publisher Registration Act and the Ministry of Information's still-standing 12-point censorship policy.
That did not sit well with Burma's press corps. The exile-run Irrawaddy news site reported on Thursday that three Burmese media groupsthe Myanmar Journalists Association, the Myanmar Journalists Network and the Myanmar Journalists Unionobjected to the proposed rules for the soon-to-be-created press council.
Then today, Friday, PSRD Deputy Director Tint Swe told journalists that they could "forget about" the three-page proposal for press council regulations that Kyaw Hsan had handed out earlier in the week, journalists who took part in that meeting told Irawaddy. The PSRD will not insist that the journalists and writers groups follow the proposed regulations, they said.