Burma lifts media bans on ‘day for democracy’

BURMA has lifted bans on major news websites, including some run by the army-dominated regime, and opened access to online video site YouTube.

A range of newspapers, including The Bangkok Post, Singapore Straits Times and other regional newspapers also saw their bans lifted as did the Burmese language services of the Voice of America, BBC and the exile-run Democratic Voice of Burma.

Many news websites were blocked at the peak of an army crackdown on Buddhist-led protests in 2007. Since then, those sites displayed a common message from state telecoms group Myanmar Post and Telecommunications (MPT). “This website is blocked by the MPT,” it said.

The move coincided with the United Nations’ International Day of Democracy, an event celebrated by Nobel laureate and democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the commercial capital Rangoon.

“Changes are on the horizon in Burma,” she told supporters outside her party’s headquarters.

However, television remains strictly controlled by the government and foreign journalists are still mostly barred from reporting national events.

Most expect western sanctions to remain in place until an estimated 2,100 political prisoners are released.

Every song, book, cartoon and planned piece of art still requires approval by censors rooting out political messages and criticisms of Burma’s authoritarian system.

One editor of a weekly newspaper described the reopening of the websites as “a big improvement in the media policy of the new government.

“We can have access to these websites, but the connection is still rather slow most of the time,” he said, declining to be identified by name. “Let’s wait to see how long it will last.”