Wednesday, July 30, 2003

Foreign radios most popular source of news in Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myo, a taxi driver, has memorized the entire daily broadcast schedule of the BBC, the Voice of America and two other foreign radio stations.

Driving a visitor around Yangon in his beat-up, white Toyota, he proudly recited the schedules from early morning until night: "VOA is 6 in the morning.

BBC is at 6:30. Radio Free Asia is from 7 to 8. Voice of America is 6 in the evening again.'' He continued through the list, counting off times excitedly on his fingers, shifting gears between gestures, and turning around in his seat to ensure his passenger understood.

Myo, who did not want to give his full name, is among millions of people in Myanmar who listen to foreign radio broadcasts as the main source of news about the country.

Along with the U.S. and British government stations VOA and BBC, the most popular stations are Radio Free Asia, also financed by the United States, and the Democratic Voice of Burma, an opposition station based in Norway.

Although not strictly illegal, listening to news on foreign radio stations is considered a defiant gesture unlikely to be looked on favorably by the authorities in Myanmar, or Burma, as it's also known.

The military, in power since 1962, is paranoid that independent information may dent its hold on power and add to the popularity of the pro-democracy opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

It limits sources of outside information by requiring licenses for fax machines and blocking Web sites critical of the government.

Aside from foreign stations, the only other news comes from state-controlled media, which are devoted to recording the activities of junta leader Gen. Than Shwe and his Cabinet.

The newspapers Myanma Ahlin, Botahtaung and Kyemon publish no news of Suu Kyi and her party _ unless it is to berate them.

Foreign radio stations' listenership has shot up since the May 30 arrest of Suu Kyi, and Philippe Latour of the international press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said their listeners could face the government's anger.

"They are at risk of getting into really big trouble for getting news from outside,'' said Latour, who is based in Bangkok in neighboring Thailand.

However, in a faxed reply to a query, a government spokesman said this was not the case: "There is no such law concerned with listening to foreign radio stations and watching foreign TV stations. ... Telling what you have heard or watched on the radio or TV is not against the law unless you are doing it with the intention to agitate, incite or cause some sort of public unrest.''

The spokesman, who asked that his name not be used, added that the Democratic Voice of Burma and Radio Free Asia "are not very much accepted by sensible listeners'' because of their weak signals and the "black propaganda'' they broadcast.

Taxi driver Myo said that 90 percent of the people he knows listen to foreign broadcasts on small, easily hidden transistor radios.

As if to show how it is done, Myo crouched low in his driver's seat with his hand cupped over a pretend radio next to his hear.

According to Intermedia, a private firm hired by the BBC and VOA to survey their impact in Myanmar, 39 percent of the country's 42 million people listen to the BBC and 30 percent to VOA.

"Our purpose is long term, to empower people with information,'' the VOA's Jay Henderson said in a telephone interview from Washington.

Kyaw Zen Tha, the chief of the BBC Burmese service based in London, said: "The BBC is only out there so that the Burmese people can hear from the outside what is true. News from the Burmese government is only propaganda. Our programs are often the only source of information.''

The few Myanmar journalists who have tried to be independent in their reporting have faced harassment, censorship and very often prison. Latour of Reporters without Borders said 16 journalists were in prison in Myanmar at the end of 2002, compared to 11 in China, whose population is more than 30 times greater.

He added that a few more reporters have been jailed since the detention of Nobel laureate Suu Kyi in May.

The only foreign journalist based in Myanmar is from China _ an ally of the Myanmar government - and other reporters working for foreign news organizations in the country are from Myanmar, and can be intimidated by the authorities.

One Western diplomat recounted that diplomats who are allowed to attend news conferences are usually the ones asking tough questions as the Myanmar reporters sit silently, fearful of directing pointed questions at military officers.

Myanmar does not have any privately operated daily newspapers. It has up to 100 private weeklies or monthlies but these publications - and their individual articles - must be approved by a government board.

One editor of a monthly news journal, who spoke on condition of anonymity, reported that the board rejects many of his articles and even prohibits the use of many words.

"We can't use the words like warlord, inflation or exchange rate,'' he said, chuckling over the junta's intolerance to any mention of the country's problems.

The editor's combined home, office and print shop suggested his own - and the country's - economic troubles.

The walls were a smudged fluoride-green, and he talked from behind a scratched and dented desk.

The editor said he has never been detained, but that he has been threatened with arrest and his previous publication was once shut down.

Now he publishes his journal under someone else's name and seemed pleased that - in some small way - he could flout the system.

"I'm so envious of foreign reporters who can say whatever they want,'' he said. - AP

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