Myanmar Newspaper Irks Censors

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A weekly newspaper in military-ruled Myanmar skipped publication Thursday on government orders after flouting censorship rules, its publisher said.

The government's Press Scrutiny Board ordered the Myanmar-language edition of the Myanmar Times not to publish this week for having run a story earlier that was not approved, said Ross Dunkley, editor in chief and CEO of Myanmar Consolidated Media Ltd.

The story, from the news agency Agence France-Presse, was about a huge increase in Myanmar's annual license fee for using satellite TV dishes.

"We got a red card from the government for one week," Dunkley said.

He denied reports the government asked that four editors be sacked, but acknowledged he was asked to make changes in the newsroom. He did not specify what kind of changes, but said they were being implemented.

The newspaper was founded in 2000 and is partly owned by the government. Like all media in Myanmar, it is censored by the Press Scrutiny Board under the Information Ministry.

The France-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders issued a statement Wednesday criticizing the government's ban.

Japan, meanwhile, urged Myanmar's junta to hold talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and work harder to implement democratic reforms.

In a meeting Thursday, Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura also urged Nyan Win, his Myanmar counterpart, to cooperate with the United Nations on improving human rights conditions in the military-ruled nation, the Foreign Ministry said.

Nyan Win was in Japan to attend the first meeting of the foreign ministers of Japan and five countries along Southeast Asia's Mekong river — Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam — to promote trade and investment.

"Myanmar's transition to a stable democratic nation is crucial for the development of the Mekong region as a whole," Komura told Nyan Win, the ministry said in a statement. "Myanmar's government should begin dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi to make concrete progress toward democracy."