Thursday 16 January 2014

Myanmar state mouthpiece promises 'independent' future

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar - The New Light of Myanmar, the state mouthpiece known for fiery junta-era pronouncements against international media, will be "editorially independent" when it is reborn as a partly private newspaper this year, a spokesman said.

Myanmar has sought to shed its image as an enemy of a free press by scrapping draconian censorship and allowing private daily newspapers as it implemented stunning political reforms since the end of outright military rule nearly three years ago.

The English-language New Light has also toned down its bombast in recent years, replacing rhetoric against critics and foreign media -- such as accusing the BBC of "killer broadcasts" and "sowing hatred" -- with celebrity gossip and sports.

It has been partly spun off by the state, with a Myanmar company taking a 49 per cent stake in what the newspaper says will mean a new broadsheet style, more colour pages and a "people’s interest" focus.

"We will be like (Britain’s) Guardian newspaper," said spokesman Ye Naing, an information ministry official.

"It will be editorially-independent. We did put some propaganda -- like that the BBC is lying or killer on air -- under the military government under the policy of the time," he told AFP late Tuesday.

"But the government is different now. So there will be nothing like this at all."

source: The Nation

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