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(AP) YANGON, Burma - Burma abolished direct censorship of the media Monday in the most dramatic move yet toward allowing freedom of expression in the long-repressed nation. But related laws and practices that may lead to self-censorship raise doubt about how much will change.

Under the new rules, journalists will no longer have to submit their work to state censors before publication as they for almost half a century. However, the same harsh laws that have allowed Burma's rulers to jail, blacklist and control the media in the name of protecting national security remain unchanged and on the books.

For decades, this Southeast Asian nation's reporters had been regarded as among the most restricted in the world, subjected to routine state surveillance, phone taps and censorship so intense that independent papers could not publish on a daily basis. President Thein Sein's reformist government has significantly relaxed media controls over the last year, though, allowing reporters to print material that would have been unthinkable during the era of absolute military rule like photographs of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

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The Information Ministry, which has long controlled what can be printed, made the announcement on its website Monday. The head of the ministry's Press Scrutiny and Registration Department, Tint Swe, also conveyed the news to a group of editors in the country's main city Yangon. The move had been expected for months but was repeatedly delayed as the government struggles to draft a new media law to overhaul the industry here.

Tint Swe previously said the censor board itself would be abolished when censorship ends. But Monday's announcement indicated the board will stay and retain the powers it has always had to suspend publications or revoking publishing licenses if they deem publishing rules are violated.

Nyein Nyein Naing, an editor from the Seven Day News Journal who attended Monday's meeting, said journalists will still have to submit their articles to the censor board. But now, she said, they will be required to do so after publication, apparently to allow the government to determine whether any publishing laws are violated.

Those laws, in place since a military coup in 1962, include edicts prohibiting journalists from writing articles that could threaten peace and stability, oppose the constitution or insult ethnic groups. Critics say some laws are open to interpretation and give the government enormous power to go after its critics. They have been used repeatedly in recent years to jail members of the press.

Nyein Nyein Naing welcomed the government announcement, as did other journalists in Burma, also known as Myanmar. But she added: "We have to be very cautious as (the state censor board) will keep monitoring us."

It was not immediately clear to what degree continued government scrutiny could lead to self-censorship. Some topics remain highly sensitive, like corruption and alleged abuses committed by army officers during the previous ruling junta. Overzealous authorities could use the threat of prosecution to prevent articles from being published or exact harsh punishments for material they don't like.

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Burma government ends direct media censorship

YANGON, Myanmar Myanmar abolished direct censorship of the media Monday in the most dramatic move yet toward allowing freedom of expression in the long-repressed nation. But related laws and practices that may lead to self-censorship raise doubt about how much will change.

Under the new rules, journalists will no longer have to submit their work to state censors before publication as they for almost half a century. However, the same harsh laws that have allowed Myanmar's rulers to jail, blacklist and control the media in the name of protecting national security remain unchanged and on the books.

For decades, this Southeast Asian nation's reporters had been regarded as among the most restricted in the world, subjected to routine state surveillance, phone taps and censorship so intense that independent papers could not publish on a daily basis. President Thein Sein's reformist government has significantly relaxed media controls over the last year, though, allowing reporters to print material that would have been unthinkable during the era of absolute military rule -- like photographs of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Information Ministry, which has long controlled what can be printed, made the announcement on its website Monday. The head of the ministry's Press Scrutiny and Registration Department, Tint Swe, also conveyed the news to a group of editors in the country's main city Yangon. The move had been expected for months but was repeatedly delayed as the government struggles to draft a new media law to overhaul the industry here.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland welcomed the announcement but urged Myanmar to abolish the censor board entirely.

Tint Swe previously said the censor board itself would be abolished when censorship ends. But Monday's announcement indicated the board will stay and retain the powers it has always had to suspend publications or revoking publishing licenses if they deem publishing rules are violated.

Nyein Nyein Naing, an editor from the Seven Day News Journal who attended Monday's meeting, said journalists will still have to submit their articles to the censor board. But now, she said, they will be required to do so after publication, apparently to allow the government to determine whether any publishing laws are violated.

Those laws, in place since a military coup in 1962, include edicts prohibiting journalists from writing articles that could threaten peace and stability, oppose the constitution or insult ethnic groups. Critics say some laws are open to interpretation and give the government enormous power to go after its critics. They have been used repeatedly in recent years to jail members of the press.

Nyein Nyein Naing welcomed the government announcement, as did other journalists in Myanmar. But she added: "We have to be very cautious as (the state censor board) will keep monitoring us."

It was not immediately clear to what degree continued government scrutiny could lead to self-censorship. Some topics remain highly sensitive, like corruption and alleged abuses committed by army officers during the previous ruling junta. Overzealous authorities could use the threat of prosecution to prevent articles from being published or exact harsh punishments for material they don't like.

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Myanmar's government ends long-standing practice of censorship of local media

20 August 2012 Last updated at 05:47 ET

Burma has abolished pre-publication censorship of the country's media, the information ministry has announced.

The Press Scrutiny and Registration Department (PSRD) said that as of Monday, reporters would no longer have to submit their work to state censors before publication.

However, strict laws remain in place which could see journalists punished for what they have written.

Burma has kept tight control over all aspects of its media for some 50 years.

But the civilian government has been gradually easing restrictions since taking office last year.

"Censorship began on 6 August 1964 and ended 48 years and two weeks later," Tint Swe, head of the PSRD, told AFP news agency on Monday.

"Any publication inside the country will not have to get prior permission from us before they are published.

"From now on, our department will just carry out registering publications for keeping them at the national archives and issuing a license to printers and publishers," he said.

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Burma abolishes media censorship

By NBC News wire services

YANGON, Myanmar -- Myanmar abolished press censorship on Monday, the latest in a series of dramatic economic and political reforms by the quasi-civilian regime and one that carries risks for its ability to manage change.

The government's announcement marks a U-turn from the oppressive policies of the military that ran Myanmar for almost 50 years until March 2011. The military government's censors not only kept tight control over the media but monitored every song, cartoon, book and piece of art for subversive content.

After lifting some restrictions on publications in June last year, the authorities on Monday extended press freedom to the remaining 80 political and six religious journals.

'Great day for all journalists in Myanmar'"Any publication inside the country will not have to get prior permission from us before they are published, effective today," said Tint Swe, head of the press censorship board at the Ministry of Information.

He explained the move to editors and publishers at his department earlier on Monday.

"From now on, our department will just carry out registering publications for keeping them at the national archives and issuing a license to printers and publishers," he said.

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"This is a great day for all journalists in Myanmar, who have labored under these odious restrictions for far too many years," an editor at a Yangon weekly publication who preferred not to be named told AFP.

"It is also another encouraging example of the progress that the country is making under (President) Thein Sein's government," the editor told AFP.

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Myanmar regime ends press censorship

Investigating the seedy side ... author of the book The Money Shot, Jeff Sparrow. Photo: Ken Irwin

"What was jail like?'' Darrell Cohen stares at me, and then his face scrunches up. His head slumps into his hands and he begins, wordlessly, to sob.

Few people know that, throughout the states of Australia, retailing X-rated pornography remains illegal. You can own the stuff, you can buy it, but you are not allowed to sell it.

The National Classification Code - which governs the censorship of literature, film, TV and video games - reflects a heated battle over video pornography in the 1980s.

Illustration: Rocco Fazzari

Australians were early enthusiasts for the VCR revolution, a boom that historians of technology attribute largely to porn. The early machines were expensive - but they meant you could watch hard-core videos in the privacy of your lounge room.

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In response to the suddenly flourishing market of VCR porn, the federal government introduced the X category. But anti-porn activists, both social conservatives and feminists, convinced the state governments not to ratify corresponding schemes in their own jurisdictions.

Since then, the laws have remained largely frozen, a strange and unsatisfactorycompromise that leaves the adult industry in a weird limbo.

In theory, the sex shops in Melbourne and Sydney are illegal. But illegality assists a peculiar freedom - most of the time.

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Video nasty: one man's ordeal and society's mixed messages on porn