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Dozens of journalists marched in Yangon on Saturday to protest against the suspension of two journals amid fears that officials might be backing off pledges to ease strict junta-era censorship laws.

Journalists wearing shirts bearing their campaign slogan "Stop Killing Press", march in Yangon on Saturday, an event that would have been unheard of two years ago.

The reporters, many wearing black T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Stop Killing Press" in Burmese and English, marched to several sites across Yangon, including the two publishing houses behind the suspended weeklies.

Stifling censorship was one of the key symbols of junta-led Myanmar, where even seemingly innocuous details were scrubbed from public discussion and publications were frequently pulled for comments deemed damaging to the authoritarian rulers.

The government had recently taken a lighter touch with some of the less controversial publications as part of reforms sweeping the former army-ruled nation, prompting some editors to test the boundaries of the new found freedoms.

In June Tint Swe, head of the Press Scrutiny and Registration Department (PSRD), told AFP there "will be no press scrutiny job" from the end of that month, also insisting there would be "no monitoring" of local journals and magazines.

A petition by the newly formed press freedom committee called for an end to all "oppressive" media laws.

"We have seven demands which we are sending in a letter to the president to remove the oppressive laws covering the media," Zaw Thet Htwe, a spokesman for the independent committee told AFP on phone.

The demands include an immediate lifting of suspensions of the publications, scrapping censorship and a promise to consult journalists on the crafting of a new media law, he added.

The editor of the Voice Weekly, Kyaw Min Swe, last week said the ban on his publication related to the front-page story on a cabinet reshuffle and cartoons criticising the current media freedoms in the country. A more open climate has encouraged private weekly news publications publish an increasingly bold range of stories, including those about opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose very name was taboo in the past.

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Media protest in Yangon

By: Agence France-Presse August 4, 2012 6:26 PM

InterAksyon.com The online news portal of TV5

YANGON - Dozens of journalists marched in Myanmar's main city Saturday to protest the suspension of two journals amid fears officials are rowing back on pledges to ease strict junta-era censorship laws, an AFP reporter said.

The Voice Weekly and The Envoy were suspended last week for failing to submit stories for pre-publication scrutiny, the chief censor told AFP Saturday, adding the "temporary suspension" may last for a fortnight.

The reporters, many wearing black T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Stop Killing (the) Press" in Burmese and English marched to several sites across Yangon, including the two publishing houses behind the suspended weeklies.

Stifling censorship was one of the key symbols of junta-led Myanmar, where even seemingly innocuous details were scrubbed from public discussion and publications were frequently pulled for comments deemed damaging to the authoritarian rulers.

The government had recently taken a lighter touch on some of the less controversial publications as part of reforms sweeping the former army-ruled nation, prompting some editors to test the boundaries of the newfound freedoms.

In June Tint Swe, head of the Press Scrutiny and Registration Department (PSRD), told AFP there "will be no press scrutiny job" from the end of that month, also insisting there will "be no monitoring" of local journals and magazines.

A petition by the newly-formed press freedom committee called for an end to all "oppressive" media laws.

"We have seven demands which we are sending in a letter to the president to remove the oppressive laws covering the media," Zaw Thet Htwe, a spokesman for the independent committee told AFP on phone.

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Myanmar journalists protest vs censorship, march on streets

Myanmar's newly assertive press corps rallied Saturday against the suspension of two weekly magazines in a once unthinkable act of defiance against government censors.

Dressed in black T-shirts that read "Stop Killing Media," about 60 journalists held a petition drive to collect signatures from members of the media. The petition, addressed to President Thein Sein, calls for an end to censorship.

Thein Sein has eased censorship as part of sweeping reforms after decades of repressive military rule, but some forms of control still exist, as authorities made clear by suspending the Voice Weekly and Envoy this past week.

The Press Scrutiny Board informed the two weeklies that their publications were suspended for violating regulations, but did not explain further.

Reporters at the publications said they suspected the suspensions were linked to articles speculating about the details of an anticipated Cabinet reshuffle. The flourishing of press freedom has brought serious investigative reporting as well as sensationalism, both of which make the government uncomfortable.

A day after the suspension, nearly 100 journalists formed a group called the Committee for Freedom of the Press, which organized Saturday's rally in which journalists went to six media offices to gather signatures for the petition.

"News media are still being censored," says the petition drafted by the committee. "The recent suspension of (the two publications) shows the threats media face and the negative signs that exist despite the democratization process of Myanmar."

Journalists at the event called it historic.

"I've been working in media for 14 years, and I've never seen anything like this," said Kyaw Naing, an editor from Voice Weekly. "We've never had the opportunity to speak our minds on press freedoms."

But in a sign of the limitations that still exist, censors declared that information about Saturday's event was not suitable for publication.

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Myanmar Journalists Demand End to Censorship

The media is fuming over Twitters decision to suspend the account of a British journalist who used the micro-blogging site to toss barbs at NBCs decision to time-delay its Olympic coverage over the weekend. The episode raises questions about free speech and corporate control of social media platforms. (Updated, Tuesday 9:30am)

For anyone who missed it, the brouhaha began this morning when sports site Deadspin reported that Twitter had cut off Guy Adams, an LA-based reporter for The Independent.Adams has been a standard bearer for the new #nbcfail hashtag and used his account to rattle off a series of British-inflected tirades about NBCs time delay: Sneak peak my arse;tosspot; Matt Lauer would do well to shut up, wouldnt he? and so on.

Adams apparently crossed a line when he published the email address of NBC executive Gary Zenkel and told followers to Tell him what u think. NBC complained to Twitter and shortly after the micro-blog site suspended Adams account.

Critics have since called attention to the fact that Twitter has partnered with NBCs parent company to promote the games, and suggested that the companies decided to shut down Adams account as an act of reprisal.

In an email message to Adams, Twitter explained the account had been suspended because he had violated terms of service that forbid disclosing private information like a persons telephone number or private email address. Deadspin and others have noted that gary.zenkel@nbcuni.com is a corporate address.

So who is right? Did Adams overstep a boundary or are Twitter and NBC wrongfully censoring a journalist? Well, from a legal point of view, Twitter is in the clear. The companys terms of service make it plain that it can boot users off the site anytime and for any reason.

Twitters moral position is a lot more shaky. Its reason for tossing Adams is flimsy (the email he printed was not private) and, worse, they simply caused him to disappear altogether. If you search @guyadams on Twitter, the company will suggest users with similar handles but the original Guy Adams has simply vanished in the same way that disgraced communists would vanish from Kremlin photographs.

This policy of disappearing people without a trace is unhealthy and something Twitter should reconsider. The site has bravely opposed police gag orders and published a groundbreaking transparency report to highlight government censorship.

In the future, Twitter should show who it is barring from the site and explain why. In the meantime, it should give Guy Adams his account back.

Update: The Telegraph reported Tuesday that NBC claims that it was Twitter who informed their social media department about Adams tweets and informed them how to file a complaint. Meanwhile, respected social media journalist Danny Sullivan has pointed out that Gary Zenkels email address was not widely available. Other are questioning the appropriateness of using Twitter to initiate email bombing. As of Tuesday morning, Twitter has remained silent in the face of what appears to be its biggest PR crisis to date.

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Twitter snuffs an Olympics critic: smart play or censorship?

In an age in which large-scale protests can be organised overnight via social media, or infrastructure networks can be shut down by hackers, Western countries are tightening Internet censorship and implementing tougher cybermonitoring policies.

While governments tend to play the national security card to defend plans for wider state access to email and digital communications, analysts and Internet users are concerned that unwatched cybermonitoring might tip the delicate balance between online security and state surveillance.

The United States Congress has recently revived a stalled cybersecurity bill that would allow information sharing between the private sector and the federal government to share threats and develop best practices and fixes.

The bill triggered a wave of protest from people who said it may harm the privacy of Internet users and still leave the country vulnerable to attacks, but the bill received support from US President Barack Obama, who urged congress to pass the Cybersecurity Act of 2012.

Although no one has managed to seriously damage or disrupt the critical infrastructure networks in the US, Obama said foreign governments, criminal syndicates and lone individuals are probing the country's financial, energy and public safety systems every day.

The US topped a list released by Twitter that detailed data and takedown requests from governments to the social media giant.

The "transparency report" showed the US made 679 requests relating to 948 users or accounts in the first half of 2012. Twitter had met 75 per cent of the country's requests.

The micro-blogging site said all countries made fewer than 12 requests for user information in the first half of 2012, except Japan and the US.

The US also topped a similar transparency report from search engine Google, with 6,321 requests to remove content in the second half of 2011. The company granted the US 93 per cent of their requests.

In Australia, the Labour government has been pushing for unprecedented powers to intercept all Internet communications.

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West tightens Internet censorship