BBC Burma pulls Myanmar TV deal over Rohingya ''censorship''
Yangon, September 4
The BBC's Burmese language service said on Monday it was pulling a broadcasting deal with a popular Myanmar television channel citing "censorship" as the two partners clashed over coverage of the Muslim Rohingya minority.
The announcement is the latest blow to struggling press freedoms in the country and a remarkable turnaround for a news organisation that famously kept Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi up to date during her long years of house arrest under junta rule.
Since April 2014, BBC Burmese broadcast a daily news programme on MNTV with 3.7 million daily viewers.
Today the BBC said it was ending the deal after MNTV pulled multiple programmes since March this year.
"The BBC cannot accept interference or censorship of BBC programs by joint-venture V broadcasters as that violates the trust between the BBC and its audience," a report on the BBC's Burmese website said.
The BBC statement did not detail what content was censored.
But in a statement MNTV, a joint venture between private and state media, said it began pulling reports to comply with government orders over "restricted" words.
"The BBC Burmese program sent news that included wordings that are restricted by the state government," the statement said.
A station official said the problematic word was "Rohingya".
"That's why we cannot broadcast their service," the employee said, asking not to be named.
The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar's western Rakhine who face severe state-sanctioned persecution and have fled in droves in recent years.
Most international media call them Rohingya because the community has long self-identified that way.
But Myanmar's government — and most local media — call them Bengalis, portraying them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh despite many living in the country for generations.
Last week Suu Kyi's government called on media to only refer to militants as "extremist terrorists".
While local media have largely complied, the order was reminiscent of the years under the junta when the press was ordered what to write.
Hopes had been high that the new government of democracy icon Suu Kyi would usher in an era of free speech when they took power last year after half a century of military rule.
Suu Kyi was confined for years to a lakeside Yangon house under the junta but used to listen to the World Service and its Burmese language offshoot on her radio. — AFP
