Burma's generals move against `Myanmar Times' Burma's generals move against `Myanmar Times' With those close to military intelligence being purged from the Burmese junta, the battle for the country's leading semi-independent newspaper is on Bangkok Post - Tuesday 18 October 2005 By LARRY JAGAN The fate of one of Burma's most renowned semi-independent newspapers, the Myanmar Times is likely to be decided later this week. The newspaper's part-owner and chief editor, Ross Dunkley is scheduled to meet Burma's minister of information, General Kyaw Hsan, to try to resolve the current impasse between the government and the paper's overseas owners, according to sources inside the media group. Last Friday, Yamin Htin Aung, who is the majority shareholder in the Myanmar Times, resigned as an executive of the company, because of government pressure, according to sources inside the newspaper. More than two months ago, the military regime launched a campaign to try to seize control of the paper. The paper was originally set up as a joint venture between the Australian media entrepreneur and Sonny Swe, the son of a senior Burmese military intelligence (MI) officer. The minister of information has been pressuring the company's major shareholder to sell the family's shares. Mr Swe's wife, Yamin Htin Aung, took over the shares and the directorship of the company after he was arrested in November last year, along with his father Brigadier General Thein Swe, one of former prime minister and intelligence chief Khin Nyunt's closest subordinates. Earlier this year Mr Swe was given a 14-year-jail sentence for violating the country's censorship regulations. His father, General Thein Swe was sentenced to more than a hundred years in jail for corruption and economic crimes. Since Khin Nyunt was arrested in October 2004, the junta has purged all his supporters and sympathisers from the army and government. Property, vehicles and other valuables have been confiscated from all the former MI officers. The information minister's campaign to seize control of the Myanmar Times is largely motivated by the government's efforts to sever all ``MI connections'' with the paper, according to sources close to the paper's owners. The weekly newspaper was closely identified with the former MI officers through General Thein Swe, who was one of Khin Nyunt's closest confidantes. The independent Internet provider, Bagan Cybertech was nationalised a few months ago under the Burma's Post and Telecommunications ministry after its owner, Khin Nyunt's younger son Ye Naing Win was sentenced to more than 40 years in jail for corruption and economic crimes. General Thein Swe was also the chairman of the company's board of directors. Two months ago the information minister ordered Mr Swe's wife to sell her shares or risk the government nationalising the paper. So far she has resisted government pressure to sell them to the minister's nominated buyer, a small local media proprietor Dr Tin Tun Oo, known to be close to several ministers, including both the information and health ministers. After dodging the information minister for more than a month, two weeks ago Mr Dunkley met him and the prospective buyer. But that meeting did nothing to resolve the issue, as the newspaper's owners remained adamant that any new buyer must be a credible investor with substantial experience in the media business, according to an Australian source close to Mr Dunkley. Dr Oo owns a number of small Burmese-language publications, mainly health magazines and journals. He recently launched the Sporting Times. These are all small-scale operations and do not make him an appropriate owner for a newspaper, which relies heavily on advertising revenue to be profitable, according to Mr Dunkley's associates. In the meantime, the papers' owners have been working behind the scenes to find an alternative buyer. A Burmese businessmen, who grew up abroad before returning to Rangoon more than a decade ago, with substantial interests in the media and advertising industry is believed to be organising a consortium of investors. ``They are all non-military men,'' a source in Rangoon close to the owners told the Bangkok Post. Burma's leading businessman, Tay Za, who is very close to the country's top military ruler, General Than Shwe, is also believed to be one of this group of commercial backers. The Myanmar Times started publishing its weekly English edition at the start of 2000, with a weekly Burmese edition following a year later. The paper's owners claim its circulation is now more than 350,000 a week. The company now employs more than 300 workers in Rangoon and Mandalay. Mr Dunkley has made no secret of the fact that his long-term ambition is to launch a daily Burmese-language newspaper. ``The Myanmar Times is an example of sophisticated propaganda. While the battle for control of the paper is between one junta clique and another, its closure would deprive the country of an important publication. Comparing it with the government's official daily newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar, is like comparing Singapore with North Korea. While the regime continues to strictly control the media in Burma and jail journalists who dare challenge the government, the presence of the Myanmar Times has helped create some space for the media.'' Vincent Brossel, head of Asia for the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontiers told the Bangkok Post. The battle for the control of the Myanmar Times is set to continue. The information minister has even recently threatened to close the paper if Mrs Swe continued to refuse to sell the family's majority shareholding in the paper. Mr Dunkley insists that the survival of the paper is in the broader interests of the country as it has raised the standards of local journalism and has helped to counter the bias in the international press. Burma's foreign minister Nyan Win recently told diplomats in Rangoon that the Myanmar Times was important in helping give a more sophisticated view of the country internationally. He also revealed that he was not aware of the minister of information's threat to close the paper. The Australian government has also intervened in the dispute. Two weeks ago the foreign minister wrote to the Burmese government urging them not to force the sale of the majority shares in the paper and to allow the company to find viable commercial backers which whom they were comfortable. In the end the junta has always controlled what the paper printed. ``Every aspect of the newspaper has been subject to government censorship. Even headlines and pictures have had to be approved by the censors,'' a former journalist at the Myanmar Times recently told the Bangkok Post. Even the most innocuous items get spiked, the journalist said. In recent weeks photographs of street vendors have been pulled at the request of the censors. It was the military intelligence chief, Khin Nyunt, who permitted the launch of the Myanmar Times as part of his efforts to engage the international community and show the world that Burma was changing. It started publication at a time when Mr Nyunt and his supporters favoured opening up to the outside world to try to deflect criticism of its human rights record and lack of progress towards political reform. The International Labour Organisation was allowed to open an office in Rangoon, the UN envoys _ Razali Ismail and Paulo Pinheiro _ were allowed to visit the country relatively freely, and even the UK-based human rights organisation Amnesty International was permitted to make two fact-finding missions. But in the eyes of most Burmese, the Myanmar Times remained a pro-government publication. During 2002 when there were rice shortages and fears of social unrest, the paper's cars had their Myanmar Times stickers removed as a precaution against any possible attack on them because of their association with MI, according to a former journalist at the paper. The outcome of the struggle between the information minister and the foreign owners of the Myanmar Times is likely to reflect the regime's new priorities _ the junta's concern to strengthen their control over every aspect of life in Burma. ~