Rangoon-based weekly Phoenix has been closed down for an indefinite perdiod by the military government’s censorship board, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) and the Burma Media Association (BMA) have reported. The weekly is edited by Mar-J, a writer who has been subject to bans in the past for his satirical comments.
The authorities have not given any specific reason for Phoenix’s closure. Mizzima, a Burmese exile news website, quoted a censorship board official as simply saying on August 25: “The weekly has been banned from publishing.”
“This ban is a sad example of the censorship to which Burma’s privately-owned media are constantly exposed,” the two organisations said. “The publication of critical articles is not grounds for such a ban. Phoenix must be allowed to resume publishing without delay.”
Last November, RSF/BMA released the text of a directive which the censorship board had sent to the news media spelling out the circumstances in which they could be suspended or closed down for good.
A one-issue ban was previously imposed on Phoenix on May 28. Mizzima reported four days later that the weekly had been punished for defying the censorship board’s orders to publish only entertainment articles. Phoenix’s editors said the orders had come too late.
Part of the motive for the permanent ban appears to be a desire to settle old scores with Mar-J, who is also a former Major in the Burmese Air Force. But after publishing satirical articles about the military junta, he was removed from his post.
