PCIJ joins SEAPA appeal
for release of Burma VJ

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) joins the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) it its appeal to the Burmese government to release a group of journalists who were imprisoned for merely doing their job of covering events in their country.

Video journalist (VJ) Hla Hla Win of the web-based Burma news organization Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) was sentenced to 27 years in jail simply for interviewing a monk in a monastery in Central Burma on the 2nd anniversasry of the 2007 failed popular uprising called the Saffron revolution because it was spearheaded by Burmese monks.

In a statement, SEAPA said that Hla Hla Win has 17 other media colleagues who are imprisoned for similar offenses in various parts of Burma, and who have reportedly been tortured by the government.

“We join DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) and other local and international advocacy groups in urging the association of Southeast Asian Nationas, in which Burma is a member, to persuade the Burmese government to release these journalists,” SEAPA said in its statement.

“The release of journalists and some 2,000 political prisoners should be central to ASEAN’s consideration to accord ASEAN chairmanship to Burma in 2013,” according to Gayathry Venkiteswaran, Executive Director of SEAPA.

Gayathri noted that severe restrictions on freedom of expression and freedom of information still remain in Burma despite claims by Burma’s government that it has begun reforms. “Last November’s general elections in Burma is strongly seen by critics as a mere ritual transformation of the country’s decades-long military dictatorship into civilian rule,” SEAPA said. “Substantive political change, including freedom of speech and freedom of association, is yet to be seen.”

The PCIJ is a founding member of SEAPA, a coalition of media groups throughout Southeast Asia that aims to promote the growth of a free and responsible press.