Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – After a foreign-based media group broadcast video of the first press conference of the Rangoon regional government, the authorities have banned video recordings of the sessions.
When reporters at MRTV4, a state-run TV station, tried to take video of the second press conference in the Rangoon Regional Parliament building on Tuesday, the secretary of the regional government, Khin Maung Tun, said it would not be allowed.
Video was banned but still photographs were permitted, said a journalist who attended the conference.
The ban was probably imposed as a result of the Norway-based media group, Democratic Voice of Burma, broadcasting the government’s first press conference on May 10, said an official in the Rangoon Region Administration Office.
Regional government Minister Nyan Tun Oo, a former military officer, said during the first press conference last week that the regional government would hold a press conference each week on Tuesday. However, an official said this week there would be no press conference next Tuesday and the date for the third press conference would be announced later.
Nyan Tun Oo, left, and Khin Maung Tun of the Rangoon Region Government. Photo: Mizzima
During the press conference, officials also said the regional government is likely to establish a dress code for journalists who attend the next press conference.
‘We would like to ask journalists to be in correct dress’, an official told the gathered journalists. ‘Although press conferences are not big ceremonies, you need to be in appropriate dress’.
The official did not issue a dress code. In the former parliamentary era before the coup by former General Ne Win, journalists were required to wear a tie or a traditional jacket when they attended parliamentary sessions.
——————————
democracy for burma 