[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

SPDC / RSF : Human Rights Day Press



Subject: SPDC / RSF : Human Rights Day Press Recognition and Freedom Award

Dec 10 Paris: RSF awards Fondation of France Freedom Press Prize
to jailed writer and journalist Nweh San San
Dec 9 1999 Rangoon: SPDC Dinner hosted in honour of literary award
winners

YANGON, 9 Dec - Minister for Information Maj-Gen
Kyi Aung hosted a dinner in honour of winners of
National Literary Awards for 1998, the 10th
National Mottoes, Literary and Photo Competitions
prizes and Sarpay Beikman Manuscript Awards for
1998 and members of the awards scrutiny and
selection committee at Karaweik Palace this
evening.

It was attended by Secretary-1 of the State Peace
and Development Council Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt,
Secretary-3 Lt-Gen Win Myint, ministers, Chairman
of Yangon City Development Committee and Mayor,
deputy ministers, senior military officers, the
director-general and officials of the State Peace
and Development Council Office, department heads,
Chairman of Myanmar Writers and Journalists
Association U Kyaw Aung (Kyaw Aung), the
vice-chairmen, the secretary and members of the
central executive committee, members of the 1998
National Literary Awards Scrutiny and Selection
Committee, the Committee for Organizing National
Mottoes, Literary and Photo Competitions and the
1998 Sarpay Beikman Manuscript Awards Scrutiny and
Selection Committee, award winners and guests.

============================



> Jailed Myanmar journalist awarded Fondation de France prize
> 
> AFP, Paris, 9 December 1999. Jailed journalist and novelist San San Nweh
> of Myanmar was awarded the annual Reporters Sans Frontieres
> (Reporters Without Borders) prize Friday for her devotion to press freedom.
> 
> The Fondation de France award, worth 50,000 francs (about 8,000 dollars),
> was to be received Friday on behalf of San San by another dissident from
> Myanmar living in France, Aung Ko, known for his part in John Boorman's
> film "Rangoon".
> 
> Myanmar was formerly known as Burma.
> 
> San San was arrested in Rangoon in August 1994 and sentenced two months
> later to 10 years in prison for "publishing information harmful to the state."
> 
> Prior to her arrest she edited several woman's magazines and was politically
> active in the National League for Democracy, led by Nobel Peace prize winner
> Aung San Suu Kyi.
> 
> The 55-year-old reporter, who has also published 12 novels as well as short
> stories and poems, has struggled against illness and isolation since her
> imprisonment, Reporters Sans Frontieres said.
> 
> "She is suffering from liver disease, eye problems because of the very harsh
> conditions in prison and the torture she has endured," the press watchdog
> said.
> 
> "Friends and relatives who have tried to bring food or money for her
> have been  threatened by Myanmar's secret service."
> 
> It added that apart from San San, 13 journalists are currently imprisoned
> in Myanmar in appalling conditions, including well-known journalist
> Win Tin, who is reportedly dying.
> 
> "Since 1962, the junta, outlawed by the rest of the world, has consistently
> and with exceptional violence crushed the slightest attempt to launch a free
> press," it said.