Seminar summary:... "...Burma?s first newspaper, the Maulmain Chronicle, was also Burma?s first casualty to the colonial press laws. Its story shows that in the middle of the 19th century, colonial officials manipulated the press laws for political or personal ends, and that the English press served less as a tool of propaganda than a means for private merchants to manipulate and antagonize the administration. The laws controlling the press in India were patterned on the press laws in England. Formed in the crucible of radical politics and spurred on by widespread libel in the 18th and early 19th century press, these laws protected public officials from scurrilous personal attacks..."