Media | Feature Troubled Times ’s English newspaper of record has outlasted the jailing of one of its founders for contrived offences, a suffocating censorship regime not lifted until 2012 and a controversial early connection with the junta. It may not outlast its current management.

By Sean Gleeson

HE NEWSPAPER lived spellbinding pace of change in Myanmar. long enough to vindicate its Despite a change of ownership and the existence, a distinction not transition from a weekly journal to a daily shared by many of its crit- newspaper in 2015, it remained proftable ics. It was mocked and de- and was the defnitive English language Tnounced as a propaganda tool of the mil- news source for the elections that year. itary regime, often by those who did not Perhaps the Myanmar Times will understand that it was as stifed by censor- reach those heights again, sometime in ship as much as any other newspaper. Its the distant future. It will require a rever- cofounders were arrested; one, U Sonny sal of fortunes as dramatic as the events Swe, spent eight years in some of the coun- of the past year, during which nearly two try’s worst prisons. After he was arrested dozen foreign editorial staf have resigned in November 2004, Myanmar Times was or been sacked. They have left behind anx- forced to relinquish a controlling stake to a ious Myanmar counterparts fearful of their junta crony who hoped to use it as a spring- jobs and despairing at the paper’s precip- board for an attempt at a parliamentary itous decline in quality. At the height of sinecure that ended in failure. Its employ- the battle between the newsroom and the ees were often harassed and intimidated by board, staf routinely took to social media plainclothes police. Before pre-publication to air their grievances and to apologise for censorship was lifted in August 2012, its re- management edicts that blocked reporting ports were mutilated by censor’s edicts as on sensitive topics. degrading as they were arbitrary. And yet, when political reform fnally From obscurity and back came to Myanmar after decades of torpor, There was little to distinguish Mr Bill it was peerless. More than almost any oth- Tegjeu’s journalism career before his ar- er news outlet in the country, it was cou- rival in , according to a copy of his rageous enough to test the boundaries of resume seen by Frontier. He spent eight what could be written on ofcial malfea- years on the sports desk of the New Straits sance and human rights abuses after the Times, a Malaysian daily disparaged by its government’s formal censorship apparatus critics as a mouthpiece for the Barisan was dismantled. It boasted some of the re- Nasional parliamentary coalition that has gion’s fnest reporters, who had trained on ruled the country since independence. He the job in the absence of formal media ed- took a break from the media industry for ucation and who managed to earn a suite four years to manage a restaurant and pub of regional publishing awards. Their work at a beach resort. A six-year stint as a free- was routinely cited in the international ac- lance sub-editor for the automotive mag- ademic journals trying to make sense of the azine TopGear Malaysia was punctuated

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by a six-month spell as production editor According to company documents Mr Ross Dunkley, turned over the compa- of the now-defunct Malaysian Insider. seen by Frontier, MCM was in reason- ny’s day-to-day management. A little more According to a news report at the time, 30 able fnancial health. The English daily than a year later, Child was beginning to people walked out to join a rival publica- was costing US$0.79 per dollar of revenue realise that his position was untenable. He tion soon after he started there. earned, while the Myanmar weekly and worked in an ofce opposite that of the new Despite never helming a daily news- the society and culture magazine Now! editor-in-chief in the paper’s sprawling paper in his 44 years in the industry, Teg- had each incurred slight losses in the 11 headquarters on Bo Aung Kyaw Street. But jeu was backed for the top job by Dr Kim months to November 2015. The three ti- the pair barely spoke in the three months Song Tan, a Singapore-based board mem- tles recorded a combined operating proft they worked together; Tegjeu was hired ber of Myanmar Consolidated Media Co of just over $200,000 for the same period. without Child being consulted. In March, Ltd, which owns the Myanmar Times Nonetheless, part of Tegjeu’s remit was Child – who did not respond to a request and its associated printing and publishing reducing the paper’s operating costs, and for comment by Frontier – submitted his business. Tegjeu was given the title of edi- a decision was made to rationalise parts resignation, and the following month Teg- tor-in-chief and responsibility for oversee- of the English daily’s operation. As a frst jeu took on the additional role as CEO. ing both the English language daily and the step, production and layout of the paper’s Myanmar weekly journal. His appointment international section was outsourced to was a surprise to editorial staf, most of associates of Tegjeu in Malaysia. THE EXTERIOR of the ofce of the whom did not know the position was being Briton Mr Tony Child was appointed Myanmar Times on Bo Aung Kyaw flled until a memorandum announcing his chief executive ofcer in October 2014, Street in downtown Yangon. appointment was issued in early 2016. when the paper’s sole remaining founder, Photo: Steve Tickner

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All the news that’s ft to print The story was published. The next day, lery Entrepreneurs Association, concerning It did not take long for Tegjeu to earn Dinmore was ordered to print an apology nearly $100 million that was missing the epithet that would come to defne his to the bank chief. from a gem industry fund. Kyaw Kyaw Oo brief and turbulent tenure. Staf began pri- “Tegjeu, who to be fair was acting un- claimed that former President U vately referring to their new editor-in-chief der instructions from the owner of the bore some responsibility for the missing as “Race and Religion Bill” – a reference to Myanmar Times, at the time refused to cash. His account was backed by another the legislative package enacted in the last put his name on the masthead so he was ofcial. Tegjeu demanded the removal of year of the previous government. Just as in efect an invisible presence as far as our Thein Sein’s name from the report. the U Thein Sein administration yielded readers were concerned,” Dinmore told “Mr Tegjeu said he was afraid that if we to pressure from the Buddhist nationalist movement, so would the Malaysian native come to be known to his subordinates as someone who yielded to the board’s direc- tives to soften the paper’s coverage. The disagreements were minor at frst. Tegjeu would quibble with desk editors about the phrasing in certain articles and air concerns about the possibility of com- plaints against the paper. Editors would counter that articles were sourced prop- erly and in accordance with their legal and ethical responsibilities as journalists. It didn’t take long for these interventions to stop being framed as requests and start becoming demands. Staf began blanching at the prospect of working under someone who was rarely in the ofce and whose only contact with the rest of the editorial team was to order the removal of reports on sensitive topics. It didn’t take long for the frst editor to re- sign in disgust. “I had a series of editorial tussles with Tegjeu, who essentially tried to muzzle our reporting to avoid controversy,” said Mr Guy Dinmore, the former head of the English edi- tion’s news desk. “This situation was aggra- vated by his hiring policy, which appeared to favour incompetent acquaintances.” Dinmore was hired in early 2015. A newspaper veteran, he came to Yangon after seven years as the Rome correspon- dent for the Financial Times. In his time at the Myanmar Times he earned the deep respect of his colleagues over his role in ALMOST TWO dozen expatriate editors arranging its impressive coverage of the have resigned or been fred in the past election in 2015. year. Photo: Steve Tickner The deterioration of his relationship with Tegjeu came to a head in May, soon after the paper ran a report on the Pana- ma Papers – the huge trove of leaked in- Frontier. “His refusal to take responsibil- printed the name we might be sued,” said an formation about companies registered in ity or be held accountable for any of his email circulated by a foreign staf member at tax havens, sometimes for the purpose of actions led me to resign.” the time. “We feel Mr Tegjeu’s decision has money laundering and tax evasion. A total A fortnight later, as production of the embarrassed the newspaper and damaged a of 16 Myanmar names were on the Pana- June 2 edition of the paper was being f- reporter’s relationship to her sources.” ma Papers list – including, apparently, the nalised, Tegjeu intervened again. Privately, the editorial team discussed head of one of the country’s largest banks, Earlier that day, an extraordinary press brokering a meeting directly with the board who Dinmore said had refused requests conference was held by U Kyaw Kyaw Oo, a and demanding Tegjeu’s replacement. for comment multiple times. member of the Myanmar Gems and Jewel- “I see no way forward for anyone who

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cares about journalism with Bill in the ingly Rohingya Muslims, with more than persecution of the Rohingya is to the det- building,” the same staf member wrote. 70,000 crossing the border into Bangla- riment of other serious rights abuses else- But Tegjeu was not ultimately responsi- desh. Hundreds are feared murdered. En- where in Myanmar. ble for the perilous position in which the pa- tire villages have been razed. The full spectrum of views on the Ro- per’s editorial staf were fnding themselves. Elsewhere, it has also reopened a fes- hingya, from sympathy to antipathy, are Five days after the gems fund story was cut, tering sore that has pitted much of this on display in newsrooms throughout the Tegjeu’s name appeared on the Myanmar country’s population against their regional country. Myanmar reporters are keenly Times masthead for the frst time, nearly six neighbours, foreigners living in Myanmar, aware of the risks that come with being months after he joined the paper. and human rights advocates in the inter- associated with a media outlet seen as “pro-kalar” or “pro-Bengali” – the pejora- tives that respectively describe anyone of South Asian heritage and the entrenched view that the Rohingya are illegal immi- grants from Bangladesh. They face estrangement from their peers, an avalanche of online abuse, and occasionally threats to their life: an Am- nesty International report in 2015 re- counted the experience of a journalist who, in the middle of communal riots in the year before, was chased by an armed mob who accused her of work- ing for the “kalar media”. It was still a deep shock to both Myanmar and expatriate members of the Myanmar Times newsroom when, a few weeks after last year’s crackdown began in Maungdaw Township, the paper’s spe- cial investigations editor was sacked for a report relaying claims that security forces had raped Rohingya women in Rakhine. President’s Ofce spokesman U Zaw Htay and former Information Minister U Ye Htut both took to Facebook to attack the article by Ms Fiona MacGregor, who had worked for four years at the paper, covering the victims of ethnic conficts and women’s issues. A few days after her report was pub- lished, MacGregor was called to a meeting with Tegjeu and U Aung Saw Min, who had weeks earlier been appointed MCM’s chief operating ofcer after a long career at the Ministry of Foreign Afairs. Mac- Gregor was told that she had brought the paper into disrepute and that her employ- ment had been terminated. The claims reported by MacGregor have since been substantiated in a report by the United Nations Ofce of the High ‘We value your ongoing readership’ national community. Commissioner for Human Rights. Based It is clear that the attacks on border It would be wrong to say that the peo- on interviews with some of the more than guard posts in northern Rakhine State ple of Myanmar speak with one voice on 70,000 people who fed to Bangladesh last October, orchestrated by the Harakah this issue. Nonetheless, the prevailing so- from Rakhine State, the February 3 report al-Yaqin insurgent group and claiming cial climate permits the widely held and documented dozens of cases of gang rape several lives, have catalysed the greatest widely shared belief that, for instance, the and other sexual abuse. humanitarian catastrophe of the current Rohingya falsely claim to be the victims As Frontier reported at the time, Mac- government’s rule. More than 100,000 of abuses in order to gain international Gregor’s departure from the Myanmar people have been displaced, overwhelm- sympathy, or that paying attention to the Times was preceded by a phone call to the

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paper’s management by the Ministry of In- 2016, commenting on the MCM’s editorial mur from covering the grave human rights formation – bypassing the Myanmar News policies.’” situation in Rakhine in a manner which Media Council, which was established to Asked how he felt about the continuing strays too far from the ofcial line. adjudicate press complaints. Speaking to restrictions on Rakhine coverage, Long The Myanmar Times has been no a senior editor shortly after Frontier’s re- did not mince words. exception. In March 2014, reports of a port was published, Aung Saw Min denied “Well, it sucks. In two short weeks, massacre in the Maungdaw village of Duu her termination had been prompted by the management has managed to destroy the Chee Yar Tan provoked a strident response ministry’s intervention, and said the pa- trust that editors and reporters have spent from the Thein Sein administration, after per’s management had made the decision years building with our readers.” a government investigation could not fnd of its own accord. By the time of Long’s dismissal, 13 evidence to substantiate the claims. State The day MacGregor was sacked, staf foreign staf members had quit or been media named outlets it accused of spread- were ordered not to publish any news re- sacked from the Myanmar Times in the ing false coverage, which were then inun- ports on events in Rakhine State until a preceding six months. Only three people dated with complaints and threats. new editorial policy was drafted in the fol- were hired to fll the vacant positions. It was in this climate that the paper’s lowing days. Days soon became weeks, in which repeated written requests to Tegjeu and Aung Saw Min for the new guidelines were ignored. By this stage Tegjeu was in the ofce no more than a few hours a week, and refused meetings with staf. Editors were livid: Not only were they being prevented from reporting on the biggest news story in the country, Tegjeu had refused to shoulder any responsibility for MacGregor’s report, despite his repeated interventions to dic- tate the limits of the paper’s coverage. The ructions in the paper’s ofce quickly became the worst-kept secret in Yangon. Foreigners at the paper made no secret of the fact that they had been cen- sored, with some sharing the news with friends and professional contacts, and others providing a running commentary on social media on what they regarded as a professional embarrassment. As the ban became more obvious to readers, editorial staf began to feel that the paper’s credibility was at stake: They caucused and decided to print a notice that alluded to the prohibition on coverage of the Maungdaw crackdown. “We thank you for your support at this time, and we value your ongoing reader- ship,” it read. The notice ran for a few days. Then Aung Saw Min sacked Mr Douglas Long, who had been on staf for more than a de- cade and was by that time editor of the En- glish edition. “I was given notice of my termination More were to leave soon. co-founder – the brash and controversial via email,” Long told Frontier the follow- ‘I’m not in bed with anyone’ yet dynamic and driven Australian pub- ing day. “The letter stated in part: ‘The The communal violence that twice lisher Dunkley – issued a notice forbid- board and the management are of the view rocked Rakhine State in 2012 claimed ding the publication of any reports about that as editor of the paper you deliberately about 200 lives and forced about 140,000 the Rohingya or communal tensions with- undermined the interests and reputation people, mainly Rohingya, into squalid dis- out his approval. of the company by allowing the notice to placement camps, where most remain to- “Right now I am felding a consider- the readers to be run in the MTE [Myan- day. In the years since, editors have faced able amount of pressure from diferent mar Times English] issue of November 8, regular pressure from authorities to de- quarters over this sensitive issue. The tem-

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perature is rising and unlikely to go away ny Swe, the son of then senior Military In- in 2002, during a panel discussion at the in a hurry,” he wrote in the memo, leaked telligence ofcer, Brigadier-General Thein Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand to Washington-based Foreign Policy mag- Swe. (Sonny Swe is the chief executive and in , in front of an audience palpa- azine. “I am surrounded by a number of publisher of Frontier. Both he and his fa- bly hostile to the Australian. forces from the president’s ofce down- ther are board members of Black Knight Accusations of collusion with the jun- wards and from my own directors and ed- Media Co Ltd, the owner of Frontier. Nei- ta were always shrugged of by Dunkley itorial consultants. … There are plenty of ther was involved in the commissioning or with an air of nonchalance. Publicly, he people out there that would like to see us production of this article.) always maintained that there could be no go down or be pegged back.” Dunkley and Sonny Swe launched the change in Myanmar without engagement Unlike last year’s management edict, Myanmar Times in the political and eco- with those in power. In 'Dancing with the memo did not impose an outright ban nomic nadir of the junta years. Their mo- Dictators', a 2011 documentary about the on covering events in Rakhine. The memo tives were suspect to many at a time when Myanmar Times made by two Australians was also a product of a wisdom that Tegjeu international opprobrium was forcing who spent weeks at the newspaper before lacked: More than any other foreigner who Western companies to leave Myanmar. In and after the 2010 general election un- Thailand and in India, where many stu- til they were deported, Dunkley is asked dent activists had fed after the 1988 revolt what he says to those who accuse him of against one-party rule, some exile media “getting into bed” with the military. outlets were established to report on the “Well the fact is, I’m not in bed with human rights situation in Myanmar, as anyone. Not even my wife,” he says with a wry laugh. “If you want to instigate change, then you have to be on the feld. Anyone who’s screaming from the side- lines, it’s just a shriek that’s going of into the wilderness.” Right now I The paper’s existence seemed doomed on several occasions, as the factional bal- am fielding a ance of Myanmar’s leadership tipped deci- sively back to the head of the junta, Senior considerable General . In 2004, a year after he was appointed amount of Prime Minister, Military Intelligence chief pressure from Lieutenant-General was re- lieved of his post and dismissed from the different junta. It was Khin Nyunt who had approved quarters over the establishment of the Myanmar Times, the only news organisation at the time this sensitive with any foreign investment. He also al- lowed it to pass the usual censorship re- issue. The gime administered by the Ministry of Information’s Press Scrutiny and Regis- temperature tration Division and to be censored by an ofce within MI. is rising and Khin Nyunt’s sacking, amid height- ened tensions between him and Than unlikely to go Shwe, led to a sweeping purge of Military Photo: Steve Tickner Intelligence and those associated with it. away in a hurry. Scores of senior MI ofcers were detained in the weeks after Khin Nyunt was arrest- ed in October 2004 by General Myint Swe, has worked in Myanmar’s media industry, the junta that took power in September the then head of the Yangon Regional Mil- Dunkley had come to learn the limits of that year tightened its group on the coun- itary Command and now the military’s acceptable public discourse. try. , founded in the early pick as vice president. Thein Swe was After helping to establish a business 1990s with the help of US funding, regular- subsequently sentenced to more than 140 journal in the early 1990s in Vietnam, ly reported on the Myanmar Times’ many years in prison, including convictions for a country then in thrall to the sudden foibles in the paper’s formative years. several counts of treason; Sonny Swe was changes of its own economic liberalisa- One article gave a breathless account of sentenced to a total of 14 years in prison: tion, Dunkley established the Myanmar a slanging match between Irrawaddy seven years each for having failed to sub- Times in 2000 in a partnership with Son- founding editor U Aung Zaw and Dunkley mit the English and Myanmar editions of

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Myanmar Times to PSRD to be censored. through a Myanmar Times article, accom- agement was represented at the meeting Against Dunkley’s protests, a con- panied by a photo of Dunkley with Child, by Thein Tun, Tegjeu, Aung Saw Min and trolling stake in the Myanmar Times was his ill-fated replacement. As an era came Tan, who had travelled from Singapore. transferred to Dr Tin Tun Oo, a close asso- to an end, Thein Tun was quoted promis- The three foreign editors at the meet- ciate of hardline Information Minister and ing major investments to grow MCM’s ex- ing included one conscripted at the elev- Brigadier-General Kyaw Hsan. Tin Tun Oo isting businesses and branch out into new enth hour to replace Long, who had been had established himself as a media entre- ventures. sacked earlier that week. preneur by publishing a suite of lifestyle “I’m confdent that with such a talented The discussion did not go well, said journals. It was an unhappy partnership. group of staf – really the company’s great- one of the editors present. Presented with In 2010, and despite Dunkley’s objec- est asset – that we can move MCM forward an organisation chart showing the number tions, Tin Tun Oo stood as the Union Soli- in the coming years,” Thein Tun said. of editorial positions that had been vacat- darity and Development Party’s candidate ed, Tan seemed to be shocked. Thein Tun, for the Pyithu Hluttaw seat of Pazundaung ‘National interests come frst’ on the other hand, appeared disengaged Township, a downtown Yangon constit- With no end in sight to management’s and distracted throughout the meeting uency near where Myanmar Times is based. He was one of the few USDP candi- dates who failed to be elected in the noto- riously rigged election. “It is unacceptable to steal an election, as the regime in Bur- ma has done again for all the world to see,” said then US President Barack Obama. In 2011, Dunkley was arrested and held in Insein Prison over allegations involving a woman he met in a Yangon nightclub and invited to his Inya Road home. The case was strongly believed by many of Dunkley’s colleagues and friends to be an orchestrated attempt to force him to yield control of the Myanmar Times. It coincid- ed with a demand from the ministry for him to relinquish his positions as CEO and editor-in-chief of the company. His refusal had resulted in foreign staf at the paper having trouble renewing their visas. Dunkley spent 47 days in Insein before being released on bail and was subsequent- ly convicted of assault and breaching the conditions of his visa. The relationship be- tween Dunkley and Tin Tun Oo continued to deteriorate. In 2013, Tin Tun Oo’s wife threatened legal action, which never came to fruition, after Dunkley allegedly struck her son-in-law during a heated argument in the ofce. The incident occurred after censorship policy, it was with Thein Tun and the delegation was unsure if he had Dunkley had reminded Tin Tun Oo and his that the remaining senior members of understood their position. wife of their agreement not to enter the of- the editorial team sought an audience in After the meeting ended, some staf fce except to attend board meetings. November 2016. The number of editors members felt that at least partial progress The month before the Rohingya producing the paper was down to half had been made in rescuing the paper from memo, Tin Tun Oo had sold his majority what it had been in April. In an environ- its parlous state. They had been told an edi- stake to U Thein Tun, a beverage magnate ment of unrelenting stress and collapsing torial policy would be provided immediately and head of the Tun Foundation Bank, ofce morale, they desperately wanted and editors who had left would be replaced. popularly known for being the business- assurance that a new editorial policy was Others believed that the commitments made man who brought Pepsi to Myanmar. He forthcoming, as well as a promise that the by the board did not go far enough. inherited a paper that had never run at a positions vacated in the preceding months Within days, Aung Saw Min circulat- loss, according to Dunkley, who sold his would be flled. ed the new editorial policy. Its frst two remaining interest in Myanmar Consoli- A meeting was fnally granted after a points declared that “national interests dated Media in early 2015. written request was delivered to Thein come frst” and, echoing the platform of His exit from the chief executive role Tun’s ofce at his bank’s headquarters not the Union government, the paper had a in October 2014 was announced publicly far from the Myanmar Times ofce. Man- duty to “promote national reconciliation”.

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News on Rakhine had to be cleared with the remaining foreigners out of the paper. The priorities that prompted the the editor-in-chief, while outside opinion Tegjeu had begun defecting requests Myanmar Times to shed nearly all of its pieces on the situation in Rakhine were to accelerate recruitment by saying that expatriate staf remain unclear. Tegjeu prohibited until further notice. Aung Saw Min and Myo Lwin were draft- has not responded to multiple requests Within three months, all three foreign ing an organisational restructure – the ed- for comment from Frontier since October. editors at the meeting had left the news- itor-in-chief had initially been involved in Kavi did not respond to a request for com- paper. these strategy meetings, but stopped being ment made soon after his appointment. Seven other foreigners left with them. invited as his own position became more Neither Thein Tun, Aung Saw Min nor As 2016 ended, it became clear that there tenuous. Changes to the paper’s reports had Myo Lwin replied last week when asked to was no solution to the confict with manage- meanwhile ceased to become a topic of dis- respond to the events outlined above. ment. Tegjeu, never a permanent fxture in cussion; in any event, there were few editors What is clear is that events at the the ofce, was seen less often. More of the left to object. In January, an entire report Myanmar Times during the last year have responsibility for scrutinising the paper’s of a briefng given by the UN special rap- exposed deep and perhaps irreconcilable contents fell to deputy editor-in-chief U porteur on human rights in Myanmar, Ms diferences in how Western journalists and their Myanmar managers view their professional responsibilities. Occasionally surfacing while Dunkley still held a stake, these tensions are now in plain view. On the one hand is a cohort from coun- tries with a long history of press freedom, and long-established norms of ethical pro- fessional conduct. On the other, a country that until recently laboured under a strin- gent censorship regime for decades, with the accepted limits of what can be written incorporeal and constantly changing but nonetheless still very real. The jailing of a dozen journalists during the last govern- ment and the deaths of two since 2014 – one in military custody and the other ap- parently the victim of powerful business interests – attest to the risks Myanmar journalists face. Staf at the Myanmar Times watched as the culture of their ofce changed to one that privileged deference and pun- ished disagreement. Two former stafers who spoke with Frontier recalled Aung Saw Min prematurely ending arguments Photos: Steve Tickner over the direction of the paper by telling them: “I am above you. You are below me.” It is a management model that journalists in several other Yangon newsrooms would Myo Lwin, another long-time staf member Yanghee Lee, on her visit to the country was well recognise. who had risen through the ranks and was a cut at the last minute. On the same page, Most fundamentally, it reveals a dif- faithful lieutenant to Aung Saw Min. a report about the disappearance of two fering attitude to freedom of expression, Editorial staf members told Frontier Kachin pastors, who were believed to have between those who come from a culture their Myanmar counterparts had warned been detained by the military, was edited where it is a paramount responsibility of them in 2015 that Myo Lwin had used to remove quotes from their families saying journalists and those who believe it is con- their weekly meetings to sow distrust of they feared reprisals from the Tatmadaw. tingent on protecting the common good. foreigners, telling reporters that the West- Several of those who commented pub- erners did not understand the country ‘I am above you’ licly on events at the Myanmar Times said and would make trouble for the paper. An On February 1, a year after Tegjeu they felt an ethical responsibility to ex- editorial supplements editor at the time, joined the paper, Tan issued a memo to plain what was happening at the paper if, his colleagues did not pay attention to his staf advising them of the editor-in-chief’s as it appeared, the confict between editors comments; a year later, he was one of the resignation for “family reasons”. The same and management could not be resolved in- most senior members of editorial manage- day, Tan announced that veteran Thai jour- ternally. To management, such an action ment, and was assisting what editors by nalist and academic, Mr Kavi Chongkit- was not only a breach of its professional then regarded as a policy designed to drive tavorn, would be taking over from Tegjeu. guidelines, but a potentially criminal act.

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THE PUBLICATION of this notice in the newspaper in November prompted management to sack the paper's editor. Photo: Supplied

One evening in February, in the days ment goes on as it is now, Myanmar Times’ after Tegjeu’s resignation was announced, future is very worrisome. You’ll realise if you one of the few remaining editors was look at Myanmar Times policy on Rakhine called into a meeting with Aung Saw Min In two short weeks, State, you cannot criticise the government. and Myo Lwin. The editor was told that as … Some of us are looking for new jobs. Some a result of the organisational restructure, management are just waiting to see in the hope of better their position was being terminated. Myo situation when new management comes in.” Lwin referred to the comments on social has managed to Speaking to Frontier in February, Dunk- media and said they could fall afoul of ley ofered a sympathetic word for Thein Section 66(d) of the Telecommunications destroy the trust Tun. Despite the upheaval of the last year, Law, which punishes online defamation that editors Dunkley said Thein Tun had come to the with up to three years’ imprisonment and paper with a lifetime of success in business has been used with increasing frequency and reporters and would inevitably also fnd success at the to suppress criticism of the government Myanmar Times. and the military. (Asked by the editor, have spent years “What efectively happened to U Thein Myo Lwin denied issuing a threat, but re- Tun was that in his rush to assert authority iterated that the editor should warn other building with our over the Myanmar Times he found himself former stafers to “be careful” in their pub- increasingly bewildered over the actions of lic comments about the paper.) readers. his newsroom and confused on how they Kavi is well respected as a journalist, should be managed,” Dunkley said. analyst and educator. Former staf mem- “He became alienated from a team of bers and others believe he ofers the best talent, to lead journalists concerned for their people he didn’t understand anyway and hope of turning around the paper’s fag- own futures , who have become accustomed suddenly and awkwardly caught in the ging fortunes and bridging the divides to self-censoring controversial aspects of cross fre as the government and military outlined in this report. their reports for fear of losing their jobs. started to make their displeasure known It will be a momentous challenge. He “The staf don’t feel safe since they are over the recalcitrant behaviour from the has walked into a newsroom that has lost a being sacked without notice,” one Myanmar press. … Today, he is still grappling with signifcant amount of experienced editorial staf reporter told Frontier. “If the manage- that scenario.”

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