Exile-run news agency plans to open Myanmar office

Feb 5, 2012, 4:45 GMT

Yangon - The Myanmar exile-run Mizzima News Agency is preparing to open a branch office in Yangon, reports said Sunday.

'If the government allowed us we could open it straight away and we have a strong belief that the government will allow us to do it,' Mizzama editor-in-chief Soe Myint told the Myanmar Times.

Soe Myint and his brother, managing editor Sein Win, visited Myanmar twice last month, on their first authorized trips since they fled the country in 1998.

The New Delhi-based news agency has been covering the country's politcal and economic developments for more than a decade, without being subject to the heavy censorship exercised inside Myanmar.

Soe Myint said that if allowed to open a Yangon office, the group would seek to diversify into broadcast media.

'If we have a chance, we want to open our head office here,' he said. 'Our intention is to set up our own media group but if we have the chance to work with others, we may also do that.'

The government of President Thein Sein has relaxed restrictions on the local press and internet since coming to office in March.

But it is doubtful that a bill to officially end censorship will be approved during the current legislative session that started on January 26.

'This parliamentary session is mainly focused on budgets and it probably won't be possible to (submit the draft for approval) before it ends,' Tint Swe, deputy director of the Ministry of Information's media registration department, told the Myanmar Times.

'The draft is only for print media and electronic media is not included.'