[Tlc] L-freedom of the press

[justinm at ucr.edu]

FYI.
Thanks,
justin

2008-0222 - Reporters Without Borders - Laos - Annual report 2008

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=25655

Laos | 11.02.2008

Laos - Annual report 2008


Media bosses and information ministry officials meet regularly
to discuss articles that have already appeared and to
determine which topics are to be given priority. On many
subjects, editorial offices reprint untouched the reports they
receive from the official news agency Khaosan Pathet Lao (KPL).

Although French-language weekly Le Rénovateur and the
English-language weekly Vientiane Times sometimes carry free
reports on socio-economic problems, the majority of the media
only puts out news that is favourable to the communist regime.
The organ of the party, Paxaxon (People), continues to
represent itself as a “revolutionary publication produced by
the people and for the people that serves the political action
of the Revolution”. The foreign ministry also exercises
control over media content. It is forbidden to criticise
“friendly countries” Burma and “big brothers” Vietnam and
China. “Journalists practise self-censorship because they know
what will not be published. Few of them are prepared to take
the risk of pushing at the limits of censorship”, said one
foreign journalist who has contributed to the Laotian press.

A group of journalists and investors tried to launch an
English-language newspaper in 2007, but the authorities made
sure that it was put under ministerial surveillance. The
project has still not come to fruition.

Since their own media produces nothing but propaganda, many
Laotians watch Thai television that can be picked up near the
border. Since March 2006, Radio France International has been
broadcasting programmes on FM in the capital, apart from...
its programmes in Lao.

The government has been promising a press law since 2001, but
in 2007 it once again postponed its adoption, for fear of
having to precisely define what is banned and of authorising
the creation of a privately-owned media. The criminal law
allows a journalist to be sentenced to a long prison term for
“circulating news that weakens the state”. The law also
provides for a one-year prison sentence for anyone who brings
into the country “a publication contrary to national culture”.

The foreign press is always prevented from freely covering the
condition of the minority Hmong people. Two Laotian nationals
of Hmong origin are in jail for having worked as guides, in
2003, to Belgian journalist Thierry Falise and French
cameraman Vincent Reynaud. Thao Moua and Pa Phue Khang were
sentenced on 30 June 2003 to 12 and 20 years in prison for
“obstructing justice” and “possession of weapons”.

Finally, Thongpaseuth Keuakoun, author of numerous articles
and pamphlets about the situation in Laos and the need for
reforms, has been in prison since October 1999 after being
sentenced to 20 years in jail for “anti-government
activities”. He was one of the five leaders of a pro-democracy
movement.


Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and
press freedom throughout the world. It has nine national
sections (Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy,
Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). It has representatives in
Bangkok, London, New York, Tokyo and Washington. And it has
more than 120 correspondents worldwide.

© Reporters Without Borders 2008

© Reporters Without Borders - 47, rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris -
France

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu