Burma's detained opposition party leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has recently applied to the ruling junta for installation of a satellite receiver for television, diplomatic sources in Rangoon said. She under detention for 12 of the past 18 years she has been in Burma.
The application by San Suu Kyi is not the first time in several years, the source added.
While the government has rejected her earlier applications to install a satellite receiver at her lakeside villa in Rangoon's University Avenue, where she is under house arrest, the source said, the government has not yet responded to her recent application.
While the information could not be independently verified, her party – the National League for Democracy spokesperson, U Nyan Win, said he is not aware of any such development.
"I have not heard anything like that and I am not aware of her [Daw Aung San Suu Kyi] having applied," Nyan Win said.
The detained Nobel peace laureate has been deliberately cut-off from the outside world. She has been denied a telephone connection, and access to a television set, Nyan Win said.
"She only has a radio to listen to. And that's the only thing she relies on for access to information," Nyan Win said.
The Burmese democracy icon is denied access to the internet despite possessing a computer, the diplomatic source said sarcastically.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi applying for the installation of a satellite receiver came amidst rumors of uncertain annual license fees.
Earlier, rumors spread in Rangoon and other parts of Burma that the annual license fees for satellite receivers would increase to 1 million Kyat from what was previously 6000 Kyat. However, the rumor comes in the wake of another that suggests that the fees have drastically gone down to 50,000 Kyat.
Satellite Dish owners in Rangoon said, the government, however, has not made any announcement on the license fees and has not accepted any renewals.
"I have not paid my Sat TV receivers' annual license fee. The authorities are still not accepting any license renewal. So, I am still waiting and if the fees are not too much I will renew but if the fees are high I will have to disconnect," Nyan Win said.
Following the rumor of the hike in the annual license fees, owners of Sat TV dishes are reportedly preparing to disconnect their receivers as the hike in fees are beyond their affordability.
Interestingly, on January 4, Burma's Independence Day, a Burmese broadcasting station – Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) – in exile which has direct satellite broadcasting facility into Burma, announced that it is increasing its broadcasting airtime to daily from the previous broadcast during weekends.
