Mizzima News

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – There is a plethora of Burmese weekly journals online these days.

Some of the weekly journals online now are Zaykwet (Market), Rangoon Times, Weekly Eleven, Ahlinka Gita, Computer, 7 Days News, True News among others.

According to a journal editor in Burma this development is driven by demand from Burmese expatriates, competition among the journals and is also a sign of technological advancement in the country.

"Posting a journal online does not affect the market. Those who want to read these journals online must have round the clock, 7 days a week access to internet connection, must be computer and internet savvy and must have a high speed connection. The internet is not yet accessible to everyone in Burma," he told Mizzima.

It is learnt that posting journals online does not affect its circulation and sales.

But these online journals are not exempt from tight censorship in Burma. They have to post the journal copies, which have been cleared by the Censor Board under the Information Ministry.

"The censorship process takes considerable time and we have to go through it. We have to post online the final journal copy stored in the CD given by the censor board," an editor of a weekly journal said.

Of the 270 printing and publishing licenses granted by the Information Ministry, 120 licenses are for weekly journals. The rest of the licenses are for monthly magazines. According to the 2007 Censor Board statistics, 21 weekly publications cover general category news.