Dear Senior General Min Aung Hlaing,
When I heard the news that if media used the word “coup”, the military council would take away their media licenses, I remembered the chapter of "General Ne Win's First and Last Press Conference" referenced in the book, "Belu Toh Ywa" (The Giants’ Village) written by journalist Kyaymon U Thaung.
The chapter begins: "When the caretaker government came to power, Botataung, The Mirror and Yangon newspapers received made-up charges and had to shut down. The editors were jailed, and the then-government ordered the newspapers to be nationalized." This passage made me wonder if the
media was being targeted again.
The senior generals now want us to use the word “caretaker government”. but we are not in the same situation as it was back then when Prime Minister U Nu handed over power to the Commander-in-Chief General Ne Win. Now, countless people including President U Win Myint, State Counselor Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi, Union Ministers, and regional Chief Ministers have been detained.
In addition, if you (Senior General Min Aung Hlaing) looked at the mass protests across Myanmar, you can often see the word "military coup". When we write news, we need to report what is really happening. We cannot conceal it as if it did not happen.
Moreover, the leader of the State Administrative Council is Senior General Min Aung Hlaing; not President-elect Min Aung Hlaing. You are not the one who won the election by popular vote in a democratic election. Therefore labelling the government “‘military junta” is not a surprising thing.
As an independent media organization and not a propaganda weapon, we cannot always be using the long-winded term "State Administrative Council". One cannot see the truth if one just looks at MRTV and Myawaddy that only tells the stories of whoever is in power.
It is said that history repeats itself. When the military coup took place in 1962, General Ne Win said that he had acted in accordance with the law. Now, the military council is also saying the same. In fact, from a legal point of view, there is no impartial tribunal to rule that the senior general took power under the existing constitution. So it is difficult to accept what the military council says. It is said that you studied law, so if you looked at it from an objective perspective, you would see the truth. But for those who claim to have rule of law at gunpoint, it can mean something else.
The local media is not the only one using the term 'coup d'etat', please also look at foreign media as well. It will be found that many news, articles, and analysis are using the word “coup d'état”.
The order (that media licenses would be revoked if the word “coup d'état” and “military junta” are used) is abusing power. I also noticed that you said that “the Press Council” is the fourth estate. But what you should do is to recognize “the media” as the fourth estate. You also wanted to use the Press
Council to order the media on whatever the military council wants. Please take a look at how many members of the Press Council have resigned and how many are still remaining because of your decision to restrict freedom of the press.
By the way, it is customary to use acronyms or short usage instead of full names in news writing. You should not say “whatever comes out of our mouth is the law”. Some suggest that if the word “military junta” is not allowed, we should use “power-bandit government”. But at Mizzima, we would like to give
you notice that we will continue using the words military council, military regime, coup government and military junta, as necessary.
