CPJ Asks Obama to Press Burma on Press Freedoms

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The Committee to Protect Journalists wants President Obama to advocate for more press freedom when he visits Burma next week. He is traveling to Asia for the G20 Summit.

In a letter to the President dated Friday, CPJ executive director Joel Simon said Burma had backtracked after releasing jailed journalists in 2012 following the U.S. decision to suspend sanctions on the country.

"Rather than reforming draconian and outdated security laws that curb press freedom, [President] Thein Sein's government is increasingly using the laws to threaten and suppress journalists," he said.

The President called Sein in advance of his trip last week to talk about the unrest there and the need "to support civil and political rights."

Read more at B&C here.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.