Radio Free Asia (RFA), the private, nonprofit US government-funded corporation that broadcasts to Asian countries, halted its TV broadcasts to Myanmar saying it “will not compromise its code of journalistic ethics.”
Myanmar
RFA aired its last original TV broadcast on the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) network on state-owned Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) on 11 June.
RFA took this decision after the Myanmar government told DVB that it could not carry RFA’s programming if the word “Rohingya” continued to be used. RFA’s Burmese Service’s TV programming has been available on DVB since October 2017.
Explaining the broadcaster’s decision to pull out, RFA’s President Libby Liu (pictured) said: “Radio Free Asia will not compromise its code of journalistic ethics, which prohibits the use of slurs against ethnic minority groups. RFA will continue to refer to the Rohingya as the ‘Rohingya’ in our reports. Use of other terms, even those that fall short of being derogatory, would be inaccurate and disingenuous to both our product and our audience.
“By forbidding the use of the word ‘Rohingya,’ Myanmar’s government is taking an Orwellian step in seeking to erase the identity of a people whose existence it would like to deny. RFA will continue to provide audiences in Myanmar with access to trustworthy, reliable journalism, particularly when reporting on issues that local and state-controlled media ignores and suppresses.”
Following a Burmese military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since August 2017.
RFA indicates that its content and programming will continue to be available for its audience in Myanmar on shortwave, social media (YouTube/ Facebook) and RFA Burmese’s website.
DVB, which aired RFA TV broadcasts, is a Thailand-based multimedia organization run by Burmese expatriates. It was launched in Norway in 1992, broadcasting to Myanmar on shortwave. It started TV broadcasts in 2005. In February DVB signed an agreement with MRTV to broadcast its channel free-to-air in digital format in the country.
Two Reuters journalists were arrested in Myanmar on 12 December 2017 and charged with violating the Official Secrets Act.