BBC Burma pulls Myanmar TV deal over Rohingya ‘censorship’

The BBC’s Burmese language service, said it was pulling a broadcasting deal with a popular Myanmar television channel citing “censorship”, with insiders saying the partners had clashed over coverage of the Muslim Rohingya minority.

The announcement is the latest blow to struggling press freedoms in the country and a remarkable turnaround for a news organisation that famously kept Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi up to date during her long years of house arrest under junta rule.

Since April 2014, BBC Burmese broadcast a daily news programme on MNTV with 3.7 million daily viewers. The BBC said it was ending the deal after MNTV censored or pulled multiple programmes since March this year.

“The BBC cannot accept interference or censorship of BBC programs by joint-venture TV broadcasters as that violates the trust between the BBC and its audience,” a report the BBC’s Burmese website said.

UCJ, UNILORIN.