FC: Burma bans political discussions, anonymity, unapproved Web sites

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Actually an improvement:
 http://www.y2kculture.com/mccullagh/burma.1296.txt

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http://pcmlp.socleg.ox.ac.uk/transition/issue04/updates.htm

Communications Law in Transition newsletter
Published by the programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy
Wolfson College, Oxford University and Yeshiva University
February 12, 2000

                        UPDATES ON MEDIA LAW REFORMS

   I. Australia: Bill to license foreign broadcasters.

   [...]

   II. Burma: Regulations for internet users announced.

           Myanmar Post and Telecommunications [MPT] has issued
   regulations for users of its internet service. They are:
     * Any writings detrimental to the interests of the Union of Myanmar
       [Burma] are not to be posted;
     * Any writings directly or indirectly detrimental to the current
       policies and secret security affairs of the Government of the
       Union of Myanmar are not to be posted;
     * Writings related to politics are not to be posted;
     * Only the person who is granted an internet account is to use the
       internet; no other person is allowed to use the internet;
     * The person who is granted an internet account is held responsible
       for all internet use on that account;
     * A person with an internet account is prohibited from hacking the
       web and entering and destroying the security system of MPT;
     * Hacking the web and entering and destroying the security system of
       other internet users is prohibited;
     * Persons who hold an internet account are forbidden to misuse the
       account of other internet users;
     * Internet users are to inform MPT of any threat on the internet;
     * Internet users are to obtain prior permission from the
       organization designated by the state to create web pages;
     * Applicants for an internet account are held accountable for the
       veracity of facts contained in the application form;
     * MPT has the right to amend and change regulations on the use of
       the internet without prior notice;
     * Application can be filed for compensation for any damage or loss;
     * Internet use will be terminated and legal action will be taken for
       violation of any of these regulations.

           [The French news agency AFP on 22nd January cited the
   Paris-based journalists' organization Reporters Sans Frontieres as
   saying that in recent weeks the Burmese authorities had arrested at
   least three people, one of them an army officer, for consulting
   opposition web sites based in foreign countries. The agency noted that
   the new curbs on internet use followed the closure in December of
   Burma's two privately owned internet service providers (ISPs), leaving
   state-owned Myanmar Post and Telecommunications as the sole ISP.] (TV
   Myanmar, Rangoon, 20 January 2000)

   III. Czech Republic agrees changes in TV, radio laws.
           The Czech government approved on Wednesday changes to
   broadcasting laws aiming to bring the country in line with European
   Union standards and strictly defining ownership regulations.
           Culture Minister Pavel Dostal told a news conference that the
   draft amendments conform to the EU's "Television without Borders"
   regulations on content and scheduling and the favouring of
   European-produced programmes. The measures, if approved by parliament,
   would also ban cross-ownership of print, television and radio entities
   and clarify the rights of broadcast licence holders.
           Dostal said the measures, which would take effect on July 1
   with a one-year phase-in period, would allow only licence holders to
   control programming, not operating companies.
           The Czech Republic is facing international arbitration after
   New York cosmetics scion Ronald Lauder said the country failed to
   protect his investment in the most popular Czech commercial station,
   TV Nova, under a U.S.-Czech bilateral treaty.
           The Czech unit of Lauder's Central European Media Enterprises
   (CME) was dropped as operating company for TV Nova when the station's
   licence holder cancelled CME programming in August after a protracted
   management dispute.
           Lauder is demanding $523 million in compensation, claiming
   Czech authorities did not move to block the licence holder CET-21 from
   cutting his company off as exclusive operator of TV Nova, the most
   profitable station in post-Communist Europe.
           The Czech government is fighting the claim.
           A separate Amsterdam-based arbitration court issued a
   preliminary ruling in November in favour of Lauder's company, saying
   CET-21 should restore CME as TV Nova's exclusive service provider, but
   the ruling has been ignored by the Czechs.
           CET-21 head Vladimir Zelezny said the ruling named only him,
   and not CET-21, and was thus groundless.
           A final ruling from the Internation Chamber of Commerce court
   in Amsterdam is expected later this year. (Media Central, 5 January,
   2000)

   IV. Estonia: Ruling coalition to define tasks of public broadcasters.

           Politicians of Estonia's three-party ruling coalition today
   agreed that the tasks of Eesti Televisioon (Estonian Television,
   [ETV]) and Eesti Raadio (Estonian Radio) need to be outlined more
   precisely. Marju Lauristin, head of the parliamentary Moderates
   faction, said the coalition has a clear vision of public-law
   broadcasting.
           "The functions of public-law media have to be fixed either by
   law, by contracts, or through the Broadcasting Council," she told BNS.
           The financing of public broadcasting, like a more exact
   definition of the tasks of ETV and ER, is a subject for further
   discussion, Lauristin added.
           The parliamentary Cultural Affairs Commission will soon tackle
   a bill of amendments to the broadcasting law to change the competence
   and makeup of the Broadcasting Council dealing with affairs of the
   national television and radio.
           "The coalition is guided by the principle of balance,"
   Lauristin said. Plans are for the council to be made up of
   representatives of both the ruling alliance and opposition on a basis
   of parity and for independent experts to form the other half of its
   members. Lauristin said the coalition meeting did not consider ETV's
   privatization. The topic has been blown out of proportion in the
   media, she observed. (BNS news agency, Tallinn, 19 January 2000)

   [...]

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