Cambodia: Lift Ban on "Burma Daily"

The Burma Daily was launched on May 16 as a four-page insert in the Cambodia Daily and carried primarily English-language wire service reports about Burma and Cyclone Nargis, which struck on May 2-3, killing tens of thousands. With the publication of its second edition on May 19, the Cambodian Ministry of Information illegally ordered police to remove copies of the Burma Daily from newsstands.  
 
The newspapers suspension comes ahead of a May 25 pledging conference in Rangoon organized by the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a 10-country bloc that includes Cambodia, to address Burmas reconstruction and how to deliver aid to cyclone victims. ASEAN operates by consensus, so any country, including Burma or Cambodia, can stop coordinated action by the grouping that insists Burma open up to aid and humanitarian workers.  
 
Cambodias press censorship on behalf of Burmas abusive military government is shameless, said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. When ASEAN members like Cambodia go to bat for Burmas generals, it makes it hard to believe that the association will genuinely lean on Burma to allow international aid for desperate cyclone survivors.  
 
Cambodia Daily publisher Bernard Krisher, who said he launched the Burma Daily only temporarily as an insert in the Cambodia Daily before launching it as an online publication at www.burmadaily.org, announced on May 21 that the Burma Daily would no longer appear in the Cambodia Daily. At present, the online version has articles only until May 21.  

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