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Alert

Video coverage of Rangoon regional government press conferences banned

(Mizzima News/IFEX) - 23 May 2011 - Authorities in Rangoon, Burma have banned video recordings of press conferences of the regional government after a foreign-based media group broadcast a video clip of the first such event.

Regional government secretary Khin Maung Tun forbade reporters from state-run TV station MRTV4 fromrecording a video of the second press conference in the Rangoon Regional Parliament building on 17 May 2011.

Though making recordings was banned, authorities allowed photographs to be taken, according to a journalist who attended the conference.

The ban was probably imposed as a result of actions by the Norway-based media group, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), which broadcast the government's first press conference on 10 May, said an official in the Rangoon Region Administration Office.

Regional government Minister Nyan Tun Oo, a former military officer, said during the first press conference last week that the regional government would hold a press conference every Tuesday. However, an official said that there would be no press conference next week and the date for the third press conference would be announced later.

During the press conference, officials also said the regional government was likely to establish a dress code for journalists who attended future press conferences.

"We would like to ask journalists to observe proper dress code," an official told the gathered journalists.

The official did not yet issue a dress code. In the days before the coup by former General Ne Win, journalists were required to wear a neck tie or a traditional jacket whenever they attended parliamentary sessions.