Dear readers, 

We invite comments and suggestions on improvements to the Kaowao newsletter. With your help, we hope that Kaowao News will continue to grow to better serve the needs of those seeking social justice in Burma. And we hope that it will become an important forum for discussion and debate and help readers to keep abreast of issues and news.  We reserve the right to edit and reject articles without prior notification. You can use a pseudonym but we encourage you to include your full name and address.

Regards,
Editor
Kaowao Newsgroup
editor@kaowao.org
www.kaowao.org

___________________________________________

I have not seen the article or opinion pieces about giving advice good and bad on the political stand from the New Mon State Party (NMSP) for a long time from Mon journalists at news paper or even online while the NMSP leaders understand that giving advice means criticize them. Later, they put on blacklist to the journalists who criticize them and it is difficult to get news from them.

I only see today the Mon journalists only support the NMSP, and never criticize the NMSP, so they can get news easily. I don’t want to mention which media group and who. I think all Mon people know who it is. In fact, this is not media or journalists. It is propaganda who writes about only good things.

Some of our Mon people misunderstand what is the journalist’s duty. ‘It is to tell the truth.” Even we can’t tell it today, we should tell it tomorrow if we all are real journalist and stand for the people. Journalists must love their people. This is very true. But, they cannot be benefit from any political group. They must love people more than any political group.

I feel time for Mon media need to write about NMSP. If NMSP accept border guard forces, what will happen to Mon people. If they plan they will not accept border guard force, what they need to do for their future political stand. Time is to tell NMSP. If not, there will be no Mon army who real protect Mon Land and Mon people. There will be only army who protect private belong economy like Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, which has less political ideology.

L Weng (via monnet)

______________________________________

Some journalists are in blacklists by their sources because they only follow the duties of journalists, but they sometime forget about the rules and ethics of journalists. Sometime they do not care the On Record and Off Record, and they use Off Record source like informal talking as news. I am not one of the journalists (I am a student), but I have learned the duties, rules, and ethics of journalists from my university course "Media Law and Ethic".

Jaw Wang