Burning down Myanmar's Internet firewall

Myanmar maintains some of the world's most restrictive Internet controls, including government-administered blocks on foreign news sites and the use of popular e-mail services. But when politically sensitive fuel-price protests broke out last month in the old capital city Yangon, government censors proved powerless to stop the outflow of information and images over the Internet to the outside world.

State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) authorities have increased their efforts to curb local and foreign media coverage of the protests and their heavy-handed response against demonstrators. Pro-government thugs have been deployed to

harass and intimidate local journalists and camera-carriers, some of whom have had their mobile-phone services cut.

Myanmar Imposes Curfew, Bans Assembly

Associated Press

Tue Sep 25

4