Myanmar: Magazine must go with the river's flow

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — It was easy for Myanmar's former military government to change the name of the country's mightiest river, but a magazine ordered to make the same change is putting up a fight.

State-run newspapers published an Information Ministry announcement Tuesday telling the Irrawaddy Publishing Group that it must change the names of its two publications named after the Irrawaddy River to use the spelling "Ayeyawady."

That's what the former ruling junta renamed the river in 1989, when it also changed the country's name from Burma to Myanmar and the then-capital from Rangoon to Yangon. The announcement said use of the old spellings contravenes the "Adaptation of Expression" law.

Aung Zaw, the publishing group's founding editor-in-chief and recent recipient of an International Press Freedom award from the Committee to Protect Journalists, called the order "an attempt to stifle independent media" and said it was not the first time the publication has been pressured by the government.

"We felt that it was blatant interference in our mission and we couldn't accept it. We will continue to use the 'Irrawaddy,'" Aung Zaw told The Associated Press. The group publishes The Irrawaddy, an English-language news magazine, and the Myanmar-language Irrawaddy Weekly Journal.

Myanmar's elected but army-dominated government, which came to power in 2011 after almost five decades of military rule, has been reining in freedoms granted to the media after initial loosening of censorship and other moves promoting freedom of speech, amid fears that the country's transition to democracy is slowing.

The Irrawaddy, which also has a news website, has faced harassment since opening an office in the country. It continues to keep its main offices in Chiang Mai in neighboring Thailand, where Myanmar opposition groups and free media were based during the years of military rule.

Visas held by non-Myanmar staff members have in recent months been issued for shorter periods, and editors have been told to tone down reporting on the government and military.

"There are many other important issues, but focusing on names and spellings shouldn't be a matter in this transition period. It only creates confusion among people," Aung Zaw said.