Junta Levies Massive Fee Increase to Access Satellite TV
| By Violet Cho | Wednesday, January 2, 2008 |
 COMMENTS (0) |
RECOMMEND (12) |
 E-MAIL |
 PRINT |
In what is seen as an attempt to stop Burmese citizens from accessing foreign news and information broadcasts, the Burmese government has ordered a massive hike in the annual satellite television license fee without any warning.
 |
The average annual income in Burma is $300.
The huge increase in the satellite license fee will in effect prevent the majority of Burmese from accessing international news and other information via satellite broadcasts. Two satellite broadcasts, the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and Doha-based Al Jazeera broadcast, are popular sources of information.
One Rangoon resident said she can not afford to pay 1 million kyat to receive the satellite TV channels.
“We hope to be able to watch Burmese news broadcast in other ways even if we can not watch it though satellite TV channels,” she said.
Without a satellite connection, the main TV broadcast news source will be state-controlled MRTV. There are some private television broadcasts, but they avoid news and information of a controversial nature.
Foreign and exiled Burmese media played a major role in the August and September pro-democracy demonstrations.
The military regime has maintained its assault on broadcast media such as BBC Burmese Service, the Democratic Voice of Burma, the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, calling their broadcasts a "skyful of lies."
Licenses to open restaurants and tea shops in Rangoon have also been cutback because, critics say, they are sources of satellite TV broadcast and many Burmese people watch foreign broadcasts there because they can not avoid a satellite connection at home.
According to official data, there were 60,000 registered satellite receivers in 2002, although a glance at the dish-clad roofs of Rangoon apartment buildings suggests the actual figure is much higher.
COMMENTS (0)
 |