About 20 journalists attended the meeting, which was sponsored by International Media Support (IMS).

IMS is based in Denmark and runs media development programmes in 44 countries. It has been helping Burmese media develop for the past three years.

The development of the Arakan media and the problems currently faced by them were frankly discussed at the meeting.

Some journalists said that they objected to the government published media ethics book because it gave no protection to journalists.

The journalists also discussed the pressure exerted by the government’s media registration department on the Voice of Arakan Journal to use the word ‘Rakhine’ instead of ‘Arakan’ in its title.

The conclusions from the meeting will be published as a research paper in both English and Burmese. IMS will also present the government with suggestions on how to develop Burmese media.

At the meeting Mr. Glen Swanson from IMS said that journalists from Arakan State have less opportunities to attend journalism training than journalists from elsewhere.

IMS has already opened a meeting space for journalists in Yangon where they can go to meet up with other journalists. IMS said they hope to open up similar meeting spaces in Mandalay and Arakan State soon.

Journalists from Narinjara News, Development Journal, Voice of Arakan, Sky Net TV programme and other private and government media organisations attended the meeting.

IMS has been working with UNESCO, the Journalism Department of the National Management College and Data Collection Teams to develop the media in Burma.

Translated by Aung Myat Soe English version written by Mark Inkey for BNI