Myanmar's Information Minister Aung Kyi said the government wants to work with the country's journalists to establish new press freedom laws.

Published: Sept. 12, 2012 at 6:30 AM

YANGON, Myanmar, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- Myanmar's Information Minister Aung Kyi said the government wants to work with the country's journalists to establish new media freedom laws.

Aung Kyi, former labor minister and government liaison to pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, has been meeting with journalists in Yangon to discuss media issues, the Irrawaddy news website said.

The move comes after the government did away last month with the requirement of publications to submit their copy to a government censor before publishing them.

However, publishers must submit articles to the Information Ministry's Press Scrutiny and Registration Department after publication to determine if publishing laws have been broken.

Aung Kyi said the Information Ministry will put together a first draft and consult with Myanmar's journalist community before deciding on a version to be presented to Parliament.

He also said he wanted to work through the Myanmar Core Press Council that the government set up last month as its official media liaison and watchdog, the Irrawaddy report said.

"We now feel a sense of freedom," MCPC member Ko Ko told the Irrawaddy, run by expatriate Myanmar journalists operating in Thailand. "We must start working together to write a new law and confine the 1962 law to history."

Zaw Thet Htwe, a spokesman for the independent Committee for Freedom of the Press, said "we will need to wait and see to what extent our ideas are included."

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Myanmar moves closer to more press freedom