Date:20/04/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/04/20/stories/2007042003631200.htm

National

News agency office closure condemned

New York: After the forced closure of the New Delhi-based Mizzima News, an exile-run website popular for hard-hitting reports on neighbouring Myanmar's military-run Government, the Committee to Protect Journalists has called on the Indian authorities to explain the move.

"We are outraged that a democratic country like India should send police into a news agency office and padlock its doors," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "We call on the authorities to explain why they have shut down Mizzima and to unseal its offices immediately."

Established in 1998 by a group of Myanmarese dissidents, Mizzima is a non-profit news organisation funded by various international donors to produce independent news on Myanmar-related issues. Its editor-in-chief, Soe Myint, was in Kolkata translating for ethnic Karen and Arakan rebels on trial for supplying weapons to Indian insurgent groups. .