Raise high the license fee, Burma, and see less
Burma’s military rulers engaged a new front in their war on media “liars attempting to destroy the nation.” Today’s target is the dreaded satellite dish. Without warning, and no official announcement, satellite dish owners are now expected to pay about three times the average annual wage for a license to watch news, sports and soap operas from the outside.
The license fee hike, from 6,000 kyat (see note on currency conversion) to 1 million kyat, comes as the Burmese junta is announcing oil and gasoline rationing. An anonymous official at the Myanmar Post and Telecom, quoted by AP, suggested the government wants to discourage watching those foreign TV channels. If satellite dish owners miss the January 30th deadline for payment they will face a penalty. A new satellite dish license will cost 2 million kyat.
When Pakistan’s government cracked down on satellite dish sales in early November the Secretary-General of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Syed Iqbal Haider called it “an attempt to turn Pakistan into Burma,” quoted by The Dawn.
Earlier this year the Burmese governments’ official English-language daily New Light of Myanmar cautioned citizens against tuning into foreign radio and TV broadcasts, calling them “skies of liars attempting to destroy the nation.” - Michael Hedges January 2, 2008
Note on currencies: Maybe I’m missing something. Reuters converts one $US to 1,280 Myanmar (Burma) kyats. Every other source follows, generally, this ratio. Old faithful XE.com, the on-line currency converter, reports one $US to 6.42 Myanmar kyats. Either way, it’s a lot of money.
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