Myanmar's lower house approves media bill

The House of Representatives (Lower House) of Myanmar's Parliament has approved the media bill as a part of its bid to promote media development and administration in accordance with law, media reported Tuesday.

The media bill sets media sector as the country's fourth pillar after legislative, executive and judiciary's. It will prescribe the rights and obligations of media persons and allows any citizen to run media enterprise, reported Xinhua.

The Lower House, which passed the amended media bill sent from the Upper House, stressed the need for professional accountability in the online media, calling for running in accordance with rules and regulations in the future.

The Myanmar government started media reform in June 2011, and in August 2012, domestic media publication control was liberalised.

Myanmar then announced in December 2012 free publication of private daily newspapers, dissolving its Press Scrutiny and Registration Division.

Since then 31 private daily newspapers have been granted permission for publication, of which 24 are Myanmar- language papers and two are in English.

Meanwhile, there are six state-owned daily papers, in addition to more than 200 private-run weekly journals in Myanmar, English and Chinese languages as well as over 200 magazines and nearly 7, 000 private publishers.