Director of UN agency urges freedom for prize-winning Myanmar journalist

The chief of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has renewed his call to the Government of Myanmar for the liberation of a prize-winning journalist who has been imprisoned since 1989.

“I would like draw attention to the fact that U Win Tin, former editor of the Myanmar daily Hanthawati, is still in prison,” said Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, which awarded the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize to the journalist in 2001.

“Concerned over the continued detention of a man who is elderly and in ill-health, I renew my request to the government of Myanmar to show compassion and release him,” he said in a statement released yesterday, which added that U Win Tin turned 76 on 12 March.

Aside from being a prominent editor, U Win Tin was vice-chair of the Myanmar Writers’ Association before he was arrested in July 1989 and accused of belonging to the banned Communist Party of the country, UNESCO said.

He was condemned to 14 years jail. In 1996 he received an additional sentence of five years for breaking prison regulations prohibiting the possession of writing materials.

According to the International Freedom of Expression exchange (IFEX), representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross have not been able to visit U Win Tin or other Burmese prisoners since the start of 2006.

UNESCO is the only UN agency with a mandate to defend freedom of expression and press freedom, and Mr. Matsuura has issued frequent condemnations of the murder and detention of journalists around the world in recent months.