緬甸宣佈終止新聞審查制度
Myanmar's government Monday said it has ended the censorship of local publications, more than a year after it began a series of reforms aimed at freeing up the country's closely restricted media.
緬甸政府週一說，已終止了針對國內出版物的審查制度。一年多以前，緬甸開始着手進行一系列改革，旨在放開該國受到嚴格束縛的媒體。The country's Ministry of Information announced the move in a statement on its website Monday morning, saying censorship prior to publication is no longer required as of Monday..
緬甸信息部週一上午在官網上的一份聲明裏宣佈了這一舉措，說從週一起，出版前不再要求進行審查。'When we started the media reform in June 2011 we intended to abolish press censorship in one year,' ministry official Ye Htut said. 'During this process we faced some challenges but after 13 months we reached our goal.'
緬甸信息部官員Ye Htut說，2011年6月我們開始進行媒體改革時，打算一年後廢除新聞審查制度；在這個過程中，我們遇到了一些挑戰，但經過13個月的努力，我們實現了這一目標。
Opening the country's closely monitored media has been one of the linch pins of Myanmar's reform process. After the army handed over power to a nominally civilian government last year, local publications began testing the limits of what they could and couldn't publish. Many found that authorities were prepared to allow more space for criticism and debate than they expected. This, along with prisoner releases and other political reforms, led to a flourishing newspaper sector and also helped encourage the U.S. and European Union to relax some of their sanctions on the country.
放開受到嚴密監控的媒體一直是緬甸改革進程的關鍵點之一。在去年緬甸軍方將權力移交給名義上的文職政府後，緬甸出版部門便開始試探出版底線，瞭解什麼能出版，什麼不能出版。很多出版部門發現，緬甸有關部門已經準備好留出批評和討論空間，而且超出了他們的預期。這一點（連同釋放囚犯等政治改革）曾給緬甸報業帶來繁榮發展，也在一定程度上對美國和歐盟(European Union)放寬對緬甸的部分制裁起到了鼓勵作用。Pre-publication censorship, however, which required newspapers and magazines to submit articles to government censors for inspection, continued for many political and news publications.
然而，針對很多政治和新聞出版物的出版前審查制度仍繼續存在。該制度規定，報紙和雜誌須將擬刊登的文章交給政府審查機構進行檢查。As recently as this month, the government took action against publications for violating censorship rules. Two news journals were briefly suspended from publication after they reported on a rumored cabinet reshuffle without the prior permission of the government, triggering unprecedented protests among local journalists. Three weekly news journals-The Messenger, Express Time and The Nation-blacked out sections of their front pages to show their support for the two suspended publications, The Voice and The Envoy.
就在本月，緬甸政府還對違反審查規定的刊物採取了懲罰措施。兩家新聞期刊當時被勒令暫停出版，原因是它們沒有事先徵得緬甸政府的批准就對傳言的內閣重組進行了報道。此事引發了國內新聞從業者前所未有的抗議。三家新聞週刊The Messenger、Express Time和The Nation均塗黑了頭版文章的部分內容，以示對The Voice和The Envoy這兩家遭暫停刊物的支持。Now, though, the Information Ministry says political and religious newspapers and magazines will be allowed to publish without pre-approval of the government's censors, although it remains unclear how, if at all, the military-backed army will respond to direct vigorous examination in the country's media.
雖然緬甸信息部現在說，政治和宗教報紙、雜誌不用獲得政府審查機構的批准就可出版發行，但目前不清楚，受軍方支持的緬甸政府將如何應對國內媒體直接而有力的質問。
