IPI Names Mizzima News "Free Media Pioneer 2007"
May 2, International Press Institute (IPI)

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors,
media executives and leading journalists, has announced its decision to
honour the Mizzima News Agency with its 2007 Free Media Pioneer Award.
Managing Editor Sein Win will receive the prize on behalf of Mizzima News
at an award ceremony on 15 May, during the IPI World Congress in Istanbul,
Turkey (12-15 May 2007).

Mizzima News was founded in August 1998 by a small group of Burmese
journalists in exile with the declared aim of "promoting awareness about
the ongoing situation in Burma and promoting democracy and freedom of
expression in Burma by improving the flow of information in and out of the
country and through advocacy and lobbying." Today, it has a head office in
New Delhi, India, as well as a news bureau in Thailand, and a team of some
30 employees, including Burmese and foreign journalists, in Bangladesh,
Burma, China, India and Thailand.

Burma's military government has tried to limit Mizzima's ability to
collect and disseminate information, pressuring the Thai government in
2005 to relocate Burmese refugees, including journalists, to camps near
the border with Burma, where they were denied access to the Internet,
phone lines and other means of keeping in touch with their sources of
information. In 2006, the military government started a clampdown on
anybody who provides information to foreign news outlets. New phone
tapping facilities, as well as training programmes for agents in the
Military Security Force to identify and arrest foreign media "informants",
are used by the government to make sure that no uncensored information is
distributed.

Against this backdrop, Mizzima News has continued to provide accurate and
timely news and information on Burma for both Burmese and English readers
and viewers, including a daily e-mail service; websites (www.mizzima.com
and www.mizzima.tv); a monthly journal, which is often the only source of
print news for exiled Burmese, particularly those living on Thailand's
western border with Burma; videos and podcasts; and alerts on press
freedom violations.

Previous winners of the Free Media Pioneer Award are: Yemen Times (2006);
SW Radio Africa, UK (2005); the Central Asia and Southern Caucasian
Freedom of Expression Network - CASCFEN (2004); the Media Council of
Tanzania (2003); the independent daily newspaper Danas, Serbia (2002); the
independent on-line newspaper Malaysiakini.com, Malaysia (2001); the Press
and Society Institute - IPYS, Peru (2000); the Ethiopian Free Press
Journalists' Association - EFJA (1999); Radio B-92, Yugoslavia (1998); the
Alliance of Independent Journalists - AJI, Indonesia (1997); and NTV,
Russia (1996).

For more information about the IPI Free Media Pioneer Award, as well as
the IPI World Congress in Istanbul, visit the IPI Websites:
www.freemedia.at and www.ipiturkey.com, or phone IPI at: +43-1-512 90 11