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Geopolitics

Burma Ends 48 Years Of Press Censorship

THE IRRAWADDY (Thailand), DEMOCRATIC VOICE OF BURMA (Burma),AFP ( France)

Worldcrunch

The Burmese government has announced it is ending media censorship with immediate effect -- a symbolic step on the road to freedom in the long repressed Asian country.

The Burmese pro-democracy newsmagazine Irrawaddy, based in Thailand, reported that officials from the government's Press Scrutiny and Registration Department told local journalists in Yangon that they were no longer obligated to submit their articles to state censors before publication.

AFP quoted an unnamed newspaper editor in Burma's largest city, Yangon: "This is a great day for all journalists in Myanmar, who have laboured under these odious restrictions for far too many years."

President Thein Sein's reformist government has eased censorship laws since the end of military rule last year. However on June 9, the Burmese government suspended Snapshot news journal for publishing a photo of the corpse of Thida Htwe, a rape and murder victim -- which caused sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma's Rakhine State, reports the Democratic Voice of Burma.

#Burma govt ends "pre-censorship" but yet unclear if there is retroactive action against published material. Censor board isn't abolished.

— min htet (@minhtet66) August 20, 2012

Nevertheless, there is still a long way to freedom of expression, as a ministry official told AFP that film censorship would remain.

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Geopolitics

Geert Wilders, The Europe Union's Biggest Problem Since Brexit

The victory of Geert Wilders' far-right party in this week's elections in the Netherlands shows that politics in Europe, at both the national and European Union level, has fundamentally failed to overcome its contradictions.

Geert Wilders, The Europe Union's Biggest Problem Since Brexit

A campaign poster of Geert Wilders, who leads the Party for Freedom (PVV) taken in the Hague, Netherlands

Pierre Haski

Updated Nov. 28, 2023 at 6:15 p.m.

-Analysis-

PARIS — For a long time, Geert Wilders, recognizable by his peroxide hair, was an eccentric, disconcerting and yet mostly marginal figure in Dutch politics. He was known for his public outbursts against Muslims, particularly Moroccans who are prevalent in the Netherlands, which once led to a court convicting him for the collective insulting of a nationality.

Consistently ranking third or fourth in poll results, this time he emerged as the leader in Wednesday's national elections. The shock is commensurate with his success: 37 seats out of 150, twice as many as in the previous legislature.

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The recipe is the same everywhere: a robustly anti-immigration agenda that capitalizes on fears. Wilders' victory in the Netherlands reflects a prevailing trend across the continent, from Sweden to Portugal, Italy and France.

We must first see if Wilders manages to put together the coalition needed to govern. Already the first roadblock came this week with the loss of one of his top allies scouting for coalition partners from other parties: Gom van Strien, a senator in Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) was forced to resign from his role after accusations of fraud resurfaced in Dutch media.

Nonetheless, at least three lessons can be drawn from Wilders' far-right breakthrough in one of the founding countries of the European Union.

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