Myanmar cuts ties with US broadcaster over ‘Rohingya’ use

BANGKOK: A US government-affiliated broadcaster, which provides news to countries in Asia where freedom of information is restricted, is losing its partner in Myanmar after refusing to stop using the word “Rohingya” to describe an oppressed Muslim minority.

Monday was the last day DVB Media Group’s network would carry Radio Free Asia’s television broadcasts, RFA spokesman Rohit Mahajan said.

RFA told Myanmar authorities that it was unwilling to bow to their pressure to use a term other than Rohingya, he added.

About 700,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since Myanmar’s government launched a violent counterinsurgency campaign last August in western Myanmar, where most Rohingya lived.

Many people in Myanmar call the Rohingya “Bengali” to reflect the contention that they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh rather than natives.

The government refuses to recognise the Rohingya as an official ethnic minority and denies most of them the right to citizenship and its privileges.

In a statement on Monday, RFA president Libby Liu declared that the US broadcaster “will not compromise its code of journalistic ethics, which prohibits the use of slurs against ethnic minority groups. RFA will continue to refer to the Rohingya as the ‘Rohingya’ in our reports.

“Use of other terms, even those that fall short of being derogatory, would be inaccurate and disingenuous to both our product and our audience.”