Privately Owned Paper Appears in Burma

The first legal privately owned newspaper in Burma in 26 years began publishing today, and in its first edition the People’s View printed photographs and accounts of demonstrations in Rangoon against the authoritarian government.

Rangoon’s six other dailies, two in English and four in Burmese, are owned by the government. Twenty-one privately owned newspapers were published in Rangoon before the 1962 coup by Gen. Ne Win, who nationalized all newspapers, radio stations and television stations. Ne Win resigned in late July.