Reporters Without Borders supports Best Burmese Blogger Award

For the second year running, Reporters Without Borders has supported the Best Burmese Blogger Award, created by its partner organisation, the Burma Media Association (BMA). The results were announced at a conference organised by the BMA at the end of February in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. Thousands of Burmese Internet users helped to choose the winners by voting for their favourite blogs. Ten blogs received prizes. The best blog in the general category was Myanmar E-Books (http://burmesebooks.wordpress.com), while the best news blog was The Power of Fraternity (http://photayokeking.org). Thai free speech activist Supinya Klangnarong awarded the prizes on behalf of Reporters Without Borders. The winners will receive free website hosting or free Internet access for two years, paid for by Reporters Without Borders, Mizzima’s video report in Burmese on the ceremony: http://www.mizzimaburmese.com/mizzima-tv.html?task=videodirectlink&id=150 The BMA also conducted a poll of Burmese bloggers and their reasons for blogging: http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=9a6oy3au0kgurai625943 More information about Internet censorship in Burma: http://www.rsf.org/en-ennemi36676-Burma.html The Kenji Nagai Memorial Award, which honours the memory of Kenji Nagai, a Japanese journalist killed in Burma in 2007, has also been awarded for the second year running. In a ceremony during the BMA conference, it was announced that this year’s prize has gone to two imprisoned Burmese reporters, Hla Hla Win and Win Maw. The award, which has 1,000 dollars in prize money, is supported by the Japanese video news agency APF.