Burma democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi is facing criticism from rights groups and student activists who say her ruling party is planning to retain restrictions on free speech once wielded against it by the country’s former junta.
Since taking power in April, former political prisoner Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has released scores of detainees and is making a big push to revise some of the most repressive measures from the long years of military rule.
But its new version of the law governing public demonstrations has prompted alarm since the proposals were submitted to Parliament last week.
The draft bill would punish protesters for spreading “wrong” information and make straying away from pre-registered chants an offense. It bars non-citizens—a category that includes the largely stateless Muslim Rohingya minority—from protesting and lists criminal penalties for “disturbing” or “annoying” people. (Courtesy of Irrawaddy)
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