The dramatic removal last week of Thura U Shwe Mann from his position as chairman of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party was front-page news in the country’s private sector daily newspapers on August 14.
For the three national state-controlled dailies it was not a story.
It was still not a story in the August 17 editions of the Global New Light of Myanmar and the vernacular publications, Myanma Alinn and The Mirror.
The authorities have also muzzled two USDP publications regarded as being mouthpieces for Thura U Shwe Mann.
The Ministry of Information last week ordered the Union Daily and the weekly journal, Leader, to suspend publication, Union Daily editor-in-chief Yamin Tin told Reuters on August 14.
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In an apparently related development, Cherry FM radio station was taken off air on the morning of August 13.
The station’s managing director is Thura U Shwe Mann’s daughter-in-law.
