Sunday, October 14, 2007

Absurdity, thy name is Myanmar state controlled media.

Rest in peace: Mr. Kenji Nagai

Per the Burmese junta: It was dead journalist's own fault. Serves him right. If he would have behaved like a tourist...

MYANMAR'S state-controlled media said on Sunday that a Japanese journalist, killed during a crackdown on recent pro-democracy protests, was to blame for his own death because he put himself in harm's way.

Mr Kenji Nagai, 50, a video journalist for Japan's APF News agency, was among at least 10 people killed in the Sept 26-27 crackdown, when soldiers fired automatic weapons into a crowd of pro-democracy demonstrators.

'This was an accident. The journalist was not deliberately targeted,' said an editorial in The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a junta mouthpiece. 'The fact that the Japanese journalist was among the protesters amounts to inviting danger.'


The editorial also said Mr Nagai had entered on a tourist visa. 'He should have come in with a journalist visa, since he was a journalist,' it said. 'If he had behaved like a tourist he would not have faced this tragic end.' Myanmar is believed to have rejected all visa applications from journalists during the pro-democracy protests.

(thinking of you, U! This has got absurd thoughts written all over it.)