Press Release: Rebuttal to Eleven Media false report
ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION
ARAKAN, BURMA
Press Release
Date: May 6, 2013
Rebuttal to Eleven Media false report
Our attention has been drawn to the news item appeared in Eleven Media, Yangon, dated 05/05/2013 under caption, “ Three Rohingya organizations are reportedly masterminding a religious war against Myanmar” accusing that “Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), Arakan Rohingya National Organization (ARNO), and Rohingya National Security Council (RNSC) are reportedly supporting and manipulating the plot. Their members have already collected weapons for the war. The Muslim living in Myanmar, especially hardcore members are campaigning for enlisting for their conspiracy……”
Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) totally rejects this unsubstantiated news report or accusation as ‘false, fabricated and nonsense’ intended to damage the reputation of ARNO and to incite public opinion against the Rohingya people who have been facing ethnic cleansing and crimes of genocide in Burma. We have never heard of any organization by the name of Rohingya National Security Council (RNSC), and ARNO never has had such a meeting or discussion with RSO or so-called RNSC anywhere.
We strongly condemn the Eleven Media Group for this unethical reporting. The news group is actively engaged in making propaganda and fuelling anti-Muslim deadly violence in Arakan and other parts of Burma since June 2012 that earn it bad name internationally.
We reiterate that we are committed to remain a community within Arakan, and that ARNO is a peaceful political movement committed to pursue a peaceful political settlement of the long standing Rohingya problem.
We demand Eleven Media to substantiate its racially motivated dishonest report.
For more information, please contact:
Nurul Islam: + 44-7947854652
Aman Ullah: + 8801558486910
Email: info@rohingya.org
Since freedom of information for a publisher to the mass media is not unlimited, it is necessary to safeguard its rights but also performs its duties, making freedom and responsibility compatible. A journalist has a duty to consider information not as merchandise but as a fundamental citizen's right — that is to say, that citizens can demand truthful information and ethical opinions. The mass media has a decisive role in the development of democracy and public opinion. In order to help the media fulfill its aim of providing truthful information and ethical opinions, it is necessary for the same publisher to exert control over a journalist demanding submission to deontological codes. The other side of the same coin is his influence and prestige can only be maintained through ethical principles and quest for impartiality.
