The Burma Daily is a newspaper dedicated to providing the people of Burma with news about their country and the world as an informed public is the key toward moving this country toward a civil society where its citizens are able to form opinions and ultimately choose their leaders to direct their fate.
This newspaper has no political agenda nor a political direction. Its aim is to set an example of what a free and responsible newspaper can be toward the day that such a newspaper can stand besides newspapers like the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Washington Post, the Asahi Shimbun, Le Monde, the Times of London and some of the other great respected newspapers in the world.
The prototype of The Burma Daily is The Cambodia Daily published by me in Phnom Penh, which has had a significant impact on Cambodian society in creating an informed public, setting up the foundation for a free press and training journalists who follow professional standards of journalism and are imbued with high ethics in their reporting and editing.
Thomas Jefferson said: “If I were to choose a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I would not hesitate to choose the latter.” This demonstrates the importance of newspapers in society.
The Burma Daily will be printed and edited in Cambodia by the editors of The Cambodia Daily relying on information about Burma from the wire services and stringers in Rangoon who will report on general news such as events in the capital and the country along with “calendar items,” business news and letters and opinion pieces that cannot be considered of a nature that is linked to a political agenda.
Since the newspaper probably cannot be circulated widely in Burma, although we hope it will, as are other international media, like the International Herald Tribune and the news weeklies, the print edition will be available in Cambodia and by mail anywhere else.
We plan to disseminate this newspaper by PDF on the web and it will be available by email on request. We also plan to carry advertising and welcome inquiries about placing advertising in this newspaper. We hope this project will be the beginning of developing a distinguished newspaper for Burma and its people.
