Press Organizations Welcome European Call for Release of Journalist

Two free press organizations have welcomed the European Parliament's call on Burma to release journalist U Win Tin.

Wednesday's announcement from Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association came a week after the parliament's adoption of a human rights report that contained the call for U Win Tin's release.

The report also called on Burma to stop suppressing legitimate democratic political activity and to release democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

The statement from the press organizations also urged European bodies to step up pressure on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to deny Burma its rotating chairmanship in 2006, unless all political prisoners are released and censorship abolished.