"I am confident I am speaking on behalf of all journalists working in the private sector in Myanmar – and perhaps most of those working for state-run newspapers – when I say that up until August this year censorship has been the curse of our professional lives. On a personal level my response to censorship has ranged from quiet exasperation to furious contempt. Censorship has been the cause of outbursts in the news room which proved beyond any doubt to many of my Myanmar colleagues that I am an uncivilised barbarian; it is the ostensible reason why my dearest Myanmar friend, Sonny Swe, the former deputy CEO of The Myanmar Times, one of the few civilian victims of the purge of Military Intelligence in 2004, was sentenced to 14 years? jail the following year. It was eight years in November since he was taken away. I knew that I would be working under one of the worst censorship regimes in the world when I accepted a position with The Myanmar Times in June 2001, so what was the attraction?..."