Myanmar President Thein Sein attends the inauguration ceremony of a Myanmar-style Buddha hall in the White Horse Monastery in Luoyang, central China’s Henan Province/XINHUA
The Myanmar Herald Journal, renowned for its criticism of the government and ministers in the former junta-run country, was accused of having “tarnished the image and rights” of President Thein Sein, according to a statement from the information ministry published in state-backed media.
The decision to sue the paper, which authorities said followed a process of mediation by the country’s interim press council, comes as media freedoms fall under the microscope ahead of a visit by United States President Barack Obama next week.
His visit is likely to highlight concerns over journalist arrests and the death in army custody of a freelance reporter late last month.
According to the information ministry, the Myanmar Herald Journal ran an interview in which the subject described the president’s words as “gibberish, irrational, cheap and inconsistent… completely nonsensical, absurd and insane.”
Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government, which came to power in 2011 at the end of outright military rule, has ushered in sweeping press reforms, including the release of jailed journalists and scrapping draconian pre-publication censorship, which once applied to everything from fairytales to the lottery.
But relations between the government and the often rambunctious press have slumped in recent months, with a slew of prosecutions against the media that have seen several journalists handed prison terms.
Last month, the army issued a rare public statement admitting soldiers had shot dead Aung Naing – a freelance reporter who it claimed was working for a rebel group – in an insurgency-prone eastern border region.
The United States last week called on Myanmar to conduct a “credible and transparent investigation” into the killing.
Authorities said they had sought an apology from the Myanmar Herald Journal under a complaints resolution process, which has been set up to try to avoid court proceedings against reporters.
Justifying the legal action the ministry said the publication had submitted a letter of explanation but it had not gone far enough to undo the reputational damage done to the president.
Myanmar’s press council said the ministry was likely to pursue a defamation suit against the paper.
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