Apparently, the junta in Myanmar doesn’t have much of a sense of humor:
YANGON, Myanmar — A popular Myanmar comedian, who had been carrying out a private campaign to help the victims of Cyclone Nargis, has been detained by police, his friends said Thursday.
The comedian, Maung Thura, 47, better known by his stage name Zarganar, or “The Tweezers,” was taken away from his home in Yangon Wednesday evening, the friends said.
The police ransacked the comedian’s home and seized his computer files. The files contained photos and videos the military government would prefer that the world not see — victims of the May 3 cyclone and the 2006 “champagne and diamonds” wedding of the daughter of the junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, according to a friend of Zarganar, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The detention of Zarganar, who has been jailed at least three times in the past two decades for his outspokenness, came as the government has been growing increasingly sensitive to criticism of its inefficient and callous handling of relief operations for the cyclone that, by official count, left at least 134,000 dead or missing, and about 2.4 million survivors in need of help.
Outrageous, yes, but they’re probably just taking lessons from the more experienced dictators in Moscow:
MOSCOW — On a talk show last fall, a prominent political analyst named Mikhail G. Delyagin had some tart words about Vladimir V. Putin. When the program was later televised, Mr. Delyagin was not.
Not only were his remarks cut — he was also digitally erased from the show, like a disgraced comrade airbrushed from an old Soviet photo. (The technicians may have worked a bit hastily, leaving his disembodied legs in one shot.)
Mr. Delyagin, it turned out, has for some time resided on the so-called stop list, a roster of political opponents and other critics of the government who have been barred from TV news and political talk shows by the Kremlin.
The stop list is, as Mr. Delyagin put it, “an excellent way to stifle dissent.”
It is also a striking indication of how Mr. Putin has increasingly relied on the Kremlin-controlled TV networks to consolidate power, especially in recent elections.
(…)
And it is not just politicians. Televizor, a rock group whose name means TV set, had its booking on a St. Petersburg station canceled in April, after its members took part in an Other Russia demonstration.
When some actors cracked a few mild jokes about Mr. Putin and Mr. Medvedev at Russia’s equivalent of the Academy Awards in March, they were expunged from the telecast.
Indeed, political humor in general has been exiled from TV. One of the nation’s most popular satirists, Viktor A. Shenderovich, once had a show that featured puppet caricatures of Russian leaders, including Mr. Putin. It was canceled in Mr. Putin’s first term, and Mr. Shenderovich has been all but barred from TV.
The truth, of course, is that humor and satire are often very effective weapons against blowhards and dictators. Just ask Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
