Myanmar government has dissolved its Press Scrutiny and Registration Division, a follow-up move after domestic media publication control was totally liberalized in August 2012, official media reported Friday.

Instead, Copyrights and Registration Division will be established under the Information and Public Relations Department, said the New Light of Myanmar.

As part of its significant media reform, the government had announced in December 2012 that free publication of private daily newspapers will be allowed starting April 1, 2013 in addition to the state-owned ones.

The re-opening up to private sector in running daily newspaper will be the first in five decades.

There are some six state-owned newspapers published daily in Myanmar, namely Myanmar Alin (Myanmar language), Kyemon (Myanmar language), Myawaddy (Myanmar language), The New Light of Myanmar ( English language) and Yadanarpon (Myanmar language) in addition to over 200 private-run weekly news journals in Myanmar, English and Chinese languages as well as over 200 magazines and nearly 7,000 private publishers.

There are also more than 20 offices of foreign news agencies in the country.

Meanwhile, the government also reformed its 29-member provisional Myanmar Press Council in September 2012 to deal with media issues before a press media law is formally enacted by the parliament.

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