STAFF members of the Yangon-based "Myanmar Times" newspaper house have appealed to a Myanmar court against a bid by the local partner to liquidate the company, overseen by Australian publisher, Ross Dunkley.
Dunkley, 55, is fighting to stave off legal challenges to his control over the company, that have been launched by the publishing house's partner, Dr Tin Tun Oo, now seeking to have the paper wound up in a bitter dispute over control.
In court reports, seen by AAP, a judge on Thursday accepted an affidavit from Zaw Myint, deputy editor in chief of The Myanmar Times, who acted as a representative of "a vast majority" of the 350 staff members employed by the paper.
The appeal claimed the staff opposed the application to wind up the paper as it occupied a "unique place in the publishing sector", with staff jobs at stake and how "it would be senseless to force it shut".
Tin Tun Oo presently holds a 51 per cent share in the parent company, Myanmar Consolidated Media, with the remaining 49 per cent held by Dunkley and associates, including Australian Mining magnate, Bill Clough.
Dunkley and Clough are also investors in the Cambodian-based Phnom Penh Post.
Dunkley is also facing law suits brought by Tin Tun Oo's wife, Khin Moe Moe, who alleges the Australian assaulted her son-in-law in an altercation at the newspaper's offices in January.
Dunkley dismisses the charge.
In turn Dunkley has filed counter suits against Khin Moe Moe.
In Thursday's hearing Dunkley's barrister, Aung Than Soe, told the court the application over the paper's closure should be dismissed, claiming the case lay outside the boundaries of company law, with inconsistencies in the plaintiff's claims.
Aung Than Soe also said the criminal charges laid against Dunkley by Khin Moe Moe were "personal grudges and not related to the law".
Earlier, the judge had dismissed a temporary injunction by Tin Tun Oo against the Myanmar Times to halt its publication, saying the injunction "had no merit".
Dunkley, in an earlier interview with AAP, had dismissed the bid by Tin Tun Oo, who has claimed a loan of $US100,000 ($A104,180) was outstanding and was threatening to close the paper.
"We are profitable and can pay any debt as and when it arises," he said.
The Myanmar Times, a weekly, began publishing in 2000 with the then backing of the powerful military intelligence chief, Khin Nyunt, with a senior intelligence officer, Thein Swe, appointing his son, Sonny Swe as Dunkley's partner.
But power struggles within the then military government led to Sonny Swe and other family members being jailed.
His shares were then sold to Tin Tun Oo.
The Myanmar Times has so far failed in its bid to be granted a daily newspaper licence despite the country's moves to greater media freedom.
Media analysts say the legal moves against Dunkley are a bid to force him out and allow new owners to take control of the publishing house against a backdrop of the present boom in media outlets in the country.
The judge adjourned the case for the next hearing on November 18.
source: News
http://www.news.com.au/world/breaking-news/aust-publisher-battles-for-myanmar-paper/story-e6frfkui-1226747184193
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