Both local and international organisations have called on the government to release Burmese journalist Sein Mar who was detained for participating in a demonstration outside the Burmese embassy here last month.

In a statement from the Centre for Independent Journalism today, the organisations stated that the government should release Sien Mar to show that it 'fully respects international standards of free expression'.

The statement was endorsed primarily by international media organisations following the 11 th general meeting of the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX) in Baku, Azerbaijan last week.

Among the signatories were the Southeast Asia Press Alliance, the Media Alliance of Southern Africa, the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, the World Press Freedom Committee and the Center for Human Rights and Democratic Studies.

Others who have called for the journalist to be freed were Reporters Without Borders, the Burma Media Association and Malaysia's Charter 2000-Aliran.

Bail denied twice

Sien Mar and her seven-year-old daughter were among 23 people detained on May 17 for unlawful assembly. The journalist is currently being held at the Kajang prison while her daughter is under the care of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The court has denied Sien Mar, the editor of a newsletter called Yaung Chee Oo, bail twce. It also failed to provide her with an interpreter on both the occassions she appeared in court.

The case has now been postponed for the second time to June 28.

Sein Mar has been given refugee status by the UNHCR but Malaysian authorities do not recognise this. The government has not signed the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention.