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A former defence minister and president since 2006, Choummaly Sayasone continues to block the emergence of a privately-owned press and can count on the loyalty of those who run the state media, including the ruling People’s Revolutionary Party mouthpiece, the newspaper Paxaxon (People), which defines itself as “a revolutionary publication produced by and for the people”. The activities of the president and top party leaders are always the lead stories in the state media, which are the only media permitted in Laos. The president has issued orders that, when referring to him, journalists should only use reports put out by the official news agency, Khaosan Pathet Lao. The authorities do not, however, censor the Internet. When thousands of members of the Hmong minority were forcibly repatriated from Thailand, the security forces prevented several foreign journalists from visiting the “camps” that were set up to receive them. The president has refused to pardon two Hmongs who have been in prison since 2003 for working as guides for two European reporters.
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