The Myanmar Times (a mouthpiece of Burma's State Peace and Development Council) reported last week that Natalie Glebova, Miss Universe 2005, was going to serve as a judge for a beauty pageant in Rangoon on December 16, 2007. 

Canadian Campaign for a Free Burma (CC4FB) has been investigating this and cannot find the story to be credible, but nor do they say it can be denied as of yet.  They were informed but cannot verify that Glebova's father told a Bangkok-based reporter from Canadian Broadcast Corp. (CBC) that the Myanmar Times story is "pure rubbish."

Because of her image, and the fact that she lives in Thailand and must be fairly aware of what has transpired in Burma recently, CC4FB is seeing the story as essentially "untrue until more evidence surfaces".  Given the information they are looking at, we have to agree.

One theory is that the story was deliberately planted to make pro-democracy groups outside of Burma look bad when they respond to the rumor with an outcry against Ms. Glebova.  In reality, we were suckered as well and wrote to the Miss Universe pageant. 

There can be a couple of other explanations for Myanmar Times "getting it wrong". 

First, we remind our readers that the media corps are not independent journalists.  Or, if you'll forgive us quoting Wikipedia, "The newspaper, although privately-owned by Myanmar Consolidated Media Co., Ltd., is affiliated to the government. Its publications are heavily censored by the Ministry of Information." 

So, it is possible that they simply got it wrong - we are guessing that Ms. Glebova was invited to judge the tournament.  Next, whether by officials of the government or by officials of the pageant, it is possible that a form of "operator" occurred in passing this information (about her being INVITED) to the Myanmar Times.  If they are not journalists trained to check all of their facts, it is possible that this rumor of her coming was reported as true, by mistake and due to a miscommunication.

Our second theory: the story was indeed planted by the regime, but not to make foreign groups look bad.  In our view, the only entity whose image is tarnished if she isn't going to Burma is the Myanmar Times.   So why would the regime plant the story?  Because, they believe in this form of gentle coercion.  That is, they invited her, and without hearing a clear denial from her, they reported it deliberately.  In this way, it would be much easier for her to say yes than to say no.

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