VIEWPOINT
Myanmar Needs Independent Media, Not ‘Public Service’ Propaganda If the international community wants to help Myanmar achieve democracy, it will support independent journalists, not the “new and improved” state media By KYAW ZWA MOE
R
ecently, I sat down with a small group of people, including some journalist friends, to talk about Myanmar’s media landscape. One of the questions that came up was whether independent journalism had any future in this country. Perhaps because we all wanted to have something helpful and constructive to say, we generally agreed that yes, independent journalism does stand a chance of surviving in Myanmar. As a matter of fact, however, the reality on the ground doesn’t really support this sanguine view. Looking back, we can see that in the half century after the late dictator Gen. Ne Win seized power in 1962 and
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TheIrrawaddy
nationalized the country’s newspapers, independent journalism was all but nonexistent here. Under military rule, state-run media disseminated a relentless stream of pro-junta propaganda, and private media— which returned after 1988—was heavily censored. During that dark era, journalists who dared to report on the ruling regime’s many misdeeds were routinely locked up. Press freedom was dead, and journalism could no longer be regarded as a real profession. But even when the situation inside the country was at its most dire, the desire for reliable news and information never died. To meet this need, exiled media groups mushroomed outside the country, and broadcasters like the BBC,
Voice of America and Radio Free Asia provided Myanmar-language services that helped to counter the lies of the official media. Until the nominally civilian government of President U Thein Sein started introducing media reforms in 2012, Myanmar journalists working abroad were barred from entering the country, and those already inside were effectively silenced. Then everything changed. The country’s draconian censorship board was abolished, and in 2013, some private media groups were given permission to publish daily newspapers. Exiled media groups such as The Irrawaddy were also allowed to set up offices inside the country for the first time in decades. As significant as these developments were, however, they offered no guarantee that the government was ready to see independent journalism take root again in Myanmar. And, indeed, what we have seen since strongly suggests that the Ministry of Information (MOI)—which once wielded the censorship board like a club to beat the media into submission— remains as committed as ever to controlling the non-state media sector. This is why it comes as a surprise to many journalists struggling to survive in the “space” created by Myanmar’s government that some Western-based media-freedom organizations have so heartily endorsed the country’s still narrow reforms, and have even begun bolstering the capacity of the state’s propaganda apparatus. Spearheaded by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), these efforts— being carried out in the name of turning the New Light of Myanmar, MRTV and other former junta mouthpieces into “public service media”—will serve only to make Myanmar’s government more effective at manipulating the public. Meanwhile, other voices will continue to be drowned out. In theory, Myanmar could certainly do with a public service media that is genuinely committed to keeping the country’s people informed. The problem is that almost all of the
July 2014