Russia’s Sputnik International News Media—also known as the “Firehose of Propaganda”—has signed a content sharing agreement with junta mouthpiece the Global New Light of Myanmar.
The pair signed a deal on Tuesday in Naypyitaw that they described as an “information cooperation agreement.”
Sputnik described the junta’s propaganda newspaper as the “leading newspaper” of Myanmar, but failed to mention that all independent media outlets have been forced into exile since the coup.
At the signing ceremony, Vasily Pushkov, the director of international cooperation at Sputnik was quoted as saying: “We always seek to boost the news flow from countries that are of strategic importance to Russia, including Myanmar.”
Maung Maung Ohn, the junta’s information minister, said the deal would improve journalistic standards in Myanmar. “Through cooperation with an international news agency, Myanmar journalists will have the chance to study news writing, editing and photography techniques,” he explained.
He also said that “media cooperation should develop at the same pace” as cooperation between the two countries, which he described as getting closer.
Sputnik is banned in the European Union because of its “massive propaganda and disinformation” campaign to justify its invasion of Ukraine.
The agreement with the Global New Light of Myanmar is the second signed by Sputnik with a Myanmar media outlet.
The first occurred during junta boss Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to Russia in September 2022 for the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. Sputnik and Myanmar military mouthpiece Myawaddy TV Channel signed a memorandum of understanding at the event.
The regime appears to be failing in its propaganda war, based on the intense flow of reports and statements claiming that the West is bullying it technologically.
Last year, the junta’s state propaganda Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) app was removed from Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store, just one day after it was launched.
Following the coup in 2021, Facebook removed military-run businesses like Mytel—one of four telecom operators in Myanmar—and blocked junta-controlled media pages, such as Tatmadaw True News, Myawaddy TV and MRTV.
YouTube also removed five military-run television networks—MRTV, Myawaddy Media, MWD Variety and MWD Myanmar—following the coup.
The information ministry later launched a platform called mTube, which features news about the junta. Junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun told a press conference that the regime is building a social-media platform to replace Facebook.
Junta newspapers have been featuring editorials and articles in support of Russian-Myanmar media cooperation as well as the Innovation Diary of BRICS Media Forum, saying it will create a new global media landscape, and serve as a counterweight to Western media. The BRICS economic bloc is dominated by junta allies China, Russia and India.
In his trip to China last month, Maung Maung Ohn also looked into the potential for further media cooperation with Beijing.
At the same time, the regime continues cracking down on the media in Myanmar. Recently, it sentenced a well-known photojournalist to 20 years in prison for covering the post-cyclone disaster in Rakhine State. The western state was devastated by Cyclone Mocha in May. The junta has been accused of blocking humanitarian access to large swathes of the state.
