After more than three years of military rule, the press freedom landscape in Myanmar is bleak.
As the world commemorates World Press Freedom Day on Friday to promote free press around the globe, 59 Myanmar journalists and three media workers are observing the day behind bars, as prisoners of the country’s military regime. Many of their colleagues inside the country will mark the day silently, as they remain in hiding to evade arrest by the junta. Another five are no longer with us to observe the occasion, as they were killed by the regime.
In the wake of the 2021 military coup and the junta’s subsequent crackdown on the country’s independent media, Myanmar has joined the world’s 10 most dangerous countries for media personnel, according to Reporters Without Borders, which ranks it 171st out of 180 countries. Myanmar joins four other Asia-Pacific countries in the bottom 10.
While the situation has certainly declined under the regime, we should be under no illusions that Myanmar enjoyed a fully free press in the past. Even under the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD), which ruled the country for five years before its ouster in the coup, Myanmar journalists were frequently targeted by both the government and the military, and some were thrown into prison. Some were charged under the Counter Terrorism Law or the Official Secrets Act for interviewing members of armed organizations that the government had declared to be terrorist organizations, or for trying to expose atrocities committed by the military.
But things worsened dramatically with the military takeover.
Not content to stifle the fledgling press freedoms that emerged under the NLD, the junta went further and all but wiped out the growing independent media industry, raiding newspaper offices and hunting down journalists. Those journalists who were determined to keep doing their jobs were forced to make a choice: go into hiding or leave the country.
Their continued independent reporting is vital at this crucial time, as the regime spins information and sows disinformation through the state media it controls. So-called media organizations and social media pages operated by junta sympathizers and pro-regime groups are busy disseminating distorted information—some of it inciting hatred against individuals or inflaming racial tensions between groups—in an attempt to push the regime’s agenda or simply obscure the achievements of the anti-regime resistance movement. Under these circumstances, the existence of professional, independent media is critical if Myanmar people are to have access to accurate information.
The military regime and its supporters are not the only forces working against press freedom in Myanmar, however. Some of the anti-regime ethnic revolutionary organizations that have vowed to uproot the military dictatorship are also demonstrating hostility toward independent media.
Recent statements issued by the Interim Executive Council of Karenni State and the Karen National Union include lists of dos and don’ts for journalists reporting in their areas—basically dictating what can be reported. The KNU warned that anyone failing to follow its “procedures” would be blacklisted.
To journalists, who have a duty to report the facts “without fear or favor”, such restrictions are little more than threats.
The regime has arrested and killed journalists for refusing to parrot its line. By dictating to journalists what they may report, and making thinly veiled threats against those who refuse to cooperate, the ethnic revolutionary groups are acting like the junta they profess to hate.
The situation regarding press freedom and independent media in Myanmar remains dire. But this should not shake our conviction that democracy can only thrive under the scrutiny of a strong press. So the fight for the restoration of press freedoms should be our mission no matter what. We, the independent journalists of Myanmar, will continue this fight simply because we believe that our first loyalty is to our fellow citizens, and we must strive to put their interests first, whatever it takes.
Press freedom must prevail in Myanmar.
