When the people of Myanmar woke up on Monday, February 1, 2021, things seemed off. Phone reception was spotty and the internet was down. Flipping on the TV didn’t seem to help clear things up, either. Broadcast networks were having difficulties getting their shows on the air and were already announcing program disruptions.
It would later be revealed that something far more sinister, far more fearsome was at work. Earlier that day, in a series of military raids, Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi had been put under detention. With her were other leaders of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) and President U Win Myint.
Myanmar’s armed forces had thrown a coup. Not only did they have key political figures in their custody, but they also took control of the country’s capital Naypyidaw.
In a formal announcement, the new acting president, former military general Myint Swe said that the power grab was a direct result of alleged irregularities during the November 8, 2020 elections, where the NLD claimed overwhelming victory. The incumbent leaders, he said, had failed to take the proper course of action, and did not accede to the military’s request to postpone house parliament sessions. Effective immediately, the country was under a year-long state of emergency.
But more troublingly, the coup is also forcing Myanmar’s civil society into submission. Among those detained are writers, artists, and prominent activists. All over social media, reports of mass arrests have fermented a general atmosphere of fear. The coup has also emboldened ultra-nationalists, leading to violence against media.
Not even a decade into their semi-civilian governance, Myanmar’s military is already playing its tyrannical trump card, wrestling power away from the people, and signing the death sentence of its free press.
Suffocating statutes
Myanmar’s media landscape has been in bad shape for a long time. Ever since the country transitioned to a fragile, fledgling democracy in 2010, journalists and media personnel have yet to enjoy security of tenure and freedom of the pen.
A major part of the problem are restrictive laws that make journalism itself an occupational hazard. Article 66 (d) of Myanmar’s Telecommunications Law, for example, has been weaponized against reporters and activists, as have Sections 500 and 505 (b) of the country’s Penal Code.
These laws foster a hostile environment for journalism and have been used to threaten and jail reporters, as well as intimate media houses into silence.
A report released in July 2019 by Athan, a Yangon-based activist organization that advocates freedom of expression, says at least 70 legal cases had been leveraged against more than 250 people, clamping down on their freedom of expression.
The report also showed that under the NLD government, 52 journalists faced a total of 36 complaints. Twenty of these complaints came from government officials themselves, and six were from members of the military; the remaining ten were from various individuals.
Other laws breathing down the media’s neck include the Unlawful Association Law, Burma Official Secrets Act, News Media Law, and Law Protecting the Privacy and Security of Citizens. In some cases, seemingly unrelated laws, like the Myanmar Aircraft Act, Export and Import Law, and Immigration Act, have been used to target journalists, according to Athan.
Myanmar has constantly struggled to maintain a free and independent media in an environment where government officials, including the military, wield their power to stifle fundamental freedoms and silence dissent.
Myanmar’s suffocating legislation was in full display on December 2017, when two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were arrested while they were investigating the killing of ten Rohingya Muslim in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. In 2018, they were ultimately found guilty of violating the Official Secrets Act.
They were set free in May 2019, after spending more than 500 days in prison. Their story had earned them and their Reuters colleagues the Pulitzer Prize.
Specific laws have also been used to target not just individuals, but also entire media organizations. In May 2019, as the Reuters journalists’ tribulations were coming to an end, the Unlawful Associations Act was levied against Aung Marm Oo, editor-in-chief of the Development Media Group (DMG), a Rakhine ethnic media outlet. The DMG covers armed conflicts, refugees, and human rights violations in the conflict-torn Rakhine State. More than a year later, Aung Marm Oo remains in hiding.
Just a month later, the government also ordered an internet shutdown in eight townships throughout the Rakhine and Chin States in western Myanmar. The blackout was ostensibly due to armed conflicts in the region but affected more than a million local residents, making access to humanitarian aid difficult. Local relief groups also said that the internet shutdown affected their operations, aid distributions, and information dissemination.
“With armed conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army in Rakhine State amid a pandemic, it’s critical for civilians to get the information needed to stay safe,” said Linda Lakhdhir, Asia legal adviser at Human Rights Watch in the watchdog’s report released in June 2020.
Myanmar’s media landscape has been in bad shape for a long time. A major part of the problem are restrictive laws, including seemingly unrelated ones, that make journalism itself an occupational hazard.
Life support
When the COVID-19 pandemic descended on Myanmar, waiting for it was a media landscape already on life support. All the virus had to do was pull the plug.
Ye Naing Moe, the founding chief trainer of Yangon Journalism School in Yangon, told the Media Development and Investment Fund (MDIF) that he witnessed how his fellow journalists were affected by the pandemic. For instance, an editor friend of his had to start selling food online after being cut off from a staff position.
“I can feel the pain in their hearts. We need to put ventilators on Myanmar newspapers,” he said.
Due to the fall of revenue caused by COVID-19, changes in advertising, and decline of funding from donors, both established and emerging media houses were forced to look for other ways to keep their operations going. Many turned to the internet, shifting much of their advertising efforts to digital marketing.
But no matter how hard they push, media houses are finding it difficult to stay afloat. The MDIF conducted a survey of 36 Myanmar media outlets between March and May of 2020, seeking to assess the damage done by COVID-19.
The New York-registered non-profit institution found that 32 of 36 outfits surveyed had to enforce wide-ranging cost-cutting measures. Thirteen media outfits cut salaries, eight laid off employees, and eight reduced the number of their freelancers and stringers.
In all cases, commercial revenue dropped as a result of the pandemic. For half of them, the drop was especially dramatic, falling by more than 75 percent. The MDIF also reported that all 19 surveyed media houses with print products either reduced or halted production.
The pandemic bears down especially hard on independent and emerging media groups. At a December 2020 roundtable organized by Internews, an international non-profit organization, participants emphasized that without independent donors and a fair market in media industry, small and independent media outfits continue to struggle, unlike their bigger, more established competitors that have sustainable income streams, a robust pool of human resources, and better facilities.
Nay Myo Linn, founder and editor-in-chief of Voice of Myanmar, said at the roundtable: “When we think of story angles, we always focus on politics and journalism. We don’t think of commercial content. The media market is monopolized by state-owned and crony-owned media. We can’t compete with them in media industry marketing.”
Participants also pointed out that the role of independent donors and investors is still important in supporting independent media organizations.
Toe Zaw Latt, operations manager for Democratic Voice of Burma, also lamented the difficulties independent media outlets face when engaging investors. Foreign investors, he said, are unwilling or do not dare invest in independent private media as they are not confident in Myanmar’s media law.
“Donors ask us to stand on our own feet. But it is a long way to go [for independent and private media],” Toe Zaw Latt said. “We face many challenges. We have to compete in an unfair market.” ●
Saw Yan Naing has written for Bangkok Post, The Irrawaddy, Asia Times Online, Aljazeera English, BBC Burmese, New Mandala, The Global Investigative Journalism Network, among other publications. He is currently a technical lead and media trainer at Internews in Myanmar.
