An Assessment of Media Development Challenges and Opportunities in Myanmar: Change Is in the Air

"After 50 years of military rule and harsh state censorship, Myanmar's government is slowly easing its control of the country's media....The changing political and economic context is giving way to emerging needs and new opportunities for addressing media development inside Myanmar."

This report offers an assessment of media in Myanmar in the current political and social climate of change. At the request of the Norwegian, Swedish, and subsequently Danish Embassies in Bangkok, International Media Support (IMS) conducted an assessment of the current media environment inside Myanmar during two missions between July and November 2011. The assessment was motivated by a democratic reform process initiated in March 2011, when the 50-year reign of the military was replaced by a civilian government. A number of small steps taken so far by the Myanmar government in relation to media have provided an opening to expand the country's freedom of expression space. The objective of the assessment was thus to identify opportunities and provide a set of recommendations for potential international interventions on media development within the country from short- and long-term perspectives.

The central finding is that, as part of a series of reforms, the Myanmarese government has abandoned its pre-publication censorship on a number of magazines and newspapers, and issues concerning freedom of the press and freedom of speech are now being discussed in parliament. News and information from the opposition, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, is now also covered in state-owned media. Websites which were previously blocked, such as YouTube, Facebook, and Google, as well as radio stations like BBC and Voice of America, can now be accessed from within the country.

The report offers a picture of the media landscape in Myanmar as it looked in January 2012. In brief::

• There are estimated to be approximately 1,000 journalists in Myanmar.
• The number of media outlets is increasing, with at least 248 weeklies being published (of which 138 are news and current affairs publications). While at present all 6 daily newspapers are owned and controlled by the state, there is talk of launching the country's first independent daily newspaper in Yangon.
• Radio is the most preferred source of information for the rural population, although it lacks capacity both technically and on the content side. The 6 semi-state owned FM/AM stations focus on "non-controversial" content such as music and entertainment from private producers. Almost every citizen in Myanmar listens to Voice of America or BBC for daily news and current affairs. The ban on these radio channels is being lifted and foreign journalists are now allowed to report from Myanmar.
• Although internet penetration in Myanmar is less than 1%, social media such as Facebook and mobile phones are increasingly becoming tools for urban youth to communicate and interact socially.
• The information and communication technology (ICT) and telecommunications sectors are also expected to experience a major boom within the next two years with the arrival of Indian information technology (IT) companies in the country along with new mobile operators.

Because of the new openness: "The voice of the political opposition is being granted more space in the media, and publications are increasingly able to openly discuss government policies. Even the publications allied with or owned by the government are following this trend. The government has begun holding press conferences at which media representatives can raise questions. This newfound situation of more openness and a relaxation of censorship poses a challenge for media in Myanmar and the question is whether the media is able to fulfill its role as society's watchdog with no experience to draw on or knowledge of professional ethical standards."

Specifically, the report shows that the country's young journalists, with an average age of 25, dominate the media and yet are facing considerable challenges. After more than 50 years of government content censorship, the responsibility of monitoring content now lies with the editors rather than the censors. This poses a challenge as many of the young, untrained journalists have little or no formal journalistic experience, and many have little knowledge of professional ethics or how to conduct objective journalism. The report urges that it is important to not only to support freedom of the press through media law reforms but also to strengthen the media sector and train journalists.

IMS recommends that support to the Myanmarese media environment is approached through three broad focus areas:

1. Strengthening national capacity to reform media-related policies and legal frameworks and to engage in democratic transition;
2. Building the foundation for media and journalism to professionalise ("The process could start by identifying individuals, developing their capacity, assisting them in institution building, expanding their networks and building strategic partnerships"); and
3. Expanding access and outreach of media content to rural areas.