Myanmar (Burma)
Media Environment | News Gathering | Practical Tips
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Media Environment
The country’s media are highly regulated, with major broadcasters and publications controlled or censored by the state. They exist largely as propaganda conduits for the military leadership, with editors and journalists remaining answerable to them. This, in turn, has encouraged self-censorship.
The English-language daily New Light of Myanmar (www.myanmar.com/newspaper/nlm/index.html) is a vehicle of the SPDC, which carries domestic news parroting the government line and heavily-edited reports on world news from international wire services. Other newspapers include the state-run English-language weekly Myanmar Times (www.myanmar.com/myanmartimes), and the state-run daily Kyemon. The national news service is the state-owned Myanmar News Agency (MNA).
The Government-controlled TV Myanmar broadcasts in English as well as eight indigenous languages. MRTV-3 is the state-run international television service and Myawady TV an army-controlled network. Pay television channel TV5 is a joint venture between the state and private sector.
Radio Myanmar is an official station run by the Myanmar TV and Radio Department, which also operates TV Myanmar. The entertainment station City FM is run by the Yangon City Development Committee.
The BBC, Voice of America, the US-backed Radio Free Asia and the Norway-based opposition station Democratic Voice of Burma all broadcast into the country on shortwave. Democratic Voice of Burma Television began transmission in 2005.
Delhi-based Mizzima News Agency runs an alternative online news service (www.mizzima.com). Set up in 1998 by a group of Burmese journalists in exile, Mizzima also publishes a monthly journal and in 2005 began online podcasting (www.mizzima.tv).
The country’s sole Internet provider, Bagan Cybertech, has been nationalised, and is now under the control of the Ministry of Telecommunications, Post and Telegraphs. Internet access, made difficult by rigorous government control, is worsened by the country’s poor telecommunications infrastructure and unreliable electricity supply.
News Gathering
There are two ways for journalists to travel to Myanmar – on journalist visas or as tourists. Visas allow appointments to be made with government officials, and visits to opposition leaders such as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The disadvantage is that in times of tension the government may limit stays to one week or less. Tourist are allowed four weeks.
Paranoia is the safest policy in Myanmar. Assume the phones are tapped. If on a tourist visa, it is best to walk to embassies to make appointments. If a telephone is necessary, use one of the many payphones in shops throughout central Rangoon. The worst that is likely to happen is deportment, but Burmese who have been contacted may be interrogated and even imprisoned. Journalists caught travelling on tourist visas have been subjected to strip searches and had films, notes and tapes confiscated by the authorities. Hotels and guesthouses are required to provide information to the authorities about the identities and activities of foreign guests.
Permission in advance is not normally required for travel to the tourist areas of Mandalay, Bagan, Inle Lake, Ngapali and other resorts. However, the government periodically restricts access to other areas of the country and recently advised that it could not guarantee the safety of foreign travellers in eastern Shan State, specifically in Wa territory (also called Special Region 2).
A heavily censored version of the internet is available in Myanmar and the government monitors and controls internet use. Access to many international email services, including Yahoo and Hotmail, are prohibited and it is illegal to own an unregistered modem. Visitors may bring in one laptop computer, which must be declared on arrival. Email services are available at some hotels, but emails are monitored. Sending photographs by email is expensive.
Photographing military installations or people in uniform is illegal and may result in arrest or the confiscation of equipment.
Myanmar is the world’s biggest heroin producer and Asia’s major manufacturer of illicit amphetamines, but Burmese narcotics are better covered from Bangkok or Chiang Mai.
Practical Tips
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Reasonable Hotels in Rangoon can be booked for around US$20 a night — cheaper up country — even though they may be listed for more, and often carry foreign satellite television news broadcasts.
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It is generally better to hail taxis to get around Rangoon, though hiring a driver by the day (which costs US$10-15) can be efficient, particularly if they speak English.
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Travel to and within Myanmar is strictly controlled. Since October 2006, the government has often denied entry or exit at land borders, unless travellers are part of an authorised package tour group. Beyond tourist areas security checkpoints are common. Travellers are required to show passports with valid visas at all hotels, airports and train stations.
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Travel inside Myanmar is expensive and tends to be uncomfortable. Internal air travel, however, has improved following a government invitation for three Asean countries — Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong — to establish domestic airlines. The result operations — Air Mandalay, Air Yangon and Air Bagan — use ATR 75s and foreign-trained pilots. Trains are expensive and slow. Buses are cheaper, and air-conditioned ones are now available on some main routes. It is also possible to hire a car and driver for long-distance travel.
Contributor: Vaughan Yarwood
Latest update September 2008