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Myanmar’s diminishing media
freedom under the microscope
Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party (NLD) are set to form a second-term administration this April, with ambitions to save the Covid-hit economy, change the junta-crafted constitution and secure peace with ethnic armed groups.
Thompson Chau, chief reporter and associate editor of the Myanmar Times, spoke to the Southeast Asia Insider about the state of Myanmar’s media heading into Suu Kyi’s second administration. Chau has been with the Myanmar Times, the country’s oldest privately owned and operated English-language newspaper, for more than four years. Having worked with six chief editors and acting chiefs, he is currently the longest-serving editor at the paper since Myanmar tycoon Thein Tun took over the media company in 2014.
In 2016-17, Chau witnessed the paper’s purge of veteran journalists and senior foreign editors, a move that is not unfamiliar to readers of the Phnom Penh Post in 2018, and has since sought to hold the fort and shield journalists in his team from government and big business pressures. He has also regularly reported on Myanmar’s political economy for Asia Times.
You have served the Myanmar Times for more than four years, and led the paper’s reporting on the 2020 elections. How has the press freedom situation changed since you arrived?
Despite Aung San Suu Kyi’s taking office in 2016, Myanmar is still not a safe place for independent journalists, not least because of the military and armed groups outside civilian government control. Swe Win, chief editor of Myanmar Now which actively reports on corruption, was shot in the leg in 2019, but his attacker has not been identified. My own colleague and a Frontier Myanmar reporter were detained and beaten up by the Karen Border Guard Forces in Myawaddy last year, to name two examples.
Attacks on media freedom using the Telecoms and other laws have continued. Sixty-seven journalists have reportedly had lawsuits filed against them since 2016. Among them, 11 were filed by the Tatmadaw, 31 by government officials and some by businesspeople.
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Equally worrying is the ongoing internet ban in Rakhine and Chin and censorship of websites of news websites and activist groups. More than 1.1 million people currently have limited access to the internet in western Myanmar, and the government has started blocking websites across the country.
Surveys show that journalists believe media freedom has been diminishing and that the government, including the military, is the main cause of this decline. But Myanmar is certainly not the worst place for journalists in Southeast Asia, and is far freer than under military rule a decade ago. The Myanmar Times has earned a reputation for asking tough questions about tenders, economic policies and governance which in Vietnam would likely get reporters quickly locked up.
The Myanmar Times marked its 20th-anniversary last year. Local news outlets have reported about the scandals facing the paper. Can you address the controversies? What is the current level of censorship and self-censorship?
I have worked with six chief editors and acting chiefs at the Times, and I must emphasize the fight against self-censorship is an ongoing battle. The ban on using the word “Rohingya”, with no justification to readers, must change if the paper wants to regain its credibility and be seen as a professional and ethical media outlet. My colleagues and I strongly disagree with the ban, and we have regularly defied the order.
The paper’s proprietor Thein Tun didn’t impose the ban when he took over in 2014. We could freely use the word under previous chief editors, including Thailand’s veteran Kavi Chongkittavorn. Nor was the policy discussed or agreed by the editorial board. I lobbied hard to change this policy but in vain.
Given the legal framework here, pressure to be careful when reporting about military activities is not new. But a worrying development is the pressure to self-censor reports involving advertisers and the willingness to run controversial political advertisements, especially since the Covid-19 economic downturn. The paper’s advertorials last year in support of resuming Myitsone Dam triggered a backlash among readers. The paper needs clear policies on political ads.
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What is the role of the Myanmar Times as well as the Myanmar media, overall, in the country’s democratic transition? Why should investors in Myanmar and Yangon’s business community care about independent journalism?
Business, media, and civil society all benefit from accountability and transparency. For example, we broke the news of a multinational insurer pulling out because of long delays in liberalization. The government quickly responded by announcing the licensing timeline. Similarly, our coverage on controversial energy tenders, which Asia Times also reported, has increased the pressure on officials to come clean.
Executives and investors need independent and professional reporting for their due diligence and investment decisions. Since the 2017 Rohingya crisis, pressure has grown on Western investors to demonstrate that their activities in Myanmar and their local partners are not involved in rights abuses. This makes our reporting essential for them. Also, investigative journalism is critical to Aung San Suu Kyi’s anti-corruption drive.
Businesspeople here often show disdain towards the media, accusing journalists of not fact-checking their reporting while they fail to make their own proper disclosures. Historian Thant Myint U told me in a 2020 interview that Myanmar needs “a well-informed public debate on what the future economic system should be”, instead of simply opening up markets. Media outlets like the Myanmar Times have been essential to promoting this debate.
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Is Hun Sen secure enough to hand power to his son?
January 21, 2021
David Hutt observes that after 36 years in power, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen is now reportedly planning his political retirement, but it’s not clear whether the personality cult being built around himself and his family will provide sufficient foundations for the planned dynastic succession to one of his sons.
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Biden’s team heralds new American era in Asia
January 20, 2021
Richard Javad Heydarian puts a spotlight on the Joe Biden administration’s slate of policymakers and envoys, who are set to reassert American leadership overseas and steer a nuanced new course of Asian alliance-building that treats Beijing as strategic competitor rather than foe.
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Widodo has no fear with Christian police chief pick
January 19, 2021
John McBeth details how President Joko Widodo’s nomination of a Christian to serve as the first head of the Indonesia National Police in 46 years signals further pushback against pressure from Islamic conservatives who have been the source of his biggest political headaches during his six years in power.
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China knocking on CPTPP trade pact’s door
January 18, 2021
Frank Chen reports that Beijing is weighing whether to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which would entail it meeting wide-reaching liberalizing requirements to impose sweeping reforms to its hidebound and subsidized state-owned enterprises.
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Indonesia’s richest busted breaking NoKo sanctions
January 18, 2021
John McBeth describes how the “gold-plated” reputation of Indonesia’s richest family has taken a major hit in the wake of a deferred prosecution agreement with the US Justice Department over violations of trade sanctions imposed on North Korea, pertaining in this case to the export of cigarette papers.
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Asia’s deadliest Covid country to resist vaccination
January 18, 2021
John McBeth observes that the Joko Widodo government will clearly have to do more to earn public trust as it prepares for one of the world’s biggest inoculation programs, with just 37% willing to take the Chinese Sinovac vaccine, which received emergency approval but has shown a lower efficacy rate than other Western-made shots.
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Cambodia’s exiled opposition running out of time
January 18, 2021
David Hutt sees emerging signs of Cambodia’s only viable opposition party cracking under Prime Minister Hun Sen’s undemocratic, divide-and-rule tactics amid an ongoing mass trial of more than 100 individuals, proceedings linked to efforts by exiled leaders of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) to return home.
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Strange brew medical weed cooking in Thailand
January 17, 2021
Richard S. Ehrlich reports that Thailand’s government is treating for free thousands of patients suffering cancer and other illnesses with an until recently illegal marijuana brew developed by an agricultural expert with health ministry backing who says he consulted a mind-reading monk to perfect his formula.
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China eyes the big picture on Southeast Asia tour
January 17, 2021
Richard Javad Heydarian spots clear geopolitical undertones in Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s recent five-day tour across four key nations in Southeast Asia, a calibrated move to charm Beijing’s neighbors ahead of US President Joe Biden’s inauguration that focused on boosting cooperation in the fight against Covid-19.
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United Front: Projecting Solidarity through Deliberation in Vietnam’s Single-Party Legislature
By Paul Schuler
Stanford University Press, January 2021
Conventional wisdom emerging from China and other autocracies claims that single-party legislatures and elections are mutually beneficial for citizens and autocrats. This line of thought reasons that these institutions can serve multiple functions, like constraining political leaders or providing information about citizens.
In United Front, author Paul Schuler challenges these views through his examination of the past and present functioning of the Vietnam National Assembly (VNA), arguing that the legislature's primary role is to signal strength to the public. When active, the critical behavior from delegates in the legislature represents crossfire within the regime rather than genuine citizen feedback.
In making these arguments, Schuler counters a growing scholarly trend to see democratic institutions within single-party settings like China and Vietnam as useful for citizens or regime performance. His argument also suggests that there are limits to generating genuinely "consultative authoritarianism" through quasi-democratic institutions.
Applying a diverse range of cutting-edge social science methods on a wealth of original data such as legislative speeches, election returns, and surveys, Schuler shows that even in a seemingly vociferous legislature like the VNA, the ultimate purpose of the institution is not to reflect the views of citizens, but rather to signal the regime's preferences while taking down rivals.
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WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON
Shawn W. Crispin and Peter Janssen will take Thailand’s economic temperature in an interview with Thai Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith.
David Hutt weighs the push and pull between Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and house arrested opposition leader Kem Sokha, including prospects for the latter forming a new political party.
Thompson Chau seeks to shine light on the enduring opacity of Myanmar’s corporate landscape and the risks that raises for foreign investors.
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