Myanmar: Assessment of Provisional Government Media Policies

Last year, the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) analysed media policies issued by two provisional governments with control over territory in Myanmar, namely the Media Code of Conduct of the Interim Executive Council of Karenni State (Karenni IEC) and Chapter 12 of the Policy and Regulations for Conducting Tasks Relating to Information of the Karen National Union (KNU). The key issues raised in the CLD analysis were requirements for media and journalists to be authorised (licensed) to report from Karenni- or KNU-controlled territory and excessive content restrictions.

“We are very sensitive to the fact that these two provisional governments are engaged in active conflict with the military regime running Myanmar, and so our analysis drew on established practices by democratic military forces, including the rules which are being applied by Ukraine in that conflict,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “Despite that challenging context, our assessment is that both media policies go beyond what is necessary to enable military actors to pursue their legitimate aims.”

Some of CLD’s concerns with the two media policies include the following:

• Any system of authorisation should be limited to accreditation to access operationally sensitive areas which are off limits to the general public, and should be run in a fair and transparent manner, ideally by an independent body.
• Most of the content restrictions in the two policies should be removed and, instead, media professionalism should be overseen by the self-regulatory Independent Press Council of Myanmar (IPCM).
• Journalists should not be required to wear uniforms or identifying clothing, especially where this may place them at risk.
• The policies should set out clear and appropriate (proportionate) sanctions for breach of their rules.

The CLD analysis is available here and the two media policies are available here and here.

For further information, please contact:

Raphael Vagliano
Legal Officer
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: raphael@law-democracy.org
+1 514 506-0948
www.law-democracy.org
X: @law_democracy