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A Slow Struggle: Building Independent Media and Free Expression in Myanmar’s Ethnic States

Fri, March 17, 3:00 to 5:00pm, Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, Floor: 2nd Floor, Provincial Ballroom North

Abstract

At the annual Ethnic Media Conference in Mrauk Oo, Rakhine State in February 2016, ethnic media said they were ‘serving the duty of the fourth pillar’ like other media and should be recognised and given equal rights. Their statement gets to the heart of a long-standing debate. Are they journalists or activists? Are they independent? Should they uphold, and be judged by, the same professional standards as other media? In the wake of Myanmar’s 1962 military coup, ethnic language news publications were shut down. Nearly 50 years later, in late 2011, at the start of the country’s top-down political transition, they remained outlawed. Along the borders and further afield, ethnic media operated in exile. Many were born out of the armed and/or political struggle against the military junta in the 1990s; others with support from international organisations. There are now dozens of media operating in Myanmar’s seven resource-rich ethnic states, as well as in neighbouring regions, publishing in a mixture of Burmese and ethnic languages. Although largely unrecognised in the early years of the political transition, they are now included in national media policy discussions and have a seat on the national press council. Drawing from literature on ethnic media in other regions, media diversity and independence, this paper analyzes primary source material, drawn from in-field interviews, observation and project analysis, and media reports. It provides an overview of ethnic media, examines the opportunities and challenges they face in Myanmar, and explores the functions, independence, and identity of these media in Myanmar's shifting political and cultural landscape.

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