The right to freedom of speech and the freedom of the press are fundamental human rights. However, in Myanmar, press freedom is on a violent backslide.
Junta forces seized power in February 2021 following democratic elections, prompting a flurry of protests and diplomatic condemnations of the coup. Independent media was heavily repressed by the military; over 140 journalists have been imprisoned since the military takeover, charged with spreading fake news and various anti-state charges, and at least 50 remain in prison after a wave of releases on Myanmar’s 75th independence anniversary. News agencies are reluctant to identify their jailed journalists publicly for fear of state retaliation and reporting is heavily censored.
Myanmar is the third-worst jailer of journalists in the world after China and Iran.
Liberal International reached out to award-winning Burmese journalist Thin Lei Win to learn about the crackdown on media freedom of Myanmar and how liberals can help.
1.Why did you become a journalist?
I’m gonna answer the easier question first. I’m currently based in Italy, where I have been for almost six years now.
Now onto the long-winded story. When I was growing up in Myanmar, it didn’t occur to me that journalism was a viable profession for me. News and even literary writings were heavily censored, and I didn’t know anyone who was a journalist. But I had always loved reading and writing. I grew up in a family of engineers and always thought I’d become one too. Besides, career options in Myanmar in the late 1990s were limited. But when the then-junta shut down universities in 1998 to stamp out pro-democracy protests, I went to Singapore to continue my education and by chance became an intern journalist in my final year. I discovered I love talking to and writing about people, particularly the underdogs.
That was the first thing that captured me and I must admit the greater goals of press freedom or upholding human rights came to me only later, although of course, I was always conscious of inequality and injustice, having grown up in a poor and deeply conservative country.
I decided to become a journalist despite a lot of concern from loved ones who were worried that being female and Burmese meant that was a terrible and dangerous career choice. But I persisted and kept knocking on doors until someone eventually hired me.
2. You have founded some prominent publications in Myanmar including award-winning news agency Myanmar Now. What is the state of press freedom in Myanmar, and how has it impacted your work?
Press freedom is pretty much non-existent these days in Myanmar. I have to say the previous civilian administration wasn’t a defender of press freedom either – the unjust case against my former Reuters’ colleagues is an example – but this is the worst I’ve seen since I started my journalism career two decades ago.
One of the first things the junta did after illegally seizing power was to ban independent media, including Myanmar now, which – I should add – I had set up but have not been involved in its running since 2016. The junta also made it extremely difficult for people in Myanmar to access news. They suspended access to local and international news networks, blocked many websites and social media channels, and warned media outlets not to refer to it as “the junta” or what they did as “a coup”. It’s now a little over two years and the military dictators show no sign of relenting their crackdown.
Since the coup, many journalists have lost their jobs because many media outlets have shut down, either after incurring the wrath of the vindictive junta or to proactively protect themselves and their staff members. Many others have been forced to leave their families and flee the country. Others are in hiding, struggling to make ends meet, while trying to avoid arrest or worse.
Many journalists now fear for their lives. They are also mourning the loss of their identity, because let’s face it, most reporters in Myanmar do their jobs because it’s their passion. Even during the heydays of the country’s opening, journalism was a lowly-paid, thankless job that frequently invites more vitriol than thanks. I’m extremely fortunate – and privileged – to be living outside Myanmar, which means I am able to openly criticize and write about the junta’s atrocities. I don’t have to worry about finding a safe house or a different place to sleep every night. So many local journalists do not have this luxury.
For the past year, The Kite Tales, a non-profit storytelling project I co-founded in 2016, has been supporting seven journalists and three illustrators from Myanmar. The anonymous diaries they have written about life under the junta gives terrifying glimpses of what journalists have to endure these days – they are afraid to fall asleep at night and have to deal with nightmares when they do sleep, on the run amid fighting, or feeling like a prisoner if you are stuck. Yet they are still doing their job. We really should recognise their bravery and commitment.
3. Myanmar’s fake news law has been broadly interpreted in order to censor the press. Is there a way to combat fake news without endangering press freedom?
When you say the fake news law, do you mean the Electronics Transaction Act? If so, this Myanmar Now article gives a good summary of what the amendments, unveiled soon after the coup, mean for Myanmar media.
In terms of combating fake news and disinformation without endangering press freedom, that’s the billion dollar question isn’t it? It’s something that even established democracies in North America and Europe are wrangling with, and I think the challenges are even greater in a country like Myanmar where there is a long tradition of distrust in government propaganda and reliance on rumours. We also have to remember that the jump in mobile phone penetration in Myanmar – and the social media usage that came with it – happened in a very short span of time which meant people were unprepared about how easily fake news and disinformation can spread.
Having said all that,
I think the best way to combat these things is a long, continuous process of teaching people to question the information they receive regardless of where it came from, to be discerning, and to be conscious of their own biases.
It’s really hard, but I take solace in the fact that the Myanmar media is getting better at calling out questionable claims.
4.What technologies and tactics are being used to surveil and censor the press?
In 2021, soon after the coup, I was part of a group of journalists from Lighthouse Reports, a Netherlands-based non-profit news outlet, who investigated surveillance technologies that are in the Myanmar junta’s hands. We focused specifically on technologies from European companies. I’m talking about tools that can monitor WiFi, crack passwords, extract data from phones, recover deleted files, map people’s social media networks, and so on.
I interviewed former detainees, lawyers, activists, former lawmakers and people familiar with these issues in Myanmar. We pored over hundreds of pages of leaked budget documents from activist group Justice For Myanmar, as well as other leaked data and open source materials. Around 40 Western companies appeared in these documents. We don’t know how many of these top-of-the-range surveillance products were actually sold, but we know some made it to Myanmar.
Of course, we can ask whether the regime has the skills or manpower to make full use of these tools, but given the military’s past conduct and its awareness of how our electronic devices can incriminate us, we should not underestimate the risks that its access to such technology presents. It is quite likely these tools are being used to surveil the population as a whole, including the press. I think it’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to Myanmar’s military junta.
5. If a journalist is imprisoned in Myanmar, what are their chances of being released? How does it happen, and can they continue to work in journalism?
One of my friends was arrested soon after the coup and they’re still in prison. Others I know have been arrested but are now free so it’s really hard to predict when or if they will be released. The same with the question of whether they can continue to work in journalism. I know people who have had to leave the country and others who have stayed put, but of course that means they are under the junta’s scrutiny. The usual logic does not apply with the
Myanmar military, unfortunately.
6. What is the role of the international community in supporting freedom of the press in Myanmar? Alternately, is there any way the international community is actually contributing to censorship and oppression of journalists?
It has been heart breaking to see how Myanmar has dropped off the international community’s radar, when life has gotten significantly worse for ordinary people and journalists on the ground. As a journalist myself I understand why some of this happened – too many conflicts elsewhere, hard to get visuals out of Myanmar because of restrictions and therefore sustain the coverage, etc – but it doesn’t make it less painful.
If all you can spare is a bit of time, then please stay engaged with what’s happening in Myanmar. Please talk about it and educate others who might not know about it. If you can afford to make donations, please consider supporting local media, particularly minority ethnic media outlets who do an excellent job of telling us what’s happening in their regions.
If you have institutional backing, please consider providing practical support to media outlets who may need any help they can get, from paying salaries to providing them with burner phones.
Thin Lei Win is an award-winning multimedia journalist living in Italy. Born and raised in Myanmar, Thin has worked as an international journalist for nearly two decades and has reported from many parts of Asia, Africa and Europe. In 2015, Thin returned to Myanmar after many years abroad to set up, launch and manage Myanmar Now, an award-winning bilingual news agency, producing in-depth reports on the country’s historic elections. Thin also co-founded The Kite Tales, a unique preservation project that chronicles the lives and histories of ordinary people across Myanmar and which is supporting Myanmar storytellers to produce anonymous diaries since the military coup in 2021.
She is also specialising in food and climate issues for various international news media including through her own newsletter Thin Ink. Her extensive global experience includes nearly 13 years working as an international correspondent for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Thomson Reuters media company. She is also a sought-after speaker on Myanmar and moderator on food, agriculture and climate change.
