Myanmar’s media has become another victim of the country’s civil war

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After the Myanmar military overthrew the country’s democratically elected government in February, 2021, journalists there braced for an inevitable crackdown. Many had lived through an earlier period of junta rule, when independent media were forced into exile and dozens of reporters jailed or even killed.

Sure enough, within weeks, the military began banning publications and arresting reporters, as it struggled to control a country exploding into a civil war that drags on 2½ years later.

Today, the junta only controls an estimated 50 per cent of Myanmar, mostly major population centres, while fighting ethnic militias and peoples’ defence forces allied with the parallel National Unity Government (NUG). In areas that the military holds, however, it has stepped up its crackdown on the media, searching for journalists feeding stories to exile outlets based in neighbouring Thailand.

“They’ve been picking them off one by one,” said Shawn Crispin, senior Southeast Asia representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). “The regime has decimated independent reporting inside the country.”

While many journalists remained in Myanmar after the coup, determined to try and hold the military to account and cover the growing conflict, Mr. Crispin said there have been increasing numbers fleeing to Thailand as the situation has become more and more dangerous.

As well, foreign media have largely been forced out of Myanmar since the coup, except for tightly choreographed press tours, or dangerous visits to territory held by anti-junta forces. In late 2022, photojournalist Siegfried Modola crossed over from Thailand on assignment from The Globe and Mail, spending four days with the rebel Karenni Army. Last week, Mr. Modola won the prestigious Visa d’or News award for his work, which provided a rare glimpse into what life is like in war-racked parts of the country.

According to CPJ and Reporters sans frontières (RSF), more than 60 journalists are currently imprisoned in Myanmar. This figure is likely an underestimation as many outlets do not report the jailing of their staff as they attempt to negotiate their release. Since the coup, Myanmar has plummeted to the bottom of RSF’s 2023 World Press Freedom Index, sitting at 173 out of 180, alongside countries such as Eritrea and Syria.

This month, Myanmar Now photojournalist Sai Zaw Thaike was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges including “spreading misinformation,” after he was arrested while reporting on the impact of Cyclone Mocha. His sentence is the longest any journalist has received since the 2021 coup, and “yet another indication that freedom of the press has been completely quashed under the military junta’s rule,” said Swe Win, editor-in-chief of Myanmar Now.

Myanmar Now is one of several larger independent media outlets continuing to cover the country from exile, along with The Irrawaddy news group and the Democratic Voice of Burma. Many smaller publications that sprang up during Myanmar’s brief period of openness have struggled to survive however, bled of funds and staff, and facing increasing difficulties.

Most exiled journalists are based in Thailand, as they were during the previous period of junta rule. But while Bangkok was supportive in the past, Mr. Crispin expressed concern that the current Thai government has remained close to military leaders in the capital of Naypyidaw, and may be willing to rein in independent Myanmar media.

“My understanding is that the junta regime is pressuring the Thais not to allow this,” he said. “You have to wonder how viable this model is going to be,” of being based in Thailand.

Since seizing power, the Myanmar junta has not shied away from jailing foreigners. In May, 2021, U.S. citizen Danny Fenster, who worked for the banned publication Frontier Myanmar, was detained as he was about to fly home and later sentenced to 11 years in prison. Mr. Fenster was released in November that year after negotiations led by the late Bill Richardson, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Four other foreign journalists have been detained and subsequently released since the coup: American Nathan Maung; Robert Bociaga of Poland; and Japanese reporters Toru Kubota and Yuki Kitazumi.

Mr. Kubota was freed in November as part of a mass prisoner amnesty for Myanmar’s national day, along with Australian academic Sean Turnell, a one-time adviser to deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and former British ambassador to Myanmar Vicky Bowman.

The worsening situation has created “news black holes” in Myanmar, said Mr. Crispin. “It’s an intentional campaign to crush the media and scare the rest, and make sure there are very few cameras or witnesses to the crimes the regime is committing on a daily basis.”

Facing international sanctions, the junta has been seeking rehabilitation in recent months, moving Ms. Suu Kyi – who is said to be in poor health – to house arrest, and planning for elections designed to legitimize military rule. Voting was due to take place in August but was postponed to February next year after the government extended a state of emergency.

In a posted statement, Canada’s embassy to Myanmar said it was “deeply concerned” by this, adding the extension only prolongs “the regime’s illegitimate rule over Myanmar.” It said Ottawa “continues to unequivocally condemn the coup against the democratically elected government and supports the people and their democratic aspirations in the face of brutality and egregious international human rights and humanitarian law violations.”

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