"CHALLENGES OF THE PRESS FREEDOM TO PRIVATE NEWS MEDIA IN MYANMAR"

Abstract

The role of media, as “the fourth pillar” of the nation is important for country’s reformation process. Media freedom (press freedom) in Myanmar got improved when reformation started in 2011. Censorship board was eliminated; a number of imprisoned bloggers and journalists were released; private daily papers are permitted to publish; some political opinions or comments are allowed in the publications. Although reformation in Myanmar gives lots of freedom to press, but there are still many limitations such as lawsuit pressures, charges, editorial control, difficulty in accessing the information. Media personnel are still facing with several challenges during this transition period in Myanmar. Since the time censorship board was abolished in 2012, the exercising of responsible editorial control is posed as a challenge for media professionals. Accessing the information is also still a challenge for the journalists in Myanmar even though changes took place since 2011. Media houses in Myanmar are also facing with difficulties in capacities in terms of human resource and finance resource capacities. Qualitative research in terms of in-depth interviews (structural and semi-structural interview), background history, case studies and document research were conducted to study the situation of press freedom in the country. The concept of this research is to examine the extent of press freedom in Myanmar during the transition period by observing recent changes and assessing the challenges that private news media are trying to cope with. This paper will argue about the control of press freedom is a constraint for the ongoing democratic reformation of the country.