Saturday, February 21, 2009

Media In Burma


Check out the excellent Democratic voice of Burma for a good synopsis of the current situation in the country and the media's role in bringing about democratic transition.

It is written by Htet Aung Kyaw who writes in exile is a senior journalist for the Oslo-based organisation

Every day in Burma, state-controlled TV just shows the generals and government officials visiting some development projects while the government radio airs the generals' speeches. The next day in the newspapers, print journalists repeat the same stories with some pictures added and harsh words to attack opposition and western countries who sanction them. So the audiences lose interest on government media but they turn on the TV to watch Korean movies and also buy the newspapers to read the obituaries and skip straight to the back page where they are found.


With elections coming up next year he believes that

Many observers say that foreign-based Burmese language short wave radio stations and satellite TV will play a key role in the upcoming election, in contrast to the 1990 election.

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