Burmese Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan said after the junta’s crackdown on monk-led demonstrators in September 2007 that he would combat the media by using the media.
As the country prepares now for a general election, the junta is expected to sharpen its propaganda war against the international and exile media by using Kyaw Hsan's tactics.
One of these tactics is to allow semi-official or private journals whose owners are close to the ruling generals to publish daily newspapers for the first time in nearly five decades.
Among the rumors that have been circulating since early 2008 are reports that the semi-official newspaper, The Myanmar Times, will be allowed to publish daily.
The Myanmar Times is indeed now being allowed to publish daily—but only for about one month and restricting coverage to the football World Cup in South Africa.
“We have got permission [for a daily],” Zaw Myint, one of the paper's editors, confirmed. “We will publish daily during the World Cup from June 10 to July 12. But it is only during the World Cup.”
Even though The Myanmar Times edition will only be a sports issue, this will be the first time in 48 years that readers will be able to buy a daily newspaper not entirely run by the state. All newspapers in Burma were nationalized and passed into tight control by the state after the military coup in 1962 and following periods of press freedom.
Burmese observers said the concession now granted to The Myanmar Times could indicate a new phase in the regime's public relations campaign.
“It could be a signal to permit privately-owned daily newspapers,” said Maung Wantha, a veteran journalist in Rangoon, who is planning to publish a political journal. “Ahead of the elections, political parties will have to be allowed to publish their policies and activities.”
However, most Burmese journalists are skeptical about any possibility of meaningful press freedom being granted by the the junta, whose censors are still fully employed in combing every publication and excising anything unfavorable to the regime.
“Until now, the censorship board is still cutting and cutting the reports of Burmese journalists,” said an editor with a private journal in Rangoon, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “So it is too early to say the junta would agree to the publication of privately-owned dailies.”
The Myanmar Times was founded as a semi-official publication in 2000 by Ross Dunkley, an Australian businessman, and Sonny Swe, son of former military intelligence official Brig-Gen Thein Swe.
Following the junta’s crackdown on Burma's military intelligence apparatus in October 2004, both Thein Swe and his son Sonny Swe were arrested and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
The Myanmar Times survived their downfall and Ross Dunkley has continued to enjoy good connections with ruling generals, a necessary condition for doing any businesses in Burma.
Unlike former intelligence officials, the ruling generals seem to lack knowledge in how to use the media for their propaganda machine, particularly in the years 2005-2007. Its crackdown on the mass demonstrations in September 2007 displayed to the international media the brutal, ugly face of the regime.
Currently the junta has been using different public relations tactics. The state-run MRTV has recently used foreign broadcasts in its new, English-language program, “Myanmar International.” The junta has also formed different FM, AM and short wave radio stations to counter exile media and Burmese-language foreign broadcasts.
One of these is Napyidaw-based Padauk Myay radio which often counters reports criticizing the junta and carries attacks on pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and dissident groups.
Despite its propaganda, the radio station attracts young Burmese audiences with the latest music. According to independent researchers, Padauk Myay's audience also includes Burmese migrant workers in Thailand.
Meanwhile, the junta has allowed some private journals to cover political news. According to journalists in Rangoon, apart from The Myanmar Times, Burmese authorities also allows two journals, The Voice Weekly and The Monitor, to carry political news, including election-related reports. Burmese journalists say the publishers of the two journals are associated with the ruling generals.
“Election-related news is mainly published in The Voice and The Monitor while other news journals publish political news in one or two pages,” said a journalist who is researching the development of Burma’s media.
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