8/22/22, 10:18 PM Myanmar: Freedom on the Net 2019 Country Report | Freedom House Myanmar’s transition from military dictatorship to democracy has faltered under the leadership of the National League for Democracy (NLD), which came to power in relatively free elections in 2015 but has failed to uphold human rights or bring security to areas affected by armed conflict. The military retains significant influence over politics, and the country is under international pressure regarding a 2017 military operation that forced more than 700,000 members of the Rohingya minority to flee to Bangladesh. Key Developments, June 1, 2018 – May 31, 2019 The government continued to arrest and prosecute internet users for political speech, including Aung Ko Ko Lwin, who was sentenced to one year in prison in September 2018 for Facebook posts criticizing a state chief minister (see C3). In September 2018, Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were sentenced to seven years in prison for their reporting on atrocities against the Rohingya, following a politically motivated trial; they were later pardoned in May 2019 (see C3). A range of draft laws could impact internet freedom and free expression, including a draft cybersecurity law proposed in 2019 (see C2 and C4). New reporting in October 2018 described a five-year-long systematic disinformation campaign by nearly 700 military officials (see B5). A. Obstacles to Access Internet access continues to improve in Myanmar, as more users connect via smartphones with fast 4G service. The success of two foreign-owned mobile service providers has placed pressure on the state’s monopoly, and the government has responded by giving a mobile phone license to a military-owned conglomerate and restoring the state’s majority control over the mobile market. A1 0-6 pts Do infrastructural limitations restrict access to the internet or the speed and quality of internet connections? 2/6 Access to the internet continued to improve during the reporting period. Two-fifths of the population now uses the internet as of 2019, an increase of 17 percent or three million people since 2018. 1 The speed and quality of service increased due to the launch of 4G services in 2017, 2 and international bandwidth reached 445 Gbps in 2018, 15 times higher than 2013. 3 However, the overall number of users remains lower than the average for the Asia-Pacific region, 4 and both average internet speed and bandwidth per user are also lower than the regional average. 5 Private fixed-line internet connections remain rare, and while fixed-line speeds increased during the coverage period, they are now on average less than half the speed of mobile connections. 6 Only 1 in 1,667 people has a fixed broadband line, compared to 1 in 10 on average across the Asia-Pacific region. 7 https://freedomhouse.org/country/myanmar/freedom-net/2019 2/20