NWET KAY KHINE THE REPRESSION AND EROSION OF INDEPENDENT MEDIA IN MYANMAR SINCE THE MILITARY COUP ABSTRACT The resilience of Myanmar’s military regime since 1962 has largely been attributable to its institutional capacity to maintain control over repressive and ideological state apparatus (ISA). Since the coup of 1 February 2021, military leaders have been employing the usual tactics of fusing repressive and ideological state apparatus to suppress the social movement. Authoritarian survival in Myanmar has always been possible through the inherited legal and policy tools — tools which have never guaranteed an independent check on power nor the defence of human rights. This paper argues that an insufficient willingness for media reform under the two previous governments has led to the institutional defect that undermines media resilience in the post-coup political crisis. Despite the people of Myanmar being able to enjoy advancements in communication technology that have provided an enabling environment for the flow of revolutionary ideas, the existing hegemony of the State in the media sector has almost eliminated independent and free media organizations. Key words: media freedom, military regime, Myanmar, repression THE MILITARY’S DOMINANCE IN SOCIETY AND THE RECENT BIRTH OF REVOLUTIONARIES Since Myanmar’s military took over on 1 February 2021, not only journalists but also even outspoken ordinary citizens have faced the dangers of detention, imprisonment, death, and torture for voicing concerns over human rights abuse or simply speaking the truth. As the military have extended their control over state-owned media outlets as well as international and domestic TV channels, the information provided by independent private media should be vital for the people to be kept informed about the changes happening in the country, especially about the outcome of the coup and possibility of political crisis amidst a global pandemic. However, it should be noted that most of Myanmar’s media outlets had been struggling to survive even before the coup was staged, while their resilience had been weakened by the political parallelism of successive ruling parties. Although online platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Telegram have expanded space for independent journalism and induced user-generated con- 1 tent, social media has been prone to exploitation by different interest groups, especially by military-sponsored accounts and extremist Buddhist networks. International Media Support commented that: Those in power are well versed in using social media to their full advantage. When barring people’s access to information via the internet or mobile networks, propaganda thrives and can add to further destabilizing the country.1 Similar warnings from media organizations have been raised in the last ten years about the shortcomings of the newly-invented legal and policy frameworks for consolidating democracy and building a genuinely pluralistic society. Even international donors who generously invested in improving Myanmar’s media democracy have found that Myanmar governments failed to keep their promises to make legal and policy changes to encourage L. H. Bestle and E. Lehmann-Jacobsen, “Myanmar’s civil society needs support now more than ever”, International Media Support, 5 February 2021, available at https://www.mediasupport.org/blogpost/myanmars-civil-society-needs-support-now-more-than-ever/. 3