responsive and accountable state as well as a stronger, more competitive and responsible private sector.” 238 4 4.1 Despite these commitments to “move as quickly as possible”, there is currently no legislation guaranteeing right to information in Myanmar. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) e-Governance Master Pan emphasises the need for “inclusive, integrated, and citizen-centric governance”. 239 Legislation guaranteeing a right to information would enhance this objective. Technology can also support citizen engagement and accelerate data collection through ‘crowdsourcing’, where the public submit information to a central platform which can help solve a particular social issue. For example, people can submit reports on local problems to the council through Fix My Street in the United Kingdom 240 or report updates on water supply availability through Next Drop in India. 241 Preserving ethnic minority languages online There are a wide range of languages spoken in Myanmar. There is concern that with the concentration of services in English and the predominant language Burmese, other languages will be increasingly marginalised in the online environment. Stakeholders from minority language groups may already be disadvantaged in relation to the physical accessibility of ICTs in their area, given that many of the ethnic minority groups live in the more remote areas of the country, further from the commercial and political capitals. Denial of Access to Information – Restrictions, Blocking and Removing Content Regulations restricting Internet usage in Myanmar can be traced back to January 2000 when the Government attempted to restrict the creation of webpages, sharing of Internet accounts, and posting of political content. 242 Research by the Open Network Initiative (ONI) indicates that the partial nationalisation of Internet service provider (ISP) Bagan Cybertech in 2004 was followed by further content censorship online, including the blocking of websites featuring content related to political opposition or human rights (including independent media websites), and the websites of email service providers. 243 Other services have also been briefly blocked to try to protect State telecommunications revenue, including GoogleTalk and Gmail in 2006 and Skype in 2011. 244 In 2012, ONI conducted a test of blocked URL’s on the ISP Yatanarpon Teleport. The results showed a drastic reduction in the amount of content filtered or blocked compared to previous testing in 2005. The categories of content blocked were: Pornography, content relating to alcohol and drugs, gambling sites, sex education, online dating sites and gay and lesbian content. Internet censorship circumvention tools were also blocked. A much smaller amount of content in the ‘Political’ category was blocked. Almost all of the 238 Ibid. ADB/InfoSys, “Republic of the Union of Myanmar: Design of e-Governance Master Plan and Review of Information and Communication Technology Capacity in Academic Institutions ” (July 2015), pg 35. 240 See: https://www.fixmystreet.com/ 241 See: http://nextdrop.org/ 242 BBC News Online “Burma Clamps Down On The Web” (20 January 2000). 243 Open Network Initiative, "”Internet Filtering in Burma in 2005: A Country Study“ (2005) 244 Irrawaddy “Junta Blocks Google and Gmail” (30 June 2006) and DVB, “Internet Calls Banned As Junta Loses Out” (20 March 2011). 239 126 PAGE CHAPTER 4.1: FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION