Myanmar Media Historically and the Challenges of Transition 5 Swe Win criticized his actions, also on social media, a high-ranking member of the Ma Ba Tha in Mandalay sued him for defamation. A separate case filed in Yangon was later dropped. Myanmar’s Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture publicly defended the journalist, saying he had done nothing wrong (RFA 2017), and Myanmar’s highest religious body, the State Sangha Maha Nayaka (Ma Ha Na), banned Wirathu from preaching publicly for one year and then declared Ma Ba Tha illegal (Straits Times 2017).5 The Ma Ba Tha complainant later petitioned the court to withdraw the charge, but the case has nonetheless continued, including the arrest of Swe Win at Yangon’s international airport in July 2017 and his subsequent release on bail. In August 2017 the complainant was himself arrested after participating in anti-government protests in Mandalay (Aung Ko Oo 2017). The assassination — and the responses to it — along with many other cases discussed in this chapter, illustrate the complexity and contradictions of Myanmar’s ongoing political transition, and the role of media as sites for the playing out of power struggles and as active agents in their own right. This compilation of work by academics, journalists, writers, media development experts, trainers and civil society activists documents developments in the media sector since the country’s political opening. Myanmar Media in Transition: Legacies, Challenges and Change offers critical analyses and captures experiences on the ground, moving beyond the common research focus on media “systems” to instead focus on processes through which media are engaged as tools by key stakeholders and through which media act as agents themselves. This introductory chapter begins with an overview of existing research and theoretical debates about media in transition in other countries and world regions. This is followed by a history of Myanmar media inside, on the borders and outside of the country, and an overview of the current media landscape and major issues facing reformers. The Epilogue discusses the challenges we faced assembling this volume. Media and Political Transitions The wave of democratization in Latin America in the 1980s and Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet Union re-energized 01 ch1-MyanmarMediaIT-5P.indd 5 8/4/19 10:29 am