Myanmar Media Historically and the Challenges of Transition 37 Mingalar Company Ltd is the largest film distributor in the country, reportedly controlling eighty per cent of the domestic cinema trade (Buncombe and Htusan 2012). It owns six of Yangon’s most popular cinemas. Mingalar entered the business in 1999, securing three cinemas in Yangon and two in Mandalay when the military regime eased economic restrictions on some sectors and privatized the ownership of cinema halls (AP 1999). The property developer Shwe Taung Group controls most of the remaining market, along with other newcomers that offer newer and better-equipped cinemas (Nandar Aung 2017). The push to refurbish old cinemas and build new ones has partly been due to the re-entry of U.S.-based 20th Century Fox International. The company pulled out of the country after the 1962 coup. It subsequently struck a deal in 2012 with Mingalar as its local distributor (Buncombe and Htusan 2012). Jane Ferguson analyses the current state of the film and video industry in her chapter in this volume. The transition has seen some realignment of media ownership, although many of the players remain the same as in the junta era. The overall environment for media and expression, however, has not improved since the election of the National League for Democracy. By most accounts, it has worsened when compared with the initial changes made under the Thein Sein administration. Thein Sein Administration After the quasi-civilian government was installed by the military junta in 2011, with Thein Sein as president, changes in the media sector began in earnest. That year, local publications were allowed for the first time to publish articles, interviews and photographs of Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as articles written by her. Pre-publication censorship was abolished in August 2012, along with the censorship body and sixteen loosely worded guidelines for content that had held editors accountable for “sensitive” content deemed harmful to national security or “the dignity of the state” (Kumar 2014, p. 76). Journalists began reporting on previously taboo topics, and the digital space opened up with the liberalization of the telecommunications sector. An Interim Press Council was created. In April 2013 the first private daily newspaper licences — twenty-six in total — were handed out. And in 2014 thirteen dailies entered the market. International news agencies opened offices inside the country 01 ch1-MyanmarMediaIT-5P.indd 37 8/4/19 10:29 am