4
Brooten, McElhone and Venkiteswaran
to Athan (2018), a free expression NGO, as of 9 September 2018, 150
cases had been filed under this law, the vast majority since the NLD
came to power. Although a coalition of twenty-two civil society groups
called for Section 66(d) of the law — which criminalizes expression
— to be abolished, a revised version of the law passed by the Union
parliament in August 2017 did not abolish 66(d) or decriminalize
defamation. Journalists have also been arrested and charged under
colonial-era laws such as the Unlawful Association Act and the Official
Secrets Act.
State media have long been criticized for being government
mouthpieces, a role they are continuing under the NLD with their
focus on Aung San Suu Kyi and other top leaders, their avoidance of
controversial topics or bad news, and their publishing of misinformation
which, some say, is simply “better written propaganda” than under
the military regime (PEN Myanmar 2016, p. 4; see also PEN Myanmar
2017). In high-profile cases, such as accusations of military crackdowns
in northern Rakhine, state media also often bury the stories or opt to
attack critics. This was very telling on 29 January 2017, when a senior
member of the NLD team, the prominent Muslim lawyer and NLD
legal advisor Ko Ni, was shot dead at Yangon International Airport
upon his return from an official trip to Indonesia. Ko Ni was famed
for his work as an advocate for constitutional and legal reform and for
religious diversity.4 Private national media and netizens captured the
grief and mourning of NLD party members, civil society activists and
ordinary citizens (Thant Sin 2017). In stark contrast, the state media’s
coverage was subdued, highlighting official news of events and meetings
attended by Aung San Suu Kyi and then president Htin Kyaw, and
burying news of the assassination and its aftermath on inside pages
(Htun Khaing 2017). According to critics, the NLD-led government
was reluctant to draw attention to the deep divisions signalled by
the assassination of a respected and beloved Muslim lawyer in what
is officially and predominantly a Buddhist country (San Yamin Aung
2017). Two years later, the killers have not been brought to justice.
Soon after the assassination, Wirathu, the leader of the radical
nationalist Buddhist organization Ma Ba Tha (Committee for the
Protection of Nationality and Religion), congratulated Ko Ni’s killers
on social media. When the award-winning investigative journalist
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