Myanmar Media Historically and the Challenges of Transition 13 Several chapters in this volume focus on individual and group resistance to historic and emerging forms of control and the opportunities being seized to access and share information beyond society’s power brokers in order to push for change. State and private interests are far from the only players in this landscape; journalists, writers, filmmakers, musicians and civil society actors are also important in shaping new developments in media, as are audiences. This volume examines a variety of media and their roles in the current transition as agents of change, restraint and stability. Those producing and screening short films and documentaries about human rights, using social media in political debates, promoting change in the music industry, and writing poetry and other literature are all engaging in this work. We recognize, however, that power relations between the different groups and key players are not balanced, and that the influence of culture, interactions between groups, and the impact of fear also affect the direction of this transition. It is key, therefore, that reformers and policymakers have a historical grounding in order to understand recent events in Myanmar and the cultural patterns that have led to the current media landscape. A History of Media and Free Expression in Myanmar Developments since the political opening must be understood against the backdrop of struggles for freedom from military rule and the contestations of identities associated with nationhood resulting from decades of dictatorship and prolonged ethnic conflicts throughout the country. A look back at the earliest vestiges of media in Myanmar (then officially called Burma) sheds light on the country’s long struggle with official censorship and control — and efforts to counter it — as well as religious and state involvement with media. It also highlights the country’s vibrant, yet tumultuous, journalistic past, especially given the historically contentious relationship between the state and the people, and between the different ethnic and religious communities, since the colonial period. Myanmar is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world (Smith 1994), but accessing accurate population figures and data about ethnic identities has always been difficult. Myanmar is estimated to be 01 ch1-MyanmarMediaIT-5P.indd 13 8/4/19 10:29 am