Myanmar Media Historically and the Challenges of Transition 19 Nevertheless, cartoons remained a vital form of political commentary, allowing for multiple interpretations and thus veiled messages that could get past the censors, and revealing “the critical discourse which cannot be expressed explicitly” (Leehey 1997, p. 154). Filmmaking, on the other hand, was harnessed to the goals of the socialist state, and Burmese filmmakers were isolated and unable to access technical innovations or the creative developments in cinema in the United States and Europe (Aung Min 2012). With the exception of official publications and school and university textbooks, book publishing remained in private hands, yet all books and periodicals had to be approved by the censorship body, the Press Scrutiny Board (PSB), before publication and distribution. Separate censorship boards existed for film (and later video) scripts and for popular music, and book covers and paintings also underwent scrutiny before publication or exhibition (Allott 1993). Reinforcing its pride in its literacy levels, under the BSPP regime the country twice won UNESCO prizes for its literacy campaigns, in 1971 and 1983 (Smith 1991; Gartner 2011).10 Nevertheless, the challenge of printing book-length works and the lack of independent reporting contributed to the rise in importance of monthly literary magazines as a forum for serious writing during the 1970s and 1980s (Leehey 2005). Literature and literary debate remained vibrant during this time period, and what Leehey (2005) identifies as “the new style” in Burmese literature emerged, characterized by shifting and elusive meaning, which through its very shifting “captures something important about the subjective experience of everyday life under military rule” (p. 198). The country’s historical love of print continues today, as veteran journalist Thiha Saw explains in his interview in this volume. In 1974 a new constitution granted free expression in accordance with the “Burmese Way to Socialism”. The News Agency Burma controlled the flow of information in and out of the country. All foreign correspondents, except those working for the Soviet Tass and China’s Xinhua, were expelled, and foreign journalists banned. Burmese writers during the 1970s and 1980s were concerned about the arbitrary nature of the decisions handed down by the PSB, and the fact that publications had to be printed before submission and then censored by either ripping out pages or inking over the allegedly offensive bits (Allott 1993). 01 ch1-MyanmarMediaIT-5P.indd 19 8/4/19 10:29 am