Reporting from the Darkness: Journalism and Media in Myanmar 2023 Q4 and Annual Report Security and safety issues dominated the concerns of Myanmar's media soon after the coup. While these concerns persist, journalists and newsrooms have also been trying to find ways to become more stable and survive in the longer term. "Security was the biggest challenging risk for us in 2021 and 2022, but now it is more financial," the Chiang Mai-based editor explained. "It is our biggest threat and concern for the coming years. This is the same for most Myanmar media organisations." The chief editor of another news outlet added: "There are two big challenges: financial or income, and security." The junta's methods of media repression In 2023, the junta continued to use a mix of strategies to control the public information sphere and manipulate the news environment. It enacted amendments to laws that tighten its control of news and information spaces, and used internet restrictions and shutdowns. While clamping down on and targetting independent media, the SAC has been encouraging and supporting projunta media outlets. The military regime had started amending several laws, such as those on incitement, sedition and treason, soon after the 2021 coup to put in place legal tools to use against its opponents. Laws that directly affect news have also been amended and more are underway, such as a cyber security law proposed in 2022. In 2023, the SAC introduced amendments to the Printing and Publishing Enterprises Law and the Television and Radio Broadcasting Law. The amendments to the Printing and Publishing Enterprises Law, which requires printers and publishers, including news agencies, to register with the information ministry, makes it easier to revoke or suspend a licence and requires publishers to send copies of publications to the ministry. The information minister now has the authority to ban publications through a notice in the Official Gazette. If a police notice against a publication is issued, it can be confiscated. Issued by the SAC on 6 March, these changes "weaken the already inadequate safeguards contained in the PPEL to protect the printing, publishing and news industries from abuses of power," the Canada-based Centre for Law and Democracy said in its analysis. 13