International Journal of Communication 13(2019) Extreme Speech in Myanmar 3213 accounted for a further nine articles, while two articles addressed the role of the UN in Myanmar, which is closely related to Rakhine State issues. This securitized focus demonstrates how GNLM’s publisher, the Myanmar MOI, considered Rakhine State matters a priority for publication and reveals MOI’s focus on the security situation there. Rakhine State’s population is 3.1 million in a country of 51 million residents, representing around 6% of Myanmar’s total. Yet in the month before the August 2017 violence, Rakhine State issues accounted for around 12% of GNLM news archive articles. Myanmar’s central authorities have been at war with ethnic minorities for more than five decades, and there are dozens of armed ethnic groups (including some controlling large areas of territory), but none of them are majority Muslim (Smith, 1999). While a nationwide peace negotiation is underway and involves the participation of dozens of ethnic minority groups, the GNLM’s heavy focus on Rakhine State security matters represents a strong statement from official Myanmar that security in Rakhine State ought to be specifically considered a national political concern. State media reporting about Rakhine State was already highly securitized when the Rohingya crisis began on August 25. During the month following the crisis, there were many more articles in GNLM about Rakhine State than during the previous month, but GNLM already had an established focus on security matters when reporting events in Rakhine State. The number of articles in the archive increased to 345 during the period from August 26 to September 25. Unsurprisingly after the start of the August crisis, the number of articles about Rakhine State increased, with 124 addressing Rakhine State issues. These articles overwhelmingly had a security focus—117 addressed security issues in Rakhine State, while 7 focused on economic development matters there. During this period, Rakhine State issues accounted for around 36% of GNLM news archive articles, and headlines often adopted a sensationalist tone suggesting Myanmar was under siege by Muslim terrorists, for example, “Terrorists Trying to Destroy Maungtaw” (2017), “Let Us Eradicate Extremist Terrorists, Destructive Elements Together!” (2017), “Extremist Terrorism on the Rise!” (2017), “Issuing Notification of Acknowledging and Urging the People Not to Encourage, Support and Abet Extremist Terrorists” (2017), and “Warning in Relation With Extremist Terrorists” (2017). Front-page articles appearing in the GNLM throughout these periods similarly reflected a focus on Rakhine State security concerns. There are usually two to three front-page articles daily. During the July 26 to August 25 period, there were 50 front-page articles (or photo leads), and of these eight related to Rakhine State and all but one dealt with the security situation there. Once the 2017 Rohingya crisis began the following month (August 26 to September 25), there were 53 front-page articles, of which 47 related to security issues in Rakhine State. These articles overwhelmingly focused on official fears about potential Muslim terrorism and included photographs suggesting a chaotic situation in northern Rakhine State being calmed by Myanmar security forces, of burning villages allegedly attacked by Muslim terrorists, and of locals and emergency services working to defend and repair homes from Muslim terrorist destruction. Discussion Myanmar’s official media’s approach to reporting Rakhine State matters contributes to a domestic political context that allows for the ongoing mistreatment of groups like the Rohingya. Official Myanmar media like the GNLM can be considered as representing a form of extreme speech in two main ways: First,