18 / Myanmar's media from an audience perspective Interestingly, the trust in international news outlets such as BBC, VOA and RFA seems somewhat contested – regardless of the region. Many people expressed appreciation of the reporting these outlets had done in the past under the military regime when information was scarce. However, people are not sure that they can be trusted any longer, particularly after having observed the outlets coverage of the conflict in Rakhine and the Rohingya minority. Several of the respondents explained that they did not feel that the international outlets were telling the truth or that the full story was being told in their reports. “BBC is not reliable. They are really biased and make news as they like. They cannot reflect the truth. And their reports are always different from other channels’ reports. For example, when they reported about the death tolls in a communal conflict in Yangon, they mentioned a low number of killed Rakhine people and a much higher number of killed Muslim people.” (63-year-old woman from urban Rakhine). Despite the decaying trust in the international outlets, people did nonetheless still respect the media, and many continue to seek them out – albeit with greater apprehension.