The second part discusses other recent legal developments, including: • The Union Election Commission’s Notification on political parties disseminating their campaigns on State-owned broadcasters, which requires parties to submit a script of the campaigns to the Commission for approval before they may be broadcast and introduces a number of restrictions on what may be included in such campaigns, such as statements that defame the nation or disturb the rule of law. • The National Records and Archives Law has come into effect and it tends to promote greater secrecy, rather than openness, within government. • A directive on hate speech from the President’s Office requires ministries and region and state governments to take very general measures to prevent hate speech. • An amendment to the Law on Protecting the Privacy and Security of Citizens limits its application, including rules prohibiting interferences with privacy or causing harm to reputation, to competent authorities with official powers and duties, instead of everyone. • In a very welcome development, By-laws under the Broadcast Law have been adopted, paving the way for appointment of the appointment of the National Broadcasting Council, the main regulatory body under the Broadcast Law. • The Hluttaw is actively considering the Telecommunications Commission Bill, which would establish an independent telecommunications regulator, although the protections for the Commission’s independence could be much stronger. Introduction This Note reviews legal developments in Myanmar which have been prepared or come into force in 2020 and which affect freedom of expression in one way or another. The main aim is to provide readers with an overall sense of what is happening in this area. As such, it is intended to provide a general sense of the main impact that these developments have had, or may or might have on freedom of expression rather than a detailed analysis of the precise ways in which they fail to respect international human rights standards in this area. Legal Developments Related to COVID-19 Myanmar has put forward a new version of its Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases Law, the law which provides the legal basis for much of Myanmar’s COVID-19 response. The current version of this Law dates from 1995, but the government released a revised draft for public comment in February.2 Draft legislation was then introduced in Parliament in May. No English version of the draft law is available yet but secondary reports indicate that it would introduce some important changes to Myanmar’s disease control laws. Among other things, commentators have criticised a mandatory reporting requirement which 2 The Burmese version is available at: https://pyidaungsu.hluttaw.mm/uploads/pdf/mu4lWS_CD%20Law%20%2011.12.19%20(Annex%203)%20PDF.pdf -2-