192 Lisa Brooten International Journal of Communication 10(2016) July 11, 2013). When the chief minister complained, Thu Rein Hlaing explained that they would include local government responses if they were able to get them, but this has proven difficult. When the police request that they not publish a particular story, such as the one about local army staff illegally importing black market cars from Thailand, these local media compile the evidence necessary to fend off any blowback from local officials. In this latter case, they were able to get registration numbers of the black market cars, without which they would not have published the story. This strategy demonstrates media’s role as agents of restraint, holding the government to account, not through top-down procedural reforms but via bottom-up cultural changes that challenge local officials, audiences, and the culture of secrecy and fear. Importance of Civil Society Civil society is a contested notion that needs more subtle theorizing in the Burmese context, because the concept has been misused by some to promote “‘free’ market, liberalization and commodification as the ultimate solution for all economic and political ills” (Zarni, 2012, p. 291) rather than genuine social justice. Yet there are as many different types of civil society organizations as there are types of media, and those engaging in effective grassroots efforts make vital contributions to democratization. In Ghana, for example, civil society organizations were key to the consolidation of democracy, providing opportunities for marginalized groups to promote and protect their values, influencing public opinion and public policy, and performing a watchdog function to ensure that democratic processes developed transparently (Arthur, 2010). There is an emerging, vibrant, and increasingly complex civil society sector in Myanmar, ranging from small, grassroots groups to large, intergovernmental agencies. Especially after Cyclone Nargis slammed into Burma in May 2008, and given the much-criticized inept and callous state response, networks of community-based organizations grew stronger out of necessity, expanding their space and preventing the government from maintaining precyclone restrictions (Wells & Kyaw Thu Aung, 2014). Some of these groups have been working with media to push for changes and government transparency. Civil society networks, including journalists’ networks, have begun directly intervening in policy making by contributing recommendations to President Thein Sein and to the speakers and other members of the lower and upper houses of parliament (Wells & Kyaw Thu Aung, 2014). All this bodes well for efforts to change the culture of fear and complacency. The case of Iran demonstrates why strengthening media as part of a broader civil society network is so important. After the election of Mohammad Khatami as president in 1997, reformers relied heavily on the media as a means of stimulating public discourse, ignoring other key building blocks of civil society. The leading opposition paper, Jameah, appealed to the millions who had voted for Khatami and reform and led to the mushrooming of other such papers, but their rise threatened the clerical establishment. In response, the clerics simply shut them down, demonstrating how an almost exclusively media-focused strategy is insufficient in the absence of grassroots networks and strong political parties (Abdo, 2003).