Myanmar: News Media and Printing and Publishing Enterprises Law Reforms Information to develop further criteria governing the way members of the Committee are elected by the media and civil society groups. Council members serve for three-year terms, limited to two consecutive terms, as provided in for in section 15 of the NML. According to section 16, members may be removed from office through voluntary resignation, by the President upon a recommendation of two-thirds of the members of the MPC in case of certain forms of misconduct or an inability to fulfil the duties of a member, upon conviction for a character-based offense or due to lunacy or death. Funding for the Council, according to section 19 of the Law, may come from four sources: 1) government grants; 2) local and foreign donations; 3) aid from international or nongovernmental organisations; and 4) contributions from news media businesses. Recommended Integration and Reform As we recommended above, the MPC should be retained and have its regulatory remit expanded, provided that its independence and ability to operate fairly is protected. While the current NML provides an initial framework for this, a new law should incorporate stronger provisions in several key areas. First, it is preferable for the key provisions regarding the appointment of members of the MPC to be contained in the primary law as opposed to the accompanying rules. For example, Rule 7 contains a list of disqualifying criteria for Council candidates, such as employment as a public servant or holding office in a political party; these criteria should be included in the law itself. The rules relating to the appointment of the Elections Committee is another example of provisions which should be found in the primary legislation. Second, there are currently far too many members of the MPC, ranging from 15 to 30, which makes the Council unwieldy and inefficient, and leads to less flowing debate and decisionmaking processes. In contrast, Indonesia’s Press Council only has nine members, despite the fact that Indonesia is a vast and extremely diverse country. This problem is exacerbated by a lack of any quorum requirement before decisions may be made. This creates the risk that a small minority of the members of the Council could meet and make important decisions in the absence of the other members. A quorum requirement avoids this risk. Third, the current appointments process allows for undue political interference in the MPC. The clearest instance of this is the three Council members proposed by political officials which, while a small minority, does not reflect better international practice. Similarly, the Ministry of Information exercises too much influence over the selection of the Elections Committee and setting criteria governing the elections process. The presence of a government official on the Elections Committee is again of questionable value and creates a risk of interference. According to Rule 11(a), the Ministry can, in consultation with the Council, set rules for members. Any such rules should either be set out directly in the legislation or left to the Council itself to determine. The Centre for Law and Democracy is a non-profit human rights organisation working internationally to provide legal expertise on foundational rights for democracy - 17 -