Myanmar: News Media and Printing and Publishing Enterprises Law Reforms A completely different approach to appointments, which would reduce the potential for political influence, would be to allow different sectors to nominate a set number of persons. Nominations could, for example, be made by the bar association, academics, journalist and media associations and civil society organisations. Fourth, while it is important that the MPC be independent from political interference, it is also crucial that it not be monopolised by the media. Currently, Rule 10 significantly weights members proposed by media groups (10-22 candidates) as compared to those proposed by civil society (2-5 candidates). A more even split would result in a more balanced Council. More seats should be reserved for persons representing the public interest generally. This is the practice in other countries: • In Indonesia, out of a nine-member council, 3 members represent journalists, three represent media owners and three represent the public. • The Australian Press Council has 23 members, including an independent chair and nine other unaffiliated “public members”, 11 representatives of media organisations and two independent journalists.14 • The Irish Press Council consists of 13 members of whom 7 are independent with the remaining six coming from the media industry.15 Fifth, it is also important to protect the funding of the MPC from a risk of political interference. While funding from the media sector is theoretically a good way of doing this, in practice it is unlikely that this sort of funding will be sufficient or consistent enough to cover day-to-day operating expenses. This means that it is necessary to ensure a reliable and regular stream of public funding which cannot be used to undermine the independence of the Council. One way to do this is to require that the budget of the Council be included as a separate line item in the overall budget, so that it is somehow directly approved by parliament. The law could also explicitly require the government to ensure that the Council has sufficient funds to cover its operating expenses. Whatever model is chosen, the Council should still be able to receive contributions from other sources. Finally, there are some other technical improvements that could be introduced. It would be useful, in addition to the disqualifying criteria for members, to include a set of minimum standards for them, which might refer to issues such as expertise, education and good moral standing. Rule 16 provides for members whose term of office is terminated before the end of their tenure to be replaced. In addition to moving this into the main body of the law, it should apply only where six months or more remain in their tenure, so as to avoid going through the complex appointments process for very short-term appointments. Recommendations: 14 Constitution of the Australian Press Council, 15 May 2018, Section 11. Available at: https://www.presscouncil.org.au/uploads/52321/ufiles/APC_Constitution_15_May_2018.pdf. 15 Constitution Memorandum of Association of the Press Council of Ireland (as updated 2018), paras. 6.5-6.6. Available at: http://www.presscouncil.ie/_fileupload/PCI%20Constitution%20-%20Updated%20%20May%202018.pdf. The Centre for Law and Democracy is a non-profit human rights organisation working internationally to provide legal expertise on foundational rights for democracy - 18 -