Myanmar Media Historically and the Challenges of Transition 23 from foreign influences. Military Intelligence chief Khin Nyunt urged musicians to be patriotic in their work and to cooperate with the state-controlled Myanmar Media Association (Smith 1991). Following a performance of satirical songs, chants and skits at the NLD headquarters during the Thingyan water festival in 1989, arrests of musicians and singers continued (Smith 1991). The SLORC similarly targeted the film and video industry, arresting key industry actors and directors, charging the chairman of Burma’s Film Society with treason and launching a “cultural” campaign to coerce actors and directors to work with the Motion Picture Organization, a patriotic institution allied with the SLORC (Smith 1991). Other performers, including comedians, also faced serious crackdowns during this period. For example, in May 1990, one month after being released from prison, Zargana was rearrested after doing stand-up comedy — telling a joke about the Minister of Information — at the Yankin Teachers Training College Stadium in Rangoon. He was sentenced to five years but released in March 1994. Once released he was banned from using his stage name Zargana and from performing publicly or even attending public events. His jokes were nonetheless said to have continued spreading by word of mouth. Despite these sanctions he was repeatedly invited to appear on military television — invitations that he always refused (Allott 2001; Human Rights Watch 2009). The Burmese people did not consider the country’s state-run media credible (Allott 1994; Smith 1991, 1992) and, as a result, relied on international broadcasters such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) (Fink 2001; Lintner 1989). Aware of their influence, the military regime targeted foreign media. Two books in particular, The Conspiracy of Treasonous Minions within the Myanmar Naing-Ngan and Traitorous Cohorts and A Skyful of Lies [sic], attacked the foreign media for their reporting during 1988. Smith (1991) counted more than a hundred cartoons attacking the BBC in the state-run Working People’s Daily, a campaign which he argued “conjured up the image of a network of foreigners secretly working together to seize control of Burma” (p. 72). In addition, a black market trade in pirated videotapes from Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia emerged in the early 1980s. Despite the low penetration of television, villagers often collaborated to purchase video players, and 01 ch1-MyanmarMediaIT-5P.indd 23 8/4/19 10:29 am