Emerging fresh from decades of military rule, Burma aims to be a model of media reform in Asia as the country aggressively unshackled itself from stifling government censorship.

Information Minister U Aung Kyi told 300 journalists and editors gathered at the country’s Second Media Development conference in Rangoon that his government will press on with media reforms which began 15 months ago.

“I hope our country will be one of the success stories of media reform in Asia given that it has moved this far within a short period compared to other media environments,” he said.

“The abolition of the censorship board and online accessibility of publishing rights were the first phase of our media reform, while the return of independent commercial daily newspapers and the repeal of existing rigid printing laws are the second phase.”

NONE Aung Kyi ( right ) said that the third phase will be the transformation of state-owned media into public service media along the lines of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

“Free from political interference and commercial interests, the existence of public service media is to listen to different voices and to speak to everyone in equality.”

Green light for 26 dailies

The two-day conference which kicked off today brought together a diverse and vibrant group of media professionals to discuss ways to entrench and accelerate democratic reforms, building on last year’s inaugural meeting.       

“From the stage of idea formulation, which we discussed at the conference last year, we have since engaged parliamentary committees, non-government sectors and civil society on strategy formulations, and we are now at the stage of implementing these action plans at the national level,” said the Burmese information minister.

rangoon burma pagoda Over the past year, Burma has unchained its tightly-controlled media, which saw a breathtaking proliferation of weekly magazines and periodicals.

Until recently, newspapers were restricted to a handful of government-sanctioned dailies. The government has just approved printing licences for 26 daily newspapers.

One of them is Mizzima, a media organisation which cut its teeth while operating in exile during the dark days of military rule.

Mizzima editor-in-chief Soe Minyt, who spent 25 years in India and returned to Burma last year, said he will be launching his daily this Friday.

“I hope the future media landscape of Myanmar (Burma) will have diversity in terms of media ownership and in terms of content for different media audience including women, children, ethnic communities and differently-abled individuals,” said minister Aung Kyi.