Mixed Signals: Democratization and the Myanmar Media
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Politics and Governance (ISSN: 2183–2463) 2017, Volume 5, Issue 2, Pages 41–58 DOI: 10.17645/pag.v5i2.831 Article Mixed Signals: Democratization and the Myanmar Media Tina Burrett Faculty of Liberal Arts, Sophia University, 102-8554 Tokyo, Japan; E-Mail: [email protected] Submitted: 5 December 2016 | Accepted: 20 March 2017 | Published: 13 April 2017 Abstract This article investigates the media context of Myanmar’s recent political reforms and transition of power. Drawing on in- terviews with 57 Yangon-based media professionals, the article analyzes the media’s role as both an agent and subject of political change as Myanmar prepared for parliamentary elections in November 2015. It asks to what extent changes in the Myanmar media system adhere to existing theories of the media’s role in the democratization process. Specifically, the article analyzes the features and functions of Myanmar’s media during the country’s liberalization from 2010 to 2015. The article concludes by assessing what Myanmar’s experience adds to our theoretical understanding of the media’s trans- formation during liberalization. Keywords Burma; democratization; freedom of the press; journalism; liberalization; media; Myanmar; reform; transition Issue This article is part of a multidisciplinary issue of Politics and Governance, edited by Andrej J. Zwitter (University of Gronin- gen, The Netherlands) and Amelia Hadfield (Canterbury Christ Church University, UK). © 2017 by the author; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribu- tion 4.0 International License (CC BY). 1. Introduction abolished the Ministry of Information’s pre-publication censorship regime (Harris, 2013). Previously off-limits 2016 was a monumental year in Myanmar. Parliamen- topics such as rampant corruption, inequality, ethnic con- tary elections in November 2015 delivered a landslide flicts, and government land-grabs began to feature fre- victory for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democ- quently on the front pages. racy (NLD). In March 2016, the NLD’s Htin Kyaw became Myanmar’s media have been center stage in the Myanmar’s first civilian president since the military coup country’s transition process, both as a subject and agent in 1962, a role denied to Aung San Suu Kyi by the junta- of change. Media and politics influence each other. This drafted constitution because she married a foreigner. article investigates the media’s role in Myanmar’s de- The NLD’s 2015 election victory is the culmination of a mocratization during the five-year liberalization process five-year reform process. In March 2011, Myanmar’s rul- preceding parliamentary elections in November 2015. ing junta handed power to a new nominally civilian gov- Myanmar was selected as an illustrative case against ernment, led by former general President Thein Sein. The which to compare existing theories of the media’s func- new president initiated a series of reforms leading to a tions and features during liberalization for the purpose substantial opening of the former pariah state (Hlaing, of both testing and refining these theories. 2012). Most dramatically, these reforms include allow- To develop a more nuanced understanding of the ing Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD to contest parliamen- conditions and consequences of the Myanmar media’s tary by-elections in April 2012, following her release from involvement in the democratization process, the article house arrest in November 2010. Reforms also included draws a distinction between structure and agency. The releasing hundreds of political prisoners, reaching pre- structural dimensions refer to the economic, technolog- liminary peace agreements with the majority of armed ical and political context in which the media operate. ethnic groups and gradually reducing restrictions on me- Agency denotes the editorial aspects of the media. Jour- dia freedom. In August 2012, Thein Sein’s government nalists play an active role in constructing social reality, Politics and Governance, 2017, Volume 5, Issue 2, Pages 41–58 41 by setting the agenda for public discourse and by fram- is often a strategic response by the ruling elite to main- ing narratives that give meaning to political events. The tain their power in reaction to mounting domestic and interplay between structure and agency creates the op- external pressure for political change. Domestically, the portunities and constraints that shape both the media’s impetus for liberalization can be top–down or bottom– influence on democratic change and the impact of polit- up. In Myanmar’s case, a combination of poor develop- ical change on the media. ment prospects, unrest among large sections of the pop- ulation, an effective opposition movement, and West- 2. The Media and Democratization ern sanctions that deepened economic dependence on China, convinced the ruling regime to initiate a largely Before analyzing the media as a factor in political change, top–down liberalization process as a means to retain con- it is first necessary to define democratization. At its most trol over the direction of political change. simple, democratization is a journey between two ideal points on the political spectrum: closed autocracy at one 3. Approach and Methods end and open democracy at the other. In reality, no regime conforms to an ideal type (Dahl, 1998). Autoc- Voltmer theorizes that the functions performed by the racy and democracy are both contested concepts that de- media in liberalizing autocracies vary depending on the scribe a range of real-world regimes. Likewise, there are impetus for liberalization (2013, p. 79). Based on her many paths between these two points. Scholars of de- comparative research, she distinguishes between three mocratization have tried to identify the regular stepping- models of liberalization based on the direction and ori- stones that mark this journey. A developmental theory of gins of political change: bottom–up; top–down; and ex- democratization assumes linear progress along sequen- ternal influences. In reality these three processes are of- tial steps. The most widely used schema distinguishes ten interdependent. And as Voltmer points out, external between three main stages of democratization: liberal- influences are unlikely to trigger liberalization indepen- ization of the autocratic regime; transition to democratic dently of the preferences of domestic actors. rule; and the consolidation of the new democratic order Voltmer’s work offers a rare attempt to conceptualize (O’Donnell & Schmitter, 1986). The process of regime a general theory of the media’s role in the liberalization change, however, is not always linear. Timing and se- process. Her theories are the starting point for my analy- quencing vary between cases. In some states, different sis. I assess to what extent the Myanmar media exhibited stages can occur simultaneously. Some states may skip the features and function associated with her three inter- one stage altogether. Others go back as well as forward dependent models during the country’s liberalization by along the path to democracy. Myanmar’s democratiza- answering the following research question: tion has been far from straightforward. In November 2014, Aung San Suu Kyi declared that the international To what extent do Voltmer’s theories of the role of the community had been too optimistic about the results of media in political liberalization explain the liberaliza- liberalization begun in 2010 (Tha, 2014). Media freedom tion of Myanmar’s media? and human rights groups concurred, arguing that 2014 witnessed significant backsliding (Committee to Protect To further structure my analysis of the Myanmar me- Journalists, 2014b; Human Rights Watch, 2015). Thomas dia as a subject and agent of political change, I draw Carothers argues that many states get stuck at the transi- on Hallin and Mancini’s (2004) four dimension compar- tion stage and never arrive at consolidated democracy ative framework of media systems. First, journalistic pro- (2002). To account for the range of routes, Schneider fessionalism denotes the norms that constitute the me- and Schmitter (2004) refer to liberalization, transition dia’s professional identity and that inform the standards and consolidation as ‘components’ rather than phases of news reporting. Second, political parallelism describes of democratization. the ties that the media develop with political interest The distinction between the three components of de- groups within society. Third, the media are strongly influ- mocratization is a useful conceptual tool for media schol- enced by the state, a relationship that involves elements ars. As Katrin Voltmer theorizes that, depending on the of both dependency and enmity. Finally, the media are particular component of the democratization process— embedded within economic markets. In borrowing from liberalization, transition or consolidation—the media af- Hallin and Mancini I hope to enhance the relevance of fect the course of events in different ways (2013, p. 72). my study to comparativists working to refine typologies At the same time, changes in political circumstances al- of media systems, as well as to add to the scholarly de- ter the constraints and opportunities for journalists and bate on the role of the media in democratization. My the- other media professionals. This article looks at the Myan- oretical approach is set out in Table 1. mar’s media as the country liberalized between 2010 and As Table 1 shows, Voltmer’s three liberalization mod- 2015.