Fifth Annual Ethnic Media Conference Convenes in Loikaw: Aung Myint Thu, Attending - 2017

One of Rakhine Ethnic Journalist- Aung Myint Thu- 2017

5th Ethnic Media Conference in Karenni (Kayah), Loikaw

An ethnic media conference eyeing the development of an official ethnic media policy convened in Karenni (Kayah) State’s capital of Loikaw on Monday, June 26- 2017. I was one of the participant, Journalist , who was mainly working for Thazinpankhinen News Journal, where I wrote voluntarily but professional. As I stated only in 2017, writing for journal, I was invited here. However, in 2018 this year, I became the main supporter, supporting most of journalists/reports near me . Thus, I did not attend the 6th Ethnic Media Conference as a journalist.

In 2017, During the three-day event, nearly 100 journalists from across the country discussed ethnic media policy frameworks and challenges, as well as the promotion of the rights of women journalists and the role of ethnic media in Myanmar’s political transition, peace process, and the building of a federal Union.

In his opening address, Nai Kasauh Mon, executive director of ethnic media coalition Burma News International (BNI) and chief editor of the Mon News Agency, urged the participants to provide input on a future ethnic media policy as well as the sustainability of their media outlets, which have a smaller circulation than larger media in central Myanmar.

At this fifth session, we discussed the formulation of a more comprehensive and coherent ethnic media policy. But such a policy did not immediately be able to be drafted at this conference.

The ethnic media conference is in its fifth year. Previous sessions were respectively held in Mon State’s Moulmein (Mawlamyine), Shan State’s Taunggyi, Chin State’s Hakha and Arakan State’s Mrauk U since 2013. Those conferences focused on networking between ethnic media outlets and their role in the peace process.

The government’s information minister U Pe Myint also addressed the ethnic media conference, saying that media would develop alongside Myanmar’s political transition. He admitted that he was aware that his ministry needed to do much more to promote the development of ethnic media. He said "We have plans for the development of ethnic news media and literature. We have an obligation to implement these two things. Therefore we broadcast news on TV and radio in ethnic languages, and we also publish supplements in ethnic languages in newspapers. But we haven’t done enough. We know that much remains to be done,”

Security was one of the concerns for journalists in ethnic areas in 2017. As there were many armed groups in Kayah State, tensions between the Tatmadaw and ethnic armed organizations remain. So it was quite sensitive for reporters to gather news in the areas controlled by either group. [The authorities] designate areas as ‘black’ and ‘brown’ depending on security levels , a reference to zones controlled by ethnic armed organizations—designated as black—and areas of contested control between the Myanmar Army and ethnic armed groups—brown. It was a challenge for the security of reporters to gather news in those areas.

As a panelist at the conference, he said dignified portrayals of disabled persons, rather than those that describe them as pitiful, would contribute to changes in policies that affect them. We hoped that ethnic media, in speaking out about the needs of vulnerable people, would also present the plight of disabled persons from a perspective informed by human rights. When [media] present the issues of disabled people, we should not present them from traditional point of views, but from the point of view of fundamental rights in modern times.

At the conference, I experienced the local Rakhine media was really in bad situation. When I asked some hardworking people to support Rakhine media, according to them, it was not possible since we'd been bias journalist. in 2018, it is more worse because the well-known media agencies are stopping- they have become very weak. Well-Known media agencies like Narinjara Agency and Development Media Group (DMG) are very weak since there are not international organizations supporting.

Posted- 1-July-2018

Aung Myint Thu