A year after Myanmar’s armed forces took power in a military coup, the country’s media environment has undergone a dramatic change with restrictions on press freedom and protesters seeking alternative ways to share news.
The military’s crackdown on independent media has been accompanied by an increase in propaganda, with state media outlets harnessed to amplify the military’s voice and attack its enemies.
These restrictions have not deterred Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement, however, which has adopted alternative media formats to challenge the military and spread information.
As soon as it seized control, the armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, began to exert control over the flow of information.
Television networks largely became inaccessible on February 1, 2021, the day of the coup. Only the military-owned Myawaddy TV station and state-owned Myanmar Radio and Television broadcast news domestically in the days that followed.
