It was a huge disappointment that the lower house of Myanmar's parliament approved a new Printing and Publishing Enterprise Bill last week without heeding the valuable suggestions from local journalists and relevant associations. After nearly two years of intense debate inside the country and an effort to seek outside opinion, the bill is a sham.
Journalists in Myanmar want a better environment for their reporting and have been urging the government to provide this. Since the government's economic and political reforms began, journalists have enjoyed unprecedented freedom compared to the past, but there are still numerous restrictions. And oppressive measures are sometimes employed to prevent journalists from reporting the truth without fear. With the government retaining many provisions to reprimand journalists, the prospects of a truly liberal media and guaranteed freedom of speech in Myanmar are still a long way from being realised.
In more ways than one, the new media law strongly demonstrates that old habits die hard in the entrenched circles of power. Restrictive provisions in the law could easily creep into the everyday lives of journalists from now on. Because of the new law, being a journalist in Myanmar is as risky as it has always been.
Over the past two years, media development has been among the most exciting prospects for the country as it undergoes a transition, and young people are being attracted to the industry. The number of journalists has risen from just a few hundred in 2010 to nearly 2,000 this year. That number is expected to grow further.
All along, the authorities in Nay Pyi Taw have played the right tune for the local and international communities. The Ministry of Information has had a pivotal part in facilitating local and foreign experts to meet in the country. It has asked them to exchange views and made a long list of recommendations. Repeatedly, the ministry has given assurances that Myanmar wants to be a country with a free press - and that frank recommendations are needed.
Before the law was passed there was real hope that media freedom in Myanmar could be a shining example for Asean. As is well known, the media scene in the regional grouping is uneven, reflecting the political culture of each member nation. The latest survey by New York-based Freedom House says, in fact, that there is no press freedom in Southeast Asia, that its member-countries are only partly free or not free at all. This year almost all media freedom organisations have given Myanmar's reform efforts the thumbs up. The reforms have generated much goodwill towards the once-isolated country, and it was hoped that its newly freed media could serve as a model for any country emerging from dictatorship or an oppressive regime.
However, the experience between the media and the country's Ministry of Information over the drafting of the new law has taught a valuable lesson - that the current powers-that-be cannot be trusted at all because the public's interest is not on their agenda. From now on, other reform efforts inside Myanmar could also face similar obstacles. The government will continue to say one thing with much goodwill and a friendly face. Then the parliament, which is controlled by the military brass and their cronies, will approve something different. That is Myanmar's "disciplined democracy", which is now displaying its true colours.
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