Last month, Oxford Dictionaries announced that their Word of the Year for 2016 was ‘post-truth’, an adjective defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”
The term is certainly an apt one for 2016, especially in regards to this year’s political developments, which includes those right here in Myanmar.
Last week, government officials had announced that a small media team of 13 ‘independent’ journalists that they had selected would be taken on a three-day guided visit to otherwise-prohibited Maungdaw in Rakhine State.
It was revealed that the trip would be entirely arranged by the Ministry of Information, and the team would be accompanied by government officials throughout the journey. The criteria for the selection of journalists was also at the government’s discretion, although it was implied that there would be a mix of both local and foreign reporters.
In fact, in an interview last week, Ministry of Information spokesperson Ye Naing told The Voice that the Ministry had consulted with the Foreign Correspondents Club of Myanmar in selecting which foreign journalists to include.
Well, it turns out that that statement is a prime example of ‘post-truth.’
In a press release that came out today, the Club denounced Ye Naing’s claims that the government had worked with them to select the foreign correspondents. The short release stated, “The Ministry of Information has neither communicated nor consulted with the Foreign Correspondents Club of Myanmar.” Damn.
Of course, the spreading of fake news is a huge issue around the world, including in Myanmar. Still, you just don’t really expect a government spokesperson to blatantly lie on record — unless we’re talking about a certain president-elect — and especially when the other parties involved could easily call them out on it.
Interestingly, if you search for online issues of The Voice, you can access all but Vol.4, Issue 215 that was published on December 17, which also happens to be the issue with Ye Naing’s interview.
And this is just a few weeks after the Myanmar government blasted the Daily Mail for publishing an article falsely claiming that a video depicting the torture of a Cambodian toddler was one of a small Rohingya child being tortured by a Myanmar army official.
Oh, the hypocrisy of it all.
