Reporting by Myanmar-based media during the first two weeks of the conflict in Rakhine State relied too heavily on government sources for their coverage to be considered accurate or objective, a recent report by the Myanmar Institute for Democracy claims.
The report surveyed the use of news sources by 12 Myanmar-based media outlets from the beginning of the conflict on August 25 until September 8. It was produced with the aim of improving the credibility and quality of local news by encouraging independent verification and the use of a diversity of news sources.
The 12 outlets included in the report were MRTV, Myawaddy TV, DVB, Up to Date, Voice of Myanmar, BBC Burmese, Myanmar Ahlin, Eleven, The Voice, 7Day, Irrawaddy, and Mizzima. Of these, four (MRTV, Myawaddy TV, Voice of Myanmar, and Myanmar Ahlin) are state-owned.
“Media coverage of domestic media, both state-owned and privately-owned, used the news released by the Information Committee, the State Counsellor’s office and the Office of Commander in Chief as major sources during the initial stage of the conflict,” the report said. “Almost all the domestic media – state media as well as private ones – were not able to reach the conflict area and access the news sources.”
The most striking omission from local coverage of the conflict were the voices of Rohingya Muslims, over 500,000 of whom were displaced from the country by military clearance operations. Only six of the 12 outlets cited Rohingya sources, and only in two – DVB and Irrawaddy – did Rohingya sources account for more than one percent of their overall sources.
Sources in Bangladesh, where the largest Rohingya population in the world now lives in refugee camps, were even more absent from local reporting on the crisis. Only BBC Burmese, Irrawaddy, Mizzima, and Eleven included Bangladesh-based sources.
“The coverage in domestic media (both state and privately owned) showed that they could not get access to both sides of the communities in the conflict,” the MID report said. “Not being able to report the news in a timely manner, lack of balance in the news sources, and having to rely mainly on government news sources, make the accuracy and objectivity of the news reported by domestic media questionable.
Unsurprisingly, government sources accounted for more than 50 percent sources in state-owned outlets like MRTV, Voice of Myanmar, and Myanmar Ahlin. Slightly more surprisingly was the finding that government sources also made up more than 30 percent of citations in private outlets like Up to Date and Mizzima.
International organizations accounted for no more than eight percent of the sources for each of the outlets included in the survey.
The authors of the report wrote: “We recommend that the government help remove the barriers the media have been facing in trying to present the news in a timely manner and accessing diverse news sources…Only with independence, freedom and access to different information sources, the media can be perceived as independent and balanced, which would further lend credibility to the news coverage.”
The full MID report is available here.
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