Myanmar Media: Discussion On Broadcasting Law

The legislators, government officials and experts from local and abroad discussed Broadcasting Law, Public Service Media (PSM), Public Service Broadcasting (PSB), Private Broadcasting and frequency wave sharing issues at a two-day conference in Yangon.

The Broadcasting Bill has been approved by the previous parliament but the bylaws are yet to be drafted. Critics say the bill must be considered and amended if necessary.

[Soundbite] MEMBER, NLD CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMITTEE, MONYWA AUNG SHIN: "The most important thing is the license issuing system, like how it should be an effective and fair license issuing system for media broadcasting. Not only NLD but the parliament and media persons need to achieve these things quickly."

Television and Broadcast Media law was passed by the parliament in August, 2015. The Public Service Media (PSM) Law was submitted but was later withdrawn.

[Soundbite] DIRECTOR, DVB, AYE CHAN NAING: "The Public Service Media (PSM) Law was submitted by Ministry of Information last year which mainly deals with transformation of government media for both broadcast and print media. PSM Law has been withdrawn from the parliament last year, we don’t know when will submit it again. We see a lot of weakness in the law."

MRTV Deputy Director Win Kyi said they have made content, institutional and technical reforms to be ready for the Public Service Broadcasting (PSB). Capacity building for the staff has also been conducted.

[Soundbite] DY. DG, MRTV, WIN KYI: "We have seen the political will during these days that all want for the media development. As the words of MonYwa Aung Shin, “the incoming government would emphasize the freedom of press”, it is a kind of encouragement for us. So, if we show the public by promoting our ability based on that chance, we believe that it will become a success."

The review which resulted from this conference will be submitted to the legislators in the parliament.
 
 

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