Myanmar: junta feigns openness, tightens control of election coverage

The Myanmar military regime has announced that the media – which it continues to relentlessly stifle – will be “authorised” to cover the general elections scheduled to take place between December 2025 and January 2026. Behind this reform, allegedly a measure of openness, the junta is in fact preparing the conditions to control coverage of a vote it has already begun to lock down.

The announcement from the junta — a regime considered one of the 2025 Press Freedom Predators — that both local and foreign outlets will be permitted to cover the elections comes with strict conditions, as military authorities specified that official accreditation must be obtained. Moreover, in July 2025, the junta adopted a law on election interference that provides for heavy prison sentences for anyone who disseminates information intended to “destroy a part of the electoral process” – a term deliberately left vague. The secretary of the Independent Press Council Myanmar (IPCM), Toe Zaw Latt, denounced this law as a text designed to “intimidate journalists, to make them afraid to criticise or report freely.”

Since the February 2021 coup, independent journalism has almost disappeared from Myanmar under the regime’s violent crackdown. Around 60 media outlets have been forced into exile, mainly to Thailand, according to RSF figures. To date, 51 journalists remain behind bars because of their work. Most foreign media have also withdrawn from the country: Agence France-Presse (AFP) is now the only international news agency with a Myanmar bureau.