MYANMAR – On June 13, nine news media based in various regions, including the ethnic regions of Myanmar, cooperated and established a news media organization named Burma Media Consortium – BMC.
The nine media outlets included in BMC are identified as Kachin State-based “The 74 Media”, Shan (North) State-based “Shwe Phee Myay News Agency”, Shan (East and South) State-based “MeKong News”, Chin State-based “Zalan”, Mandalay and Sagaing divisions-based “Mandalay Free Press”, central Myanmar based “Myaelatt Athan”, Rakhine State-based “Western News”, Ayeyawady Division-based “Ayeyawaddy Times” and Tanintharyi Division-based “Tanintharyi Times”.
After the military coup, the armed forces under the atrocious junta council had been severely oppressing the news media and journalists, as well as freedom of expression, the right to access information and the freedom of the press are severely declining. And the long-term sustainability and development of regional news outlets had been threatened. The BMC is said to have been established to resolve those issues by collective solutions.
“The worst media crackdown has occurred in Myanmar since the bloody military coup. Our media agencies had been suffering many hardships such as insecurity, threat and the uncertainty of the future, due to the junta regime’s violence and repression against media workers. In order to overcome these difficulties together, nine state- and division-based news agencies joined together to form the BMC group,” said BMC chairman Mr. Nyan Linn Htet.
BMC members had announced that they shall be doing separate presentations of news and news productions, as well as joint presentations.