Influential people that are intolerant of religious, ethnic, gender and sexual diversity have made hateful speech in Myanmar. Hateful speech has included everything from offensive and discriminatory remarks to incitement to violence and ethnic cleansing. People making hateful speech are unaccountable. The government has not
The right to information is included in the Sustainable Development Goals for each country to aim for to achieve development. The right to information includes a number of principles: Presumption of disclosure – the government must disclose everything except in very limited exceptions Proactive disclosure
Myanmar is one of the most corrupt countries in the world with one of the most unaccountable governments. This is partly because the government is very secretive and many public officials believe that the information they keep on budgets, policies, and projects is secret. Myanmar
Myanmar has a number of government-controlled broadcasters on radio and television, including channels run by the Ministry of Information and by the military. The government needs to end all government-controlled broadcasters and create a public service broadcaster. The USDP government proposed a Public Service Media
The Official Secrets Act was created by the British colonial government in 1923 to criminalise the sharing of almost any kind of information held by the government. The government can say any information is an official secret and is likely to hide corruption and wrongdoing
The Electronic Transactions Law was created under the military government to regulate the internet and control internet users using harsh criminal punishments. The Electronic Transactions Law includes illegitimate criminal punishments for freedom of expression which are unacceptable in a democracy. The Electronic Transactions Law was
The Broadcasting Law was superficially amended in 2018. The amendment failed to protect freedom of expression, and reflects the government’s lack of open consultation. Download as PDF >> The Amendment made just two substantive changes to the legal framework for the broadcast media. One change
The Printing and Publishing Law is a licensing law for the print media. Democracies do not licence the print media because licences are easily abused by governments. Printers and publishers are ordinary businesses and should be regulated under ordinary business laws. There is also no
UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, Siracusa Principles, Principle B(iv) defines when a restriction can be said to serve national security:National security may be invoked to justify measures limiting certain rights only when they are taken to protect the existence of
When we use the term “incitement”, we are talking about speech or other acts of expression that advocate or promote hatred in a way that is intended to encourage individuals to commit acts of violence or other human rights violations against a protected group.There are