Five Years On: The Systematic Dismantling of Myanmar’s Media Freedom
Summary and trends
The first part of this annual report for 2025 discusses events and issues around Myanmar’s news and media environment in the fourth quarter of that year, followed by a review of 2025 as well as a wider look at trends in the context of the fifth anniversary of the military coup of February 2021.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, one journalist was arrested. One journalist was convicted under the Counter-Terrorism Law and sentenced to 10 years in prison, bringing her total prison sentence to 13 years. Seven journalists and media workers were released – six under amnesties declared by the military regime and one after completion of a prison sentence.
The totals of arrests, releases and convictions in 2025 are as follows: Three journalists were arrested, 14 were released and three were convicted under different security-related laws covering terrorism and incitement as well as the broadcasting law.
For Myanmar’s journalists, 2025 brought continued repression of the news media by the military regime. Although the number of arrests of journalists has fallen in the years since the coup, there has been no let-up in the regime’s use of tools of repression, such as prolonged interrogation, surveillance, lawsuits using security laws that entail long imprisonment and the strategic use of amnesties. Releases now typically occur after convicted journalists complete their jail sentences or during politically symbolic days, such as Independence Day or the new year.
The year 2025 also saw journalists feeling the impact of the country’s civil war on their work. Journalists face airstrikes, artillery fire, landmines and targeted attacks. The landmine injury sustained by US journalist Colin McPhee in Chin State in November highlights the lethal risks of reporting in the absence of protection mechanisms.
Beyond this, journalists found themselves facing increased threats from ethnic armed organizations and revolutionary armed forces. Some issued rules to govern how journalists cover the areas they control, while others have abducted and harassed news professionals.
In 2025, one journalist was abducted and detained by the Arakan Army (AA) for over a month and another local journalist was abducted by a local armed group. Two journalists were abducted and arrested by non-military actors, including ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) and People’s Defence Forces (PDFs), during the year.
The year 2025 saw the exiled media facing a major challenge for their survival and sustainability, following the shutdown of grant funding from the US government early in the year and Sweden’s decision to end development assistance to Myanmar in 2026. Funding cuts translate directly into newsroom closures, staff layoffs and reduced coverage. It has also pushed media houses to turn more toward online monetization as a survival strategy, one that brings with it a new set of emerging risks.
Journalists and the media were also affected by the military regime’s restrictions ahead of its tightly controlled national election, which was held in December 2025 and January 2026 and widely condemned by international bodies and independent analysts as neither free nor fair.
Central to the military’s management of the election process was its Law on the Protection of Multiparty Democratic General Elections from Obstruction, Disruption and Destruction, which was enacted in July 202. It was used to criminalize dissent, silence journalists and intimidate artists, activists and citizens.
Five years after the coup, Myanmar journalists have organised themselves into various groups that provide support, carry out advocacy and push for professionalism within their ranks.
At the end of 2025, 31 journalists remained imprisoned. since the coup, at least 216 journalists have been arrested. Eleven journalists have died in custody, during military operations, or under other suspicious circumstances.
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