YANGON: International media will be allowed to cover Myanmar’s upcoming junta-run polls, election authorities said Wednesday, an apparent invitation for foreign press to scrutinize the deeply disputed vote.
Myanmar’s junta has “shattered the media landscape” with censorship and intimidation since staging a 2021 coup that sparked a civil war, Reporters Without Borders says.
Local journalists bore the brunt of the crackdown while foreign media quit the country en masse, with AFP the only international news agency maintaining a full in-country bureau.
The junta has touted polls starting December 28 as a path to peace, but the vote will be boycotted in rebel-held enclaves and monitors are dismissing it as a ploy to disguise continuing military rule.
The junta-stacked Union Election Commission said in a statement “both local and international news media will be allowed to cover” the election, due to unfold in phases over a matter of weeks.
