The annual Dili Dialogue Forum made a monumental blunder last month when it gave the floor to a Myanmar military junta stooge.

During the annual regional media forum held from 25-26 August in Dili, Timor-Leste, Aye Chan, a member of the junta’s Myanmar Press Council (MPC), delivered a presentation entitled “Media Challenges in Myanmar.” 

The presentation should have been embarrassing for the participants of the forum – though their response, apart from polite clapping at the end, remains unclear.

Aye Chan offered what he said were “important corrections” to the “litany of distorted reporting” on the country, claiming “the whole world has been bombarded with so many fake news.”

At a time when Myanmar is in the midst of crisis and independent media are facing threat to life and limb reporting, this serious gaff by the organizers of giving this man the stage has many critics up in arms – and filing a petition.

The respected forum, supported by UNESCO, has been a venue to discuss regional media issues since 2017, in honour of the first Timor-Leste Press Council that was established one year earlier. 

Unfortunately, the forum provided this Myanmar junta supporter with the opportunity to make “fake news” points on a level that should have been seen as embarrassing by the audience.

Aye Chan is known as a businessman well connected with the Myanmar junta as he is the son of retired vice admiral Soe Thein, who played a significant role during General Thein Sein’s regime. He owns a print publication called “Myanmar Insider” which used to focus mainly on business and trade news.  

He spoke on the topic of Myanmar's media challenges, claiming there was serious fraud committed by the National League for Democracy (NLD) during the 2020 elections and that the military coup was a legitimate response.

Aye Chan claimed that Myanmar’s independent media, “made illegal” by the junta, was a “tool for terrorists” and that the NLD was the “party of the corrupt”.

He failed to mention that state media does not present the truth, merely propaganda, and that the vast majority of people oppose the military.

Lauding the progress of the junta, he even went as far as saying “terrorism is down and tourism is up”. He claimed the economy was growing at three to five per cent annually, when it is actually running at minus 13 per cent growth compared to 2019. Households are queuing for cooking oil, rice, fuel and water, with 40 per cent living below the poverty line. He failed to mention the junta had burnt 30,000 homes, killed over 2,000 people, including children, and imprisoned 14,000 people. Ordinary people fear arrest, being shot, or being injured or killed in bombings. 

The fight is not about a choice between the NLD and the junta – it involves the whole population being against military rule. 
The presentation was notable in what was not said as well as the lies he presented as truth.

Aye Chan did not mention the dire state of press freedom in the country or the difficulties the independent media faced after the coup. He merely provided the military government's propaganda messages. 
 
He failed to mention during his presentation that 23 of the 27 elected members of the MPC stepped down simultaneously in February 2021 because they refused to cooperate with the Military Council. Such resignations indicate that the MPC can no longer perform its duties and responsibilities to protect press freedom, uphold media ethics and ensure the safety of fellow journalists.
 
More than 140 journalists have been arrested since the military coup. Fifty-seven journalists remain in detention. Eleven independent media groups have had their publishing licenses revoked. Four journalists have been killed by torture and oppression at the hands of the junta. Among them, an independent photojournalist died in custody, and an ethnic journalist from Chin State was arrested and eventually killed along with other civilians.

The incumbent MPC created by the Myanmar military government obscures accurate information about the different states and regions of the country and the mental and physical human rights violations faced by the people of Myanmar. 

In an era where diligence is needed to avoid “fake news,” the Dili Dialogue Forum organizers owe the audience – and Myanmar’s independent media – an apology.