Myanmar invites foreign media coverage of junta-run election

International media will be allowed to cover Myanmar’s upcoming junta-run polls, the election authorities said on Oct 29, an apparent invitation for foreign press to scrutinise the deeply disputed vote.

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Myanmar’s military 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 on Dec 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.