MRTV also maintains an international service, Myanmar International Television (MITV), and is affiliated with MRTV-4, a channel operated in partnership with the private Forever Group. Another significant outlet, Channel 7, formerly owned by the Forever Group, is now under the purview of the Ministry of Information. These ventures reflect the government’s strategy of co-opting private broadcasting infrastructure while maintaining rigid editorial control.

Media assets

Television: National- MRTV, MRTV Hluttaw, MRTV NRC, MRTV Farmer, MRTV Sport, MITV, Education Channel, MRTV-4, Channel 7; International- Myanmar International Television

Radio: Myanmar Radio

State Media Matrix Typology

State-Controlled (SC)

Ownership and governance

MRTV has been for years wholly owned and operated by the Ministry of Information, functioning de facto as a department within the government apparatus. Although the Broadcasting Law, enacted by the Union Parliament, envisages a pluralistic media ecosystem with space for public service, commercial, and community broadcasters, the envisioned transformation of MRTV into a genuine public broadcaster has stalled entirely. The legal framework theoretically provides the foundation for autonomy, but in practice, MRTV continues to operate as a mouthpiece of the ruling authorities.

This institutional stagnation has worsened following the February 2021 military coup. In the aftermath, MRTV has been repurposed even more aggressively to disseminate state propaganda and suppress dissenting narratives. The junta has used the broadcaster to delegitimize opposition voices, promote military achievements, and justify repressive measures under the guise of national unity and stability.

MRTV’s governance structure consists of a Director General (DG), two Deputy Director Generals, and seven Directors, all of whom sit on the internal Board of Directors. The DG, who also chairs the board, is appointed by the Ministry of Information’s Permanent Secretary, underscoring the broadcaster’s institutional subservience to state authority.

Source of funding and budget

There is no official disclosure of MRTV’s annual budget. According to local media professionals and researchers interviewed in May 2024 and February 2025, the broadcaster continues to rely almost exclusively on state funding. Although MRTV has explored limited commercial advertising as a supplementary revenue stream, such efforts have produced negligible returns and remain tightly regulated. MRTV’s lack of financial transparency is in stark contrast to international standards for public service media.

Editorial independence

Despite public claims of reform and professionalization, MRTV lacks any meaningful editorial autonomy. Its news agenda and programming decisions are directed by Ministry of Information officials, with little to no separation between state interests and journalistic output. As of 2025, MRTV’s content is widely seen by independent observers as indistinguishable from official state communications.

In an apparent effort to project institutional legitimacy, MRTV has adopted a set of internal editorial documents. These include the Broadcasting Guidelines, MPedia – Knowledge Book for MRTV News Reporting, and the Fundamental Code of Broadcasting Ethics and Code of Conduct. While these documents set out basic principles for staff conduct and content regulation, they largely reiterate overlapping instructions and lack enforcement mechanisms. There is no national statute enshrining MRTV’s editorial independence, nor any external oversight body to monitor compliance with ethical standards.

In recent years, propaganda has intensified. MRTV has been increasingly used to promulgate official positions on matters such as the internal security crackdown and the junta’s legitimacy. Independent outlets report heightened use of MRTV to counter dissent narratives and to support military press briefings.

July 2025

NPE oversees the publication of three of Myanmar’s most widely circulated newspapers: Myanma Alinn – founded in 1914, it is the country’s oldest still-running daily; Kyemon (The Mirror) – launched in 1957; and The Global New Light of Myanmar – originally published in 1964 as The Working People’s Daily, rebranded to its current name in the 1990s to align with the junta’s modernization narrative.

In addition to its print portfolio, NPE also operates the Myanmar News Agency (MNA)—the country’s official news wire service. MNA was established in 1962 as the Revolutionary Council News Agency, tasked with centralizing the distribution of state-sanctioned news across the country and to foreign media.

Since 2017, NPE has also managed Myanmar Digital News, an online news portal developed by the private firm Megalink Advanced Technologies. The portal serves as an aggregator of NPE’s print content while also producing digital-native stories aligned with official editorial policies.

Media assets

Publishing: Myanma Alinn, Kyemon, The Global New Light of Myanmar

News agency: Myanmar News Agency (MNA)

News portal: Myanmar Digital News

State Media Matrix Typology

State-Controlled (SC)

Ownership and governance

NPE is wholly owned and operated by the Ministry of Information. The enterprise functions as a government department, with senior leadership—including the Director General—appointed directly by ministerial authorities. There is no independent oversight board or stakeholder representation in the management of the organization. All strategic, editorial, and operational decisions fall within the purview of the ministry.

Source of funding and budget

As of 2025, there is still no publicly available data on NPE’s annual operating budget. However, interviews with local journalists and media analysts conducted in May 2024 and February 2025 indicate that over 80% of NPE’s funding is drawn directly from the state budget. While the Ministry of Information has encouraged its publications to supplement their income through advertising and commercial partnerships, these efforts have been limited in scope and impact.

Despite maintaining national circulation and digital expansion, NPE has not transitioned toward financial sustainability or transparency. It continues to operate in a closed fiscal environment, with no independent audits or budget disclosures made available to the public or press.

Editorial independence

Editorial independence at NPE is nonexistent. Its publications are widely regarded, both domestically and internationally, as unambiguous government mouthpieces. Local journalists interviewed in May 2024 and February 2025 affirm that the organization’s editorial mission is to promote the policies, positions, and narratives of the state.

According to the Ministry of Information, NPE’s core mandate is to “focus on publishing newspapers that are in line with the vision of the Ministry of Information to inform, educate and entertain.” In practice, this means strict adherence to official messaging, suppression of dissenting viewpoints, and amplification of government propaganda, particularly in times of political unrest.

This lack of editorial autonomy has become even more pronounced since the military coup of February 2021. In the years since, NPE publications have been instrumental in framing opposition actors as foreign-backed threats and in sanitizing reports of state violence.

In July 2025, Union Minister for Information Maung Maung Ohn visited NPE’s Yangon offices and urged staff to report with “open eyes and ears,” to remain accurate, and to understand state policies thoroughly. He emphasized the Prime Minister’s high regard for print media as a source of “trustworthy and reliable information.”

Independent media continue struggling amid dramatic reductions in international aid, especially U.S. USAID funding cuts in the first quarter of 2025 that jeopardize non-state outlets. This has accentuated state-backed publications’ dominance in the information space.

As of mid-2025, there is still no statutory framework or external regulatory body that provides safeguards for editorial independence or accountability for ethical violations.

July 2025

Media assets

Television: MWD, MWD Variety, TVM, MWD Education Knowledge and Sports, Channel Light, Golden Land, WAF

Publishing: Myawady Daily, Yanadabon, Ngwetayi, Thutha Alin, Agaza Myingwin

Radio: Thazin FM, Star FM

State Media Matrix Typology

State-Controlled (SC)

Ownership and governance

All military-affiliated media outlets are fully owned and operated by the Tatmadaw. According to interviews conducted with local journalists in May 2024, the military retains absolute control over managerial appointments within these organizations. Decisions regarding leadership, staffing, and editorial direction are made internally by the military hierarchy, without any input from independent bodies or public stakeholders.

Source of funding and budget

There is no publicly disclosed information regarding the annual budget or financial reporting of the MWD network. However, journalists and media experts interviewed for this report in May 2024 confirmed that more than 80% of MWD’s expenditures are covered directly by the Tatmadaw. The remaining funds are believed to come from advertising revenue and commercial services, though such figures are neither verified nor published.

Editorial independence

Editorial autonomy is virtually non-existent across the MWD media network. Outlets consistently follow a top-down editorial line dictated by the military command. Journalists with direct knowledge of internal operations told the Media and Journalism Research Center in May 2024 that editorial content is routinely curated to reflect and reinforce the Tatmadaw’s official narratives and priorities.

There is no statutory framework guaranteeing editorial independence for military-run media. Nor does any form of external regulatory oversight or independent evaluation exist. As such, MWD operates entirely outside the norms of transparency, accountability, or pluralism that are expected of public interest media.

As of mid-2025, Myawady outlets continue to play a pivotal role in disseminating state propaganda amid Myanmar’s ongoing political crisis. Following the widespread arrest and detention of independent journalists since the 2021 coup, the military’s media arms—including MWD TV and Myawady Daily—have filled the information vacuum with messaging that tightly aligns with the junta’s political and military agenda.

Despite international sanctions and increased scrutiny, MWD’s operations remain largely unaffected in terms of broadcast reach, though audience trust has reportedly declined, particularly among urban and digitally connected demographics. Nevertheless, with the internet regularly throttled or shut down in conflict-prone areas, MWD remains a key instrument of information control in Myanmar’s hybrid battlefield of propaganda and perception.

July 2025