mido (myanmar ict for development organization)...

MIDO (Myanmar ICT for Development Organization) 1


Myanmar ICT for Development Organization

No (20), Hteetan 1st Street, Kyimyindai Township, Yangon, MYANMAR

www.myanmarido.org

Myanmar Internet Freedom Forum Report3

Myanmar Internet Fredom Forum Report

MIDO (Myanmar ICT for Development Organization) 4i n d e x

Foreword from the Executive Director

1 Myanmar ICT for Development Organization 2

2Current Position of Internet Freedom in Myanmar(a) Required ICT infrastructure for internet freedom(b) Freedom of expression and access to information online(c) Amending the law for internet freedom

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3 Why is the internet freedom important in Myanmar? 7

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The Internet Freedom Forum (1) Internet Governance, Internet Freedom and the Current Situation in Myanmar(2) Internet Access(3) Responsibility of the State(4) Global Nature of the Internet and Local Laws(5) Securing fundamental Human Rights on the Internet

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5Internet Density in Myanmar Based on the Surveys(A) The Age and Education Level of the Internet Users(B) Electricity Availability in Myanmar(C) Computer Trainings and Internet Cafe

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6 The Telecommunications Law (Draft) 18

7 Studying the Telecommunication Sector in View of Human Rights

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8 Suggestions from MIDO 19

9 Internet Freedom in Myanmar and Views from Experts 22Suggestions to the Government, Media and Corporations for Internet Freedom in Myanmar - Suggestions to the Government - Suggestions to the Corporations - Suggestions to the Media

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Everybody wants and deserves freedom. We must oppose any threats that will infringe our freedom. We have given many thoughts to the debate on whether freedom should be limited or not. While there is no reason to reject the statement that says freedom should have limitations, the issue on who will be doing the limita-tions gives us many thoughts. As we know, we believe that the rules and regulations, laws, standards, and restrictions are not the issue but who issues, enacts, and sets them with whose assent is the issue. A group of people cannot limit the freedom of a society. A group of people cannot be issu-ing orders and directions against a society, telling them not to do this and not to do that. The soci-ety should accept the orders with their own rules and regulations if restrictions are necessary for the benefit of the society, public wel-fare, and security for the children, the weak, minorities, and women. Regarding internet freedom, we have the right to freedom of ex-pression, freedom of searching, and freedom of sharingas long as

we do not harm other’s welfare. The society must also accept these rights together with responsibility. Not only restrictions, strict laws, hu-man rights violations, but also ex-pression without responsibility, hate speech, and freedom to insult each other are also threats that harm freedom of expression. If we want to see freedom in every place, we must fight the extreme of restric-tion and be aware of the extreme of freedom. Please open the inter-net lines. Please give us the high speed internet connection,which is up to world standard. Please pro-vide nationwide internet access. We, the public, are also ready to make a commitment to help build a responsible society.

Foreword from the Executive Director


Myanmar ICT for Development Organization is a Yangon-based ICT for Development organization and was established in February 2012.Myanmar ICT for Development Organization (MIDO) is an organization that has been using ICT technology as a tool for the development of the country.

The organization aims to (a) Narrow down digital gap in the entire Myanmar (b) Use ICT technology for the country’s development and uplift hu-man rights (c) Encourage the emergence of good internet policies for ICT us-ers.

Based on the above aims, MIDO has been travelling to rural ar-eas to shareICT technology. The organization has been travelling across all states and regions and holding workshops on capacity building for information and technology to empower the public to use ICT technol-ogy to obtain information for their businesses, get prior information such as weather forecast, acquire knowledge, use ICT technology for regional development and narrow down digital gap in Myanmar.

Myanmar ICT for Development Organization


Moreover, MIDO has been encouraging the emergence of Telecom-munications Law, which can fully protect the internet and mobile users in Myanmar in accord with human rights andfaster development of informa-tion and technology.

The organization has given special priority for the submission of proposals to respective organizations for the emergence of good internet policies and internet freedom in Myanmar.

Furthermore, MIDO has been sharing technologies to social organi-zations and political parties in order for them to effectively use social net-working websites to obtain information and distribute information for their organizations to the public without any discrimination in favor of a party or an organization. MIDO team believes that ICT development plays a vital role in the country’s development.

Thus, MIDO has been encouraging all level of people in Myanmar to obtain knowledge about technology and for all Myanmar citizens who use ICT technology to receive full human rights.

Since MIDO was established, it has opened 24 ICT training centers all over Myanmar and shared ICT knowledge to over 600 trainees.

MIDO (Myanmar ICT for Development Organization) 4Current Position of Internet Freedom in Myanmar

Local websites, interna-tional news websites, blog websites, and social net-working websites, which were banned by the former military government, have been opened since the cur-rent administration took of-fice after the 2010 Election. This is a significant change for internet freedom during the current administration. However, the opportunity to browse the once-restricted websites freely does not mean we have full internet freedom.


(a) Required ICT infrastructure for internet freedom In implementing internet free-dom, to be able to use the internet freely is one of the basic require-ments as well as providing low-cost internet to the users. Infrastructures are essential for the ICT sectorto have low-cost internet.According to the Electricity Connectivity and Con-sumption in Some Asian Nations re-port released by the World Bank in 2009, only 13 percent of the popula-tion in Myanmar has access to elec-tricity. Lack of sufficient electricity is one of the hindrances for ICT devel-opment in Myanmar. Also, providing low-cost internet for the users and increasing the existing international fiber optic cables to have faster in-

ternet connection are necessary for ICT development.

(b) Freedom of expression and ac-cess to information online We need to have freedom of expression and freedom of access to information on the internet. So, laws that fully protect internet us-ers need to be enacted.HlaHla Win from Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), NgweSoe Linn, Win Maw, Si Thu Zeya and his father U Zeya, freelance reporter Thant Zin Aung and ZawThetHtwe and blogger Nay Phone Latt had been imprisoned with laws like the Electronic Trans-actions Act, which was enacted by the State Peace and Development Council in 2004. This Electronic

MIDO (Myanmar ICT for Development Organization) 6Transactions Act still exists in Myan-mar even now. The internet freedom in Myanmar will be on par with inter-national standard only after abolish-ing or amending such kind of laws that threaten freedom of expression and freedom of access to informa-tion on the internet.

(c) Amending the law for internet freedom The internet users in Myan-mar are now using the internet amid suspicions on whether or not the government is illegally monitoring them due to weaknesses in laws for protecting the internet users. Laws like the Electronic Transactions Act, which has been used by the previ-ous government to oppress internet users and provisions that threaten the freedom of the users in the 1996 Computer Science Development Acthave not been amended yet so the internet freedom in Myanmar is still at a worrying stage. Thus, laws like the Cyber Law that protects the rights of the internet users are need-ed to be drafted if necessary.


The world has already wit-nessed many precedents of the pos-itive political effects made by the internet technology. The first and second industrial revolutions directly affected the economy before affect-ing the politics. During the IT transi-tion period, which has been regard-ed by experts as the third industrial revolution, we can see that it has direct effects on the politics, social and education sectors. We can con-clude that this is a special charac-teristic of IT, which is different from the previous revolutions. The media system,which has strong effects as one can immediately find out the public views and public reaction to a government policy,has not been found in any other era except the current internet world. Internet free-dom is 100 percent essential for both the government and the public in Myanmar, which is movingthrough a transition era.

The present era has been set as the knowledge age/knowledge society by the Education Forum held by the UNESCO. In the past, only the balance of trade and balance of payment have been measured in the

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “everyone has the right to free-dom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opin-ions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regard-less of frontiers”. It is vital for inter-net users to receive thisbasic human right.It is also very important for the internet users to learn from the in-ternet and have access to all the changes that are happening around the world in time with freedom and transparency.

Nowadays, internet access is one of the basic human rights in the world. Myanmar citizens also de-serve to experience this right along with the rest of the world. The es-sence of the internet technology and social networking is that they can give many learning benefits to all the human beings. Also, the internet us-ers need to be able to freely share their economic and political views with other users. The current world is on the third wave of globalization. It is swimming towards an open so-ciety.

Why is the internet freedom important in Myanmar?

MIDO (Myanmar ICT for Development Organization) 8state function scale. Nowadays, the balance of technology and balance of knowledge also need to be added in the measurement. The search for knowledge on the internet becomes broader as the situation changes. One of the definitions of knowledge is sharing the experiences. Issues that have been solved according to the former system and the problems faced in the past have been saved on webpages and shared with oth-ers. The role of education in the 21st century has changed to knowledge sharing after digitizing. It seems to have shifted to a knowledge sharing system from the social networking websites on the internet. Thus, ICT has become the vein for the educa-tion sector.

Besides, if one looks at the economic shift in other countries, it has shifted from industrial econo-my to service economy. Information Technology (IT) is the main driving force for service economy. So, the use of IT, which is a tool for hav-ing a fair competition in the world’s economy, is essential for our coun-try that is full of weaknesses on all sides. Thus, a country, which has restricted internet freedom, will face negative impacts on its future devel-

opment one way or another.Now, Myanmar has taken the role of ASEAN chairmanship and the ICT sector has been highlighted in the ASEAN Masterplan 2015. It is es-sential to have good and fair ICT infrastructure as well as establish-ing trust-building between the gov-ernment and the economic societ-ies in order to achieve this goal. Drafting good by-laws is one of the basic factors to reach these levels. If these by-laws restrict freedom of expression, there will be lesser trust between the government and the us-ers. The best thing is to accept and follow the good internet policies of the regional countries and cooperate with them in order to have economic development and competitions. Such kind of situation will happen only when the harshly restricted laws like the Electronic Transactions Act are amended or redrafted.

Thus, internet freedom is the vein for the rapid development in-all sectors of economy, education, and politics for Myanmar, which is moving towards reforms and devel-opment.

Myanmar Internet Freedom Forum Report9The Internet Freedom Forum

Myanmar ICT for Develop-ment Organization hosted the In-ternet Freedom Forum on June 1, 2013 with multi-stakeholders to have rapid development of internet free-dom in Myanmar after winning the Freedom House-sponsored Incubator Challenge project.

During the Forum, MIDO se-lected five topics based on the fac-tors for promoting internet freedom in Myanmar and invited experts from various fields to participate in the panel discussions. Sub-topics were later selected after the discussions to invite participations and sugges-tions from the attendees at the In-ternet Freedom Forum.

U Thaung Tin, Deputy Minis-ter of Communications and Informa-tion Technology, attended the Forum and delivered a speech. During his speech, Deputy Minister U Thaung Tin said “The government alone cannot do it in order to have in-ternet freedom and society that we have expected. The govern-ment has rules and regulations and limitations. We have to implement within these limitations. We want to

MIDO (Myanmar ICT for Development Organization) 10suggest everyone that the govern-ment will do its best as much as it can…..Another important thing is that the role of civil society which represents the needs of the citi-zens is very important when under-taking innovative ideas and charity issues on the international level as we have to work within the rules and regulations and limitations.” His speech was very encouraging for in-ternet freedom in Myanmar.

(1) Internet Governance, Internet Freedom and the Current Situation in Myanmar

U Jimmy (88 Generation) and U Nay Phone Latt (MIDO) led the panel discussion on Internet Gov-ernance, Internet Freedom and the Current Situation in Myanmar and U Thaung Su Nyein (Secretary, Myan-mar Computer Pro-fessionals Associa-tion) acted as the moderator. Free-dom House sent a video message and participated in this

panel discussion.

The panelistsfirstlydiscussed about the great importance of es-tablishing the required infrastructure for the rapid emergence of internet-governance in Myanmar and while the government urgently needs to establish important infrastructures like electricity, it is also important for the private sectors to establish the infrastructures by taking advantages of different regions (for example, so-lar system, hydroelectricity) with their own initatives.

Secondly, the panelists dis-cussed that the government, the Hluttaw, and IT experts need to co-

Myanmar Internet Freedom Forum Report11operate in drafting laws while avoid-ing too much restrictions and laxity and harshly restricted laws thatcan threaten the open infrastructures which are the nature of the inter-net.

Thirdly, the panelists discussed about enabling the economic, the government’s tasks and the educa-tion sectors to use more IT technol-ogy.

At present, Myanmar has more internet freedom than during the ad-ministration of the military govern-ment because the internet users can freely surf the websites that were once banned and there is more freedom of expression than before. However, unwanted provisions in the laws like the Electronic Transactions Act, which are incompatible with in-ternational standards, need to be amended.

(2) Internet Access

U Min SweHlaing (Vice Presi-dent from REDLINK Communication), U Zeya Thu (The Voice Journal), and U Ye Tun Aung (MyanSar) led the panel discussion for this topic and U Thaung Su Nyein (Secretary,

Myanmar Computer Professionals Association) continued to act as the moderator.

At present, Myanmar still has limitations for internet access and one of the difficulties in getting in-ternet access is the monopoly of Myanmar Posts and Telecommuni-cation. Due to the monopoly, MPT has control over the market and the users to have face lack of choices and high prices. Private sectors and multi-stakeholders need to be more involved and work towards enacting laws for ICT development. Myanmar only has a teledensity of over 5.5 million, which is lower than other countries so it still has low access to the internet.

High cost and lack of Myan-mar contents on the internet are the main hindrances for getting inter-net access in Myanmar. Myanmar needs to cooperate with respective organizations to reduce the internet traffic and establish content servers like YouTube to have faster connec-tions.

MIDO (Myanmar ICT for Development Organization) 12(3) Responsibility of the State

U Zaw Min Oo (MCF), Daw Pandora (Singapore IP Office), U Nay Phone Latt (MIDO) led the dis-cussion for this topic and Ma Tin MyatHtet acted as the moderator. U Zaw Min Oo started the discus-sion by sharing his views for the USF (Universal Service Fund) mentioned by the Deputy Minister. The USF (Univer-sal Service Fund) has been used in the past for the frontier regions that are behind development. This fund has changed its form and it is also used for ICT development and education sectors. He said Myan-mar needs to draft a precise master plan on how the fund will be used, in which area it will used and how much of it will be used. Besides this plan, the government also needs to implement a broadband master plan for the country’s development. The government needs to implement an

ICT master plan for enacting laws to protect internet users and e-com-merce businesses, which will also be developed in the future, and protect against cybercrimes. The government certainly needs to implement e-gov-ernment system if it wants to carry out clean government and good gov-

ernance. The government’s working processes will become wider and it will have more control over briberies so the government needs to bravely make implementations.

When the government is en-acting laws or the Hluttaw is setting down the principles, a clean chan-

Myanmar Internet Freedom Forum Report13nel should be established to receive opinions from the public. Only then, there will be fair laws that are draft-ed with the public’s participation and it will be easier for the government in enforcing Rule of Law.

In the education sector, ICT technology has been included as a compulsory subject in schools and universities in the international coun-tries due to global changes. So, an ICT in Education master plan should be included and implemented from formal education system to be able to catch up with the international ed-ucation system.When adopting these projects, public discussions should be made so that all the stakeholders can participate in the projects.

(4) Global Nature of the Internet and Local Laws

U Min Oo (MCF Legal Com-mittee), U KhinMaungNyo (Econom-ics), U EiMaung (Fairway Web), and Mr. Arthit (Thai Netizen Network) led the discussion for this topic and U ZawHtut (Myanmar Computer Indus-trial Association) acted as the mod-erator.

On this topic, the panelists discussed in detail of the existing laws that are practiced in the ICT sector in Myanmar and the advan-tages and disadvantages of these laws and laws that are related to the internet users.

The 1885 Myanmar Telegraph Act, the 1934 Myanmar Wireless Telegraph Act, the 1996 Computer Science Development Act and the 2004 Electronic Transactions Act are the existing laws for the ICT

MIDO (Myanmar ICT for Development Organization) 14industry in Myanmar. The Telecom-municationsDraft Law has also been published in the state-owned news-papers in 2012. According to the Telecommunications Draft Law, the 1885 Myanmar Telegraph Law and the 1934 Myanmar Wireless Tele-graph Law will be abolished after this law has been enacted.

U EiMaung (Fairway Web), one of the panelists, said that the 1996 Computer Science Develop-ment Act and the 2004 Electronic Transactions Actinclude provisions that are harmful for computer end users.

Article 34 of the Computer Science Development Act states that anyone who illegally establishes a computer network or connects to a network can be punished with impris-onment term from 7 to 15 years.Article 33 of the Electronic Transac-tion Act states that whoever com-mits any of the following acts can be punished with imprisonment term from 7 to 15 years:

(a) doing any act detrimental to the security of the State or prevalence of law and order or community peace and tranquility or national solidarity

or national economy or national cul-ture.

(b) receiving or sending and distrib-uting any information relating to se-crets of the security of the State or prevalence of law and order or com-munity peace and tranquility or na-tional solidarity or national economy or national culture.

The provisions included in these laws appear to be general and there are no specific definitions for these terms. Thus, the internet users are facing potential and very danger-ous situations in breaching the law.So, the panelists discussed that laws like Anti Cybercrime to take action against criminals who break the law using computer technology need to be enacted and separate laws should be enacted for the ICT industry.U Min Oo (MCF), one of the panel-ists, discussed that he did not want penalties to be included in the Tele-communications Law. He added that provisions on the submission of evi-dence to the court in case of cyber-crimes also need to be included in the Law.

Myanmar Internet Freedom Forum Report15(5) Securing fundamental Human Rights on the Internet

U Nay Tun (Digital alterna-tives) and Mr. Arthit (Thai Netizen Network) led the discussion for this topic and Miss Chan MyaeKhine (Global Voices) participated as a re-mote panelist and Ma HtaikeHtaike Aung (MIDO) acted as the modera-tor.

Ma Chan MyaeKhinediscussed about how social networking has allowed freedom of expression to many people in Myanmar but it has led to an increase in cyberattacks and making personal attacks online than before. She also added that the internet users should have a spe-

cialawareness of their privacy in the openness situation.

Afterwards, Mr. Arthit shared a comparison of internet freedom in Thailand with the situation in Myan-mar and discussed the provisions that can be taken as lessons. U Nay Tunthen discussed with a special fo-cus on freedom of expression and access to information for the internet users and using digital security soft-ware for securing personal data.


In order to find out the situa-tion of the internet users and the sta-tus of internet freedom, MIDO con-ducted surveys in various states and regions with the assistance of the representatives from various states and regions, who were invited to the MIFF Forum. Based on the informa-tion collected from these statistics, we will present the current internet density situation in Myanmar, inter-net freedom, and obstacles that are being faced for these technologies to be widespread among the public.

(A) The Age and Education Level of the Internet Users

In the study on internet densi-ty, 50 percent of the current internet users are found to be youths below the age of 25 and over 40 percent of them are between the middle-age of 26 and 40. Only 8 percent of the internet users are over the age of 40. In term of age, it seems that this technology is mainly widespread be-tween the youths and the middle-age people. Internet technology seems to affect the country’s development both directly and indirectly in sharing knowlege, accessing information and

sharing them so we need to encour-age people who have experiences in term of age and education to be more in touch with the internet.In term of education level, 50 percent of the internet users have received bachelor’s degrees and around 40 percent of them are high school stu-dents and university students. Only 10 percent of the middle school stu-dents are using the internet, accord-ing to the survey.

(B) Electricity Availability in Myanmar

Currently in Myanmar, only 20 percent of the populace can use electricity provided by the govern-ment and 33 percent get electricity by self-help means. The rest of the 47 percent have no electricity at all. The situation can seriously weaken the country’s development including the ICT sector in Myanmar. Electricity is available in urban areas and a small number of vil-lages in rural areas. Regions without electricity will be stood far-behind to modern technologies and this will be more affected negatively to urban-

Internet Density in Myanmar Based on the Surveys

Myanmar Internet Freedom Forum Report17rural gap. Urgent fulfillment for availability of electricity, which is essential for community education in rural area, is necessary for rural development.

(C) Computer Trainings and Internet Cafe

Current situation of ICT in Myanmar is not satisfactory due to less development of computer trainings and internet cafés throughout the coun-try. Computer trainings cover only 50 percent of the nation and reach of internet cafés also applied to the same percentage.

Computer trainings and internet cafés are opened in numerous num-bers in urban area and the opportunity to learn ICT in frontier areas is still very poor. Urgent upgrade of ICT knowledge throughout the country should be made by opening communication centers in less developed regions with the help of social organizations and cooperation between the government and ICT corporations. This also will alternately bring the positive effects to the alleviation of poverty carried out by the government.

Most applied subjects on Internet

Social media (eg. Facebook) users are the most percentage among internet us-ers in Myanmar and users who do chat-ting and use emails come the second and third respec-tively. The percent-age of research and download from the internet is so low in number.


The Telecommunications Law (Draft) currently in discussion at the Hluttaws has been drafted in cooperation with the Ministry of Communica-tions and Information Technology, ITU (International Telecommunication Union), the World Bank, Myanmar Computer Federation and experts in the field. Although the draft law is almost completed, it still might have some weak points due to exclusion of the inputs from public/users/consumers and ICT based civil societies.

Hluttaw and Bill Committee have invited suggestions from the public on the draft law and therefore one of the ICT-based civil societies, MIDO has to submit this suggestion paper.

As the time is close-call and the discussion has to be made in per-son, there will be some difficulties for local and foreign technicians and we are worried about not getting many suggestions.

The new Telecommunications Law should be ensured in accordance with the norm of international human rights and promote application of the ICT, which are emphasized for the necessary amendments and the follow-ing points of suggestionare made in the term paper “ Reforming Telecom-munications in Burma” published by Human Rights Watch-HRW in May 2013.

(1) License applications should be exempted for online service providers and online content providers.

The Telecommunications Law (Draft)

Studying the Telecommunication Sector in View of Human Rights

Myanmar Internet Freedom Forum Report19(2) To delete the facts about cybercrimes and limited controlled contents from the Telecommunications Law and these can be enacted in another law.

(3) The sections to protect the individual privacy by prohibiting unilateral inquiry or abuse of power reasoning with security of state or using the law should be included in this law. Official warrants from the court of indepen-dent responsive organization shall be required to conduct tapping on com-munications and acquiring users’ data by the government authority.

(4) To add sections protecting the freedom of expression and individual rights while prohibiting interruption of communications and blocking of net-work by using the emergency authority.

(5) Thorough discussion panels with wider participation of experts and public for necessary suggestions are essential whenever enacting the new laws including the Telecommunications Law.

The Telecommunications Law (Draft) submitted to Hluttaw by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology was observed in consideration of human rights by MIDO and it was found that some sec-tions are suitable for the society and some sections are still needed for amendments. Therefore MIDO would like to submit the following sugges-tion:

1. The wording “whoever” is mentioned in Chapter (21), Section (26) for penalitiesaffects not only the service providers but also the end-users. This section means the same as Section 33 (A) & (B) of the Electronic Transactions Act (2004). As per suggestion No. (2) of HRW, “end-users” affairs should be enacted in a separate law and this section should only

Suggestions from MIDO

MIDO (Myanmar ICT for Development Organization) 20affect the service providers. Concrete and accurate clarification of wordings in this section should be done as the sentences and fines are too much. People should be encouraged to participate in drafting specific law (e. g the Law drafted in the Philippines, which is now submitted to their Parliament “ Establishing & Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom, Cyber Crime Prevention and Law Enforcement, Cyber Defense and National Cyber Se-curity” .)

2. Section (73) and (74) of Chapter (22) should be carried out with the warrant from the court or independent responsive organization. If the government allowsaccess to the public data in the harmful situation to the State’s security and public interest; the accurate and specific definition of the said “situation” will be necessary.

3. It is necessary for consideration to review Section (75) of Chapter (22) because of its effect on freedom of expression and individual right of freedom of the public.

4. We would like to suggest adding the fact about consideration of remarks and opinions of experts when executing the crime related to the Telecommunications Law.

5. We would like to suggest adding the law; “end-users” consumer-rights and data security to be guaranteed by the Telecommunications Ser-vice Company.”

6. Relaxation of control and limitations to become a transparent network in accordance with the Telecommunications Law.For example:

(a) We would like to suggest to the service providing companies to use “Local Number Portability (LNP)” for fixed lines and “Mobile Number Portability (MNP)”. With this system one user-number can

Myanmar Internet Freedom Forum Report21switch to any service provider without changing the telephone number. This system is practiced also in other countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea.

(b) There should be no restriction on users binding with bond or contract or using “carrier lock” to that telecommunication equipment.

7. In order to consider whether license application process is necessary or not for online service providers and online content providers and if it is necessary according to the law; we would like to suggest as per suggestion made by the HRW that to give exemption of license applying to the online service providers and online content providers

8. The present Telecommunications Law should be adopted by the Hluttaw as an interim law and further discussions and requisitions from all stakeholders should be accepted and considered for the long run to pro-mulgate a wider Telecommunications Law and cyber laws.


MIDO has done survey and interview with users and experts on the internet freedom and some ex-cerpts are mentioned below to high-light the situation of internet freedom in Myanmar.

U Zaw Min Oo (Myanmar Computer Federation)

“As an internet-user I can say that there is a lot of freedom in Myanmar. But it is not only about the internet freedom but also the op-portunity of density by everybody in the other hand. As everyone knows, telephone density is only 10 percent and internet density is much lower - only about 5 percent estimation. It shows that there are only a few internet users in Myanmar.

Telecom infrastructure is the most important for higher density of internet usage. The current ini-tial and monthly fees for the internet are much higher in relation to our GDP. The fees may be fair enough compared to othercountries but they are still higher in ratio with our in-comes.”

Ko Ei Maung (Fairway Web)

“I want to talk about two laws. One is “The Computer Science De-velopment Act” (1996) and another is “The Electronic Transactions Act” (2004). Whatever the objectives of those Laws, the summary is to take action against the ICT users. Previ-ous laws are not covered to take action and these Laws included the articles which can be referred to charge the ICT users. Right now, most of the internet users are law-breakers according to the existing Laws.

Without a Cyber Law or Digital Limit Law, actions cannot be taken against the by-product of transpar-ency and freedom and abuse and cybercrimes using the internet. For example, it is very difficult to take action against those who hack web-sites and the servers of the govern-ment and ISP. There is no such law against cybercrimes in Myanmar and we cannot protect the internet us-ers.”

Internet Freedom in Myanmar and Views from Experts


Daw Sandar Minn (PyithuHluttaw Representative)

“When I attended the Forum, I saw so many update to be done in Myanmar. Media freedom is still necessary concerning with the inter-net. Even if we talk about media freedom, it is also necessary to re-strict with the law in some cases. It is necessary for better internet con-nection. We have internet problem the whole month. (By the time of the interview, SE ME WE3 cable was broken.) The internet is the only reli-able source in Nay Pyi Taw. That is only with our mobile phone as there is no other pc internet connection in the place of Hluttaw Representa-tives. Mobile internet connection is the only tool to find resources and we have no resource center here. In-ternet download is essential to study the international laws especially the laws of neighboring countries to re-fer to when we want to submit a law to Hluttaw. Bad internet connection gives us a lot of trouble.”

U Khin Maung Nyo (Economics)

“Freedom and privacy are es-sential when using the internet. We have to find out how to protect pri-vacy. Together with the internet free-dom, we also need to control the privacy and security.”

U Ye Tun Aung (MyanSar)

“In my personal opinion, there is no “Access Denied” after the refor-mation of the neo-government. Pre-viously, we cannot access the web-sites of exile media like Mizzima and the Irrawaddy. Nowadays, we can access all media. I think no media is banned by the government. We can use the internet but not in normal stature. The internet connection is so slow during office hour but it is better than before. Comparing with the internet in other countries, we still cannot keep abreast with them.It is necessary to increase the band-width at the international gateway. We do not know if we have less capacity of the fiber optic cable con-necting to the internet or we receive lesser bandwidth due to our pay-ment or the bandwidth cannot be extended at the international cable or the work processes are delayed due to state budget.”


We can firmly say that the strong desires of the entire Myanmar people are for Myanmar to enter the 21st Century Global Family warmly and quickly and to be transformed to

a developed nation and say farewell to least developed country (LDC) status. We believe that Myanmar has to choose only two things to flow into the globalization with high-speed

like other developed countries, which are to develop:(1) Knowledge-driven society and(2) High-tech civilization

Myanmar ICT for Development Or-ganization (MIDO) would like to emphasize that better internet con-nection throughout the country is es-sential to enable the people to use

Suggestions to the Government Media and Corporations for Internet Freedom in Myanmar

Myanmar Internet Freedom Forum Report25it easily and cheaply so this must be fulfilled at a fast pace. Higher internet penetrating rate will prominently promote the followings in the whole country;

- more freedom of expression, - free-flow of information, - access to information rights of the public, - quick networking between people from various regions, - create educational and job op-portunities

MIDO well understand and ac-cept that higher internet penetrating rate can only be developed with the cooperation of government, public, investors in ICT, intellectuals, techni-cians and media.

Some excerpts from the key note speech made by Deputy Min-ister U Thaung Tin of Ministry of Communications and Information Technology at the “Myanmar Inter-net Freedom Forum” held on June 1, 2013 are as follows;

- Project has been undertaken to increase mobile phone density up to 50% in 2015 - To reduce the internet user fees up to zero percent for the education sector

- Telephone charges rate in Myanmar for 50 kyats per minute is still high compared with inter-national rates

From these remarks by the Deputy Minister, we can deduce that the government also has been im-plementing rapidly to make changes in the ICT sector for the develop-ment of the country.

From recent incidents happen-ing around the world, we all witness that ICT is only a tool but it can be used to make positive benefits and negative harms to the society based on the morale and intentions of the users. An internet network connected to the whole country with rapid and free flow of connection can become the heart of a transparent society and at the same time, it can be changed to a network of spreading hatreds or a shameless place according to the choice of the users. Therefore, it is necessary for the internet users to have own ethics while enjoying the freedom. Freedom of expression is the significant norm of a transparent society but explosion of unreason-able feelings may damage the integ-rity and ethics of other so the users should know that it is an unethical

MIDO (Myanmar ICT for Development Organization) 26practice in a civilized society.

These incidents of unethical practice are frequently happening in our modern society and the media and civil societies should educate the users while the government can-not take responsibility. We think the users should also take self-learning to protect self-data and privacy. It is the duty of the netizens to nurture the users to become responsible members of society.

We would like to express deeply that reasoning to those weak points;

Exercising to control the situa-tion by the government with old and new strict rules and regulations is out of alignment with the 21st cen-tury. To play in the 21st century world arena in abreast with others, we need two main driving forces of education and the internet and we have to note that the future of the country will still be left behind others if these engines cannot be driven in full speed.

The following facts are to be submitted for the people to have internet freedom and to carry out

development process for self-devel-opment and development of the so-ciety:

1. Getting electricity and provid-ing it throughout the country with cheaper rate

2. To develop necessary infra-structure for faster and easier ac-cess to the internet and sophisticated technologies throughout the country

3. To promote knowledge of the whole populace about the useful-ness, benefits and dark side of the internet and sophisticated technolo-gies

4. To organize the whole public for skillful use of the internet and sophisticated technologies after pro-moting their knowledge

5. To encourage users for the good use of the internet and sophis-ticated technologies and reduction of harms to others

6. To educate the users of inter-net and sophisticated technologies to protect self-data and security, emer-gence of netiquette among netizens and emergence of government pol-icy to protect netizens


The following suggestions are made to the respective authorities based on the discussions of intellectuals and interested youths at the 2013 Myanmar Internet Freedom Forum:

Suggestions to the Government

1. To make quick amendments and revokes to the existing laws and regulations which hinders the development of ICT and quick emergence of strong and vivid cyber laws which will protect thoroughly to the users without effecting the right of freedom of expression of the public

2. To find out ways and means to electrifying the whole country includ-ing the rural frontier areas as soon as possible

3. To take implementation of necessary infrastructure throughout the country for the internet usage and free flow and high internet speed

4. To make implementation of mobile usage in the whole country initi-ating from 50% density within next two and a half year according to the objective of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

5. Urgent implementation of an education system to include the ICT subjects in the curriculum starting from basic education level

6. To let internet users in educational sector for free of charge

7. To include internet usage in SIM cards provided to the public


Suggestions to the Corporations

1. Foreign operators to be working in Myanmar should push the gov-ernment based on their international experiences and exposures for the emergence of ICT policy and laws actually beneficial to the public

2. Foreign operators should adopt fair policies not only to their own benefit but also for the interest of the people and development of the na-tion

3. Corporations to give assistances for the development of ICT in Myan-mar educational sector

Suggestions to the Media

1. Media to carry out enhancement of public ICT knowledge

2. To explain and publish the laws on technologies which are no longer in alignment with changing political system

3. To educate the public to understand the netiquette

4. ICT educational programs and trainings are to be carried out by the media to reduce the knowledge – gap between the rural and urban areas

5. To carry out broader educational programs for the users of their digital security and privacy

MIDO (Myanmar ICT for Development Organization) 29Our Team

Nay Phone LattExecutive Director

Htaike Htaike AungProgram Manager

Yatanar HtunAdmin Manager

Nang NyiMedia & Communication

Officer

Freddy LynnTrainer

Zayar SuAdmin Assistant

Phyu Phyu ThiResearch & Development

Manager

Wai Myo HtutHR Manager

Hhin Nu Nu NaingResearch Assistant

Hnin Wai LwinAccountant

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