"The road to media freedom has been winding and narrow for Myanmar. Prior to the February 2021 military takeover, there had been guarded optimism that the country would soon enjoy freedom of expression and democratic principles. The country’s political reform process started in 2011, after 50 years of military rule. This created an opportunity to reform the country’s laws pertaining to freedom of expression, media freedom, and access to information, a process which UNESCO accompanied since 2013 by providing policy advice and technical assistance to the Ministry of Information and to the Parliament. These reforms were however stymied due to limited understanding of the media’s contribution in building strong democratic institutions, keeping the public informed and providing a space for public debate, as well as due to persistent distrust towards the media." (p.1)