Myanmar International Television ( my, မြန်မာအင်တာနေရှင်နယ်ရုပ်သံလိုင်း, abbreviated MITV) is a
Burmese state-owned
State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownersh ...
national and international
English-language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
television channel based in
Yangon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
,
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
. The channel was first launched in August 2001 as MRTV-3, the third ever television channel in Myanmar.
It was rebranded as Myanmar International Television in April 2010.
Overview
The channel was first launched on 1 August 2001
was financed with a $1 million grant from
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
and is broadcast on the
Shin Corp Thaicom 3 satellite.
[Lewis, G. ''Virtual Thailand: The Media and Cultural Politics in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.'' Taylor & Francis, 2006. .] It is the third channel to be launched in Myanmar, after the main MRTV channel (1980) and
Myawaddy TV
Myawaddy TV ( my, မြဝတီ ရုပ်မြင်သံကြား, abbreviated MWD) is a Myanmar military-owned propaganda network based in Yangon and Naypyidaw, Myanmar.
History
Myawaddy TV was launched on the 27 March 1995, in com ...
(1995).
[ The state-owned channel was viewable in 156 countries, broadcasting 17 hours a day in Myanmar and 8 hours a day in ]Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and America,[ with coverage increasing to 24 hours a day worldwide on the occasion of the rebranding to Myanmar International.][ However, the channel has been criticised for broadcasting ]propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
for the junta. A government official said the channel was launched to provide an "objective response" to international media reports about Burma.
A web-based video streaming
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
system was launched in November 2002, and an online newspaper
An online newspaper (or electronic news or electronic news publication) is the online version of a newspaper, either as a stand-alone publication or as the online version of a printed periodical.
Going online created more opportunities for newspa ...
in March 2003. The channel has news exchange agreements with CCTV
Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...
, NHK
, also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.
NHK operates two terrestr ...
, Arirang TV and CFI.[
]
Programming
News programmes regularly feature army and political leaders, while entertainment programmes feature ethnic groups singing songs of national unity.[ ''Myanmar Mosaic'' features cookery, cultural and tourism programmes about Burma.
During the ]2007 Burmese anti-government protests
The Saffron Revolution ( my, ရွှေဝါရောင်တော်လှန်ရေး) was a series of economic and political protests and demonstrations that took place during August, September, and October 2007 in Myanmar. The pro ...
, the channel criticised Western media outlets for "fabricating stories" about the incident, describing them as "not happy with peace, stability and development of the urmesenation." A news programme broadcast slides reading "VOA
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...
and BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, sky full of liars. Beware of destructionists, BBC and VOA."