Monitoring press freedom and international affairs from Mid-Missouri Public Radio and the Missouri School of Journalism

Myanmar's pivotal election

5 November 2015
Supporters of Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party campaign on motorbikes for the general election in Mandalay, Myanmar, Nov. 5, 2015. (AP Photo/Hkun Lat)

Voters in Myanmar will go to the polls Nov. 8 to elect a parliament in what will be a milestone in the country's transition from military rule to democracy.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy has drawn large rallies in the run-up to the poll. However it remains to be seen how the southeast Asian country's first freely-elected parliament will work with the country's generals.

On this edition of Global Journalist, we’ll preview the elections in Myanmar to see if they’ll help democracy finally take hold, and examine how the media climate there is shaping its politics.

Our guests this week:

  • Priscilla Clapp, former U.S. State Department chief of mission to Myanmar from 1999 to 2002.
  • Maureen Aung-Thwin, director of the Burma program at the Open Society Foundation.
  • Michael Thurston, former U.S. State Department chief of mission to Myanmar from 2011 to 2012.

Correction: The original broadcast of this program identified Thurston's location as Washington, D.C. He was in Tallahassee, Fla.

Monitoring press freedom and international affairs from Mid-Missouri Public Radio and the Missouri School of Journalism.
cameramagnifiercross linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram