"As the election looms for later this year, incidents in 2014 and in early 2015 involving the press raises serious questions on the genuineness of media freedom in Burma. The situation is alarming as the state seems to have heaped all the faults and fines on the media in the past year, which has seen a media worker being killed in October on the pretext of national security. International assistance has poured into the country to develop the media aimed at lifting and sustaining the state of media freedom. However, a viable press freedom environment seems unlikely to materialise in Burma before the end of this administration. The media in Burma has been targeted for reporting on issues that have become irritants for the government. Departing from an earlier commitment to free the press, it appears lately that authorities are getting nervous about news reporting that may derail the outcome of their road map to democracy......The most palpable indication of reversals on media freedom in the country is the use of criminal laws to prosecute journalists doing their work. Legal threats against the media have spiraled upwards, and are being used by state authorities to put down growing criticism among the media...."