Telenor has issued an official response to the Norwegian OECD National Contact Point’s (NCP) final statement on the company’s forced exit from Myanmar in 2022. The statement follows a period of sustained scrutiny of Telenor’s former operations, including earlier ScandAsia coverage of data transfers to the military junta, police complaints in Norway, and planned lawsuits from civil society groups.
In its review, the NCP places primary responsibility for Myanmar’s human rights violations on the military regime and acknowledges the dilemmas Telenor faced after the 2021 coup. However, Telenor rejects several of the NCP’s conclusions.
The company states that the safety of its Myanmar employees was the determining factor in its decisions, arguing that the NCP underestimates the security risks staff faced at the time. Telenor also maintains that it did not activate lawful interception technology and notes that transparency reporting on authority requests continued until the coup made further disclosure impossible.
According to Telenor, some of the information underlying its internal risk assessments could not be shared with the NCP due to safety concerns. As a result, the company believes that important facts have been overlooked in the final OECD assessment.
Telenor acknowledges that early planning for responsible exit is increasingly emphasised in international business and human rights frameworks. The company adds, however, that such requirements were not formally introduced until 2022 and 2023, after Telenor had already left the country.
The operator also points to its obligations under an MoU with civil society organisations, including the funding of an expert-led study on digital security and its continued work toward establishing an independent digital security relief mechanism for Myanmar.
With its new statement, Telenor pushes back against several central claims that have formed the basis for public criticism, police complaints, and planned legal action. The company reiterates its commitment to the OECD Guidelines and calls for what it describes as a fair and balanced representation of its actions.
Source: Telenor Group
