Friday, September 28, 2007
'Citizen Journalists' Evade Blackout On Myanmar News - WSJ.com
photo by Soneseayar
Can a repressive government still censor the news? Can the military junta in Myanmar keep the world from finding out about the brutal repression of the uprising led by Buddhist monks? The government is shutting down the Internet cafes to try to prevent the uploading of images of violence and bloodshed. Protesters are posting video on YouTube (Riot at Shwe Dagon Pagoda East gate in Burma ) and bloggers are covering the unrest. Can that be stopped as easily as the regime has silenced the Burmese press? The mainstream media are using the images provided by Burmese citizens to tell the story of the government crackdown:
"At 1:30 yesterday afternoon, a cellphone buzzed with news for Soe Myint, the editor in chief of Mizzima News, a publication about Myanmar run by exiles in New Delhi.While the junta maybe able to shut down the internet cafes it will be more difficult to halt the use of cell phones to send information. This incident clearly shows the power of individuals armed with mobile phones and internet connections to capture the story and share it with the world even in the face of violent repression. Here's what the Wall Street Journal article concludes, quoting the managing editor of CNN Asia Pacific:
The message: "There is a tourist shot down" in Yangon, the center of recent protests by Buddhist monks and others against the military junta in Myanmar, formerly Burma. Troops there were clearing the streets, telling protesters they had just minutes to go home -- or be shot.
The text message wasn't from one of Soe Myint's reporters. In fact, he doesn't know who sent the message. He believes it came from one of the more than 100 students, activists and ordinary citizens who have been feeding him reports, images and video of the violent events unfolding in recent days.
In the age of YouTube, cellphone cameras and text messaging, technology is playing a critical role in helping news organizations and international groups follow Myanmar's biggest protests in nearly two decades. Citizen witnesses are using cellphones and the Internet to beam out images of bloodied monks and street fires, subverting the Myanmar government's effort to control media coverage and present a sanitized version of the uprising. The Associated Press reported yesterday that soldiers in Yangon fired automatic weapons into a crowd of demonstrators as tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters converged in the capital. Wire services have reported the number of dead at nine, citing the state media.
The BBC, which has a Burmese language Web site and radio service, is encouraging its audience to send in photos, like the ones it received of a monk's monastery that had been ransacked by authorities. A shaky video, now on YouTube, shows a sea of chanting and clapping monks draped in red robes marching down a street, past Buddhist monuments. One blog features a photo showing two abandoned, bloodstained sandals.
Another blog was updated at 3 p.m. Myanmar time yesterday with a few English lines: "Right now they're using fire engines and hitting people and dragging them onto E2000 trucks and most of them are girls and people are shouting." Below the post is a blurry photo of trucks with the caption, "This is how they come out and try to kill people."
Who produced these reports -- or how the information got out of Myanmar -- hasn't been established. But that's the point in a country where people caught protesting or writing against the government risk years in prison."
"When traditional methods and professional journalists can't provide footage, and personal safety allows, citizens rise to the challenge time and again, often with remarkable material," said Ellana Lee, the managing editor of CNN Asia Pacific in an email. "Even in countries like Myanmar, the spread of the Internet and mobile phones has meant that footage will always continue to get through and the story will be told, one way or another."
Below is a list of links published by the WSJ to the Burma blogs used by the mainstream media to get the story:
"MONITORING MYANMAR Here are some blogs and media outlets with video and pictures of the protests in Yangon. (Some are in Burmese.)
1• Mizzima News
2• The Irawaddy
3• Democratic Voice of Burma
4• Justice & Injustice
5• http://soneseayar.blogspot.com/
6• http://mmedwatch.blogspot.com/
7• http://ko-htike.blogspot.com/
8• http://mogokmedia.blogspot.com/
9• Today Burma
VIDEO
10• Jim Carrey's Youtube call to action
11• Anti-march warning broadcast from Burmese state broadcaster MRTV, via BBC"
