Irrawaddy-March 18
The surging number of people signing up for news writing training in Myanmar shows that the junta’s crackdown on journalists and news outlets has, like everything else it does, backfired. Editor Khin Yupar pays very close attention to anonymous messages sent via apps, especially those that camouflage their senders. Sometimes a text message can turn into global news. The veteran journalist still recalls a message she received in January of last year from a citizen journalist inside Myanmar who knew what had happened to a president who had been forced from office – and sight. “We received the information on Jan. 14, verified it with prison sources and then published the report on January 16. It became the biggest breaking news report of the week and continues to be cited by other media outlets,” Ma Khin Yupar explains.
The news was about the transfer of Myanmar’s detained president, U Win Myint, to Taungoo prison in Bago Region, explains the broadcast journalist and associate news editor at Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB). Before the transfer, U Win Myint had been detained at an undisclosed location in Naypyitaw. A citizen journalist broke the story and solved a mystery: U Win Myint’s exact whereabouts had been unknown for almost two years. Following the coup in 2021, the junta jailed elected leaders and then swiftly drove a once vibrant independent media off a cliff by jailing journalists and outlawing their outlets. Silence is necessary for dictatorship. If people are kept guessing, they don’t know what to do. So far, 19 media outlets and publishing houses have had their publication licenses revoked. A total of 192 media staff have been arrested, charged, and sentenced to prison since the coup. Sixty-one of them are still behind bars, according to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners. Thirty-one were sentenced to between two and 20 years in jail on charges that include incitement and terrorism. Under these circumstances, journalists who want to keep working have a stark choice: hide or flee. Independent media outlets have just one option: Operate from exile. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/in-myanmar-citizen-journalism-is-connecting-news-to-its-revolutionary-roots.html
