Myanmar journalists fight for truth from exile

DW (English)

With Myanmar’s junta brutally cracking down on press freedom, many journalists were forced to flee and continue their work from neighboring countries. But threats have followed them beyond Myanmar's borders.

Transcript

00:00Inside this private news channel office, a team of Myanmar journalists are mapping the

00:08untold narratives of a nation under siege.

00:15They are exiles forced out of the country by military crackdowns.

00:25Yet in newsrooms such as this one, far from home, they continue to bring news from Myanmar

00:30to the world.

00:34Sin Wong is a news editor at the Democratic Voice of Burma, or DVB-TV.

00:40He says that even operating from neighbouring countries comes with its own set of challenges.

00:46Here also we have Rapuda.

00:48Also we have Rapuda in S.I.

00:50Burma, Rapuda, Freeland and CJ.

00:54Some students are under cover, some are not under cover.

01:00Every day they face their security concerns.

01:02Sometimes they cannot sleep anywhere because of security checks in their area, you know.

01:11So also when they go into cover, there's some news, so they cannot shoot with a proper camera.

01:20They only hold a handphone, you know, a mobile phone, shooting.

01:26So after they shoot, they upload to X and they delete.

01:33Following the February 2021 coup that overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the military

01:39started terrorising critical journalists.

01:43Experts say the junta is using the country's courts as a weapon against free press.

01:49Over 200 reporters have been arrested or detained, seven killed, and 50 were still

01:54behind bars as of March 2024.

01:57After the coup, they neglected our TV channel licence, you know, proper licence, they cancelled

02:05our...

02:06So that means we are an illegal media.

02:11We fled to the jungle first.

02:14We struggled to broadcast our TV in the jungle.

02:18Here, our office is like almost two years, we really struggled to get a source, you know.

02:26Nowadays, no one would dare to do a TV interview with face, because the SAC, you know, SAC

02:35can arrest anytime, you know, if they answer to the media, you know, especially about them,

02:40you know.

02:42Ethnic news media have never been eligible for licences in Myanmar, forcing them to operate

02:50in a legal grey area.

02:52They were tolerated before the coup, now they are targeted by the state.

02:57Nangmuay U is an author and office manager for Shan Herald News Agency, an ethnic news

03:02outlet operating from exile.

03:05This is our radio, online radio.

03:10She explains her team faces pressure from the military even outside Myanmar.

03:16And is harassed by other ethnic and regional groups involved in the crisis.

03:22Not only the military, even ethnic armed groups, as you know, in Shan state has so many ethnic

03:34armed groups.

03:35When we report about, about northern Shan state, I mean, it's a bad thing, and they

03:44will say we are, we are biased.

03:49And if we report about Shan, another group, and they also, it is difficult for us to work

04:00too.

04:01Many of these reporters have been driven out of Myanmar before.

04:05Muay was forced to leave her home as a child and moved to a neighbouring country during

04:10the 1996 conflict in Shan state.

04:14She says her colleagues are now experiencing the same thing.

04:19I can see the fighting, and the house burned, and many people are screaming or something

04:31like that, and it affects me too.

04:37I also feel how they feel right now, and yeah, it's very scary for me.

04:46Until now, I also have the, how to say, stress.

04:50Due to growing number of exiled news outlets, Myanmar journalists have also formed an independent

04:56press council in exile.

04:59Tozor Lath is one of its leading members.

05:02He says Myanmar's journalists face unending challenges regardless of where they operate.

05:09We put the military coups in Myanmar, Burma, and generally also they couped our press council.

05:18So there is no press council that represented our working journalists in terms of safety

05:27and in terms of protection.

05:30So we decided to found our own independent press council in exile.

05:35So we came into existence now already 10 months ago.

05:41The council deals with issues of journalists in exile and inside Myanmar.

05:46Lath says that Myanmar's media is constantly drifting in and out of danger.

05:55And with officials restricting internet access to the users back home, editors like Zid Muang

06:00and Nang Muay U face a whole other struggle when trying to distribute news to their audience.

06:08The military's shadow stretches far.

06:11And even here in exile, they feel its weight.

06:14Yet for these journalists, giving up is not an option.

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