Myanmar journalists regroup fleeing the board

On February 1, just hours after Myanmar’s military coup, the leaders of the Mizzima media group team held an emergency meeting in Yangon.

Senior reporters at the exit had begun devising an operational backup plan days before the coup, as rumors spread about the approach to the acquisition.

When the the military took power, it was clear that Min Aung Hlaing’s board would revoke Mizzima’s license and block the television signal and journalists were forced to go underground.

“Either you’ll stay with Mizzima, fight together risking your life for at least two years, or you won’t work for us,” Soe Myint, editor-in-chief, told staff.

Within a week, most had left their offices and homes and scattered to hide in Yangon and other cities. More recently, some have moved to areas of the country controlled by armed ethnic groups who have long fought the army and support urban activists who resist the coup. When troops stormed Mizzima headquarters on March 9, there was no one left.

The company has about 80 employees, self-employed and volunteers working in hiding, in ethnic areas or in India and Thailand. The group has recently posted a clip of its journalists editing on laptops in a jungle store and reading and broadcasting by satellite from an undisclosed location in Myanmar.

“This is our plan for the next two years,” Soe Myint told the Financial Times. “We can’t depend on a single area and we can’t let the channel go for safety or for any reason.”

The company’s flight to urban hiding places and rebel strongholds occurs in other newsgroups, as the country’s media are forced to report on post-stroke discomfort in increasingly exhausting conditions.

The reorganization is also an indicator of Myanmar’s anti-coup activist determination to support the so-called spring revolution against the Junta, as well as a growing tactical alliance between activists from the country’s Burmese ethnic center and rebel groups. in Kachin, Karen and other minority states.

Soe Myint confirmed that Mizzima operated in two ethnic states, which he refused to name. A Manipur state court in India this week granted to the sanctuary to two of the reporters at the exit.

The board has arrested dozens of journalists, including from the Associated Press and the BBC. Last week, authorities also accused a Japanese journalist of allegedly spreading false news.

More than 40 journalists have been arrested, according to the Journalist Protection Committee. He announced the military regime to take additional steps to overthrow the independent press a ban on satellite TV receivers and ordering them to close Myitkyina News Journal, a Kachin establishment.

Troops have shot at the people filming them and police regularly search the phones of journalists and activists during on-site checks or arrests. Journalists acknowledge that their ability to work is increasingly compromised.

Swe Win, editor-in-chief of Myanmar Now, another site the Board ordered closed, said this week in a panel hosted by Vice that “a huge percentage of original reports have been deleted since the coup.” . He added that the country was on the verge of becoming “another hermit state” similar to North Korea.

“They are going to shut down all private and independent media in Burma,” Thar Lun Zaung Htet, editor of Khit Thit Media, told FT. “We need help and support.”

Khit Thit Media was founded in 2018 and also faced legal threats from the army under the ousted government of Aung San Suu Kyi, which was condemned internationally by processing journalists and criticism.

Khit Thit’s website was removed from service shortly after the coup by cyberattacks the company blamed the military. Thar Lun Zaung Htet is in Thailand and eight of his journalists in Myanmar are in hiding to avoid arrest.

For Myanmar’s media groups, reporting clandestinely or from exile carries a sense of déjà vu, as some began in Thailand or other neighboring countries when previous military regimes ruled the country from 1962 to 2011. Then, as such, they established such organizations within Myanmar and abroad, sharing information with colleagues only to a limited extent to circumvent the authorities.

Soe Myint co-founded Mizzima in New Delhi in 1998, operating in India and Chiang Mai, Thailand in its early years. It was one of the first media groups to return to Myanmar in 2011 when the democratic transition began.

The group is determined to return to their home base since their operation in the jungle. Before dinner, Mizzima reporters recite four promises aloud, including the vow to “remember the sacrifices” of the detained staff, and this: “We will meet again in Yangon.”

Additional reports from Eli Meixler in Hong Kong and Than Win Htut in Thailand