Journalists in Burma, local and foreign, face great difficulties in reporting the fact surrounding the humanitarian disaster and its aftermath.
The junta has banned foreign and local journalists from traveling to the devastated Irrawaddy delta area, tapped some journalists’ telephones, threatened others and done everything it can to keep the Burmese people and the world in the dark about the humanitarian tragedy that is unfolding.
“All journalists here are working undercover,” said a Burmese journalist in
Rangoon. “If the authorities know we are journalists, we are unwelcome."
The tightly controlled local media is forced to print stories that make the military government appear to be in control of the relief effort, and not to publish stories that contain foreign estimates of the dead and missing or the problems of international aid agencies. Another taboo topic is the compassionate work of the monks in aiding the people.
The New Light of Myanmar and other government-approved media outlets only show images of the junta distributing aid and comforting survivors, with little or no mention of the aid from foreign sources, especially western countries.
Few foreign journalists, like many foreign aid workers, have not been allowed to enter the country. The foreign journalists now inside Burma operate largely in secret, making it dangerous and difficult to tell the story’s aftermath.
Many telephones are tapped. People who take photographs are at risk. While one AP reporter in Burma was talking to an editor in Bangkok, he said he heard loud tick-tick-tick sounds on the telephone, an indication of a tapped phone. That day, the reporter had been informed the government it was not pleased by unflattering details about the junta in one of his stories.
"Journalists have an important role to play," the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a recent statement. "Their reporting often uncovers previously undiscovered areas of need, and they help keep the international community of donors informed of conditions on the ground."
Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders and other media watchdogs have urged the junta to lift its ban on visas for journalists, noting that news reports and images broadcast around the world play a key role in helping disaster victims and reconstruction efforts.
At the Burmese Embassy in neighboring Thailand, several journalists seeking visas were told they were blacklisted after entering Burma on tourist visas in September 2007 during the junta's deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks.
Incriminating images of troops firing on monks broadcast by global news networks enraged the junta and prompted a tightening of the already severe restrictions on media freedoms, the CPJ said.
Among those killed in last year's crackdown was Kenji Nagai, 50, a video journalist for Japan's APF News. Video footage of his death appeared to show a soldier shooting the journalist at close range.
Burma's military government said Nagai's death was an accident and that he had not been deliberately targeted.
However, commentaries in the state-controlled press implied Nagai was responsible for his own fate because he came into the country pretending to be a tourist and then placed himself in a dangerous situation.
Since the cyclone, a few foreign reporters have managed to get into Burma, concealing their satellite phones, battery packs and generators needed to operate in the cyclone-hit areas where electricity is down and there is no cell phone coverage.
Getting into the country is just the first of many hurdles.
Undercover police keep constant watch over hotels popular with journalists in Rangoon, the commercial capital, prompting many reporters to constantly change locations to avoid attracting attention.
"Myanmar [Burmese] authorities are now searching hotels outside the capital looking for Westerners. The authorities were going room to room in a number of hotels," the London-based aid group PLAN said in a statement, citing accounts from journalists in the country.
The junta's jitters are rubbing off on international aid organizations, many of which say they are uncomfortable speaking in public to reporters out of fear that associating with media could jeopardize their relief efforts.
At police checkpoints along the roads that link Rangoon to the devastated Irrawaddy delta in the south cars are stopped, and officers ask passengers to show their identity cards, passports and reasons for travel.
"This area is restricted.
The junta has banned foreign and local journalists from traveling to the devastated Irrawaddy delta area, tapped some journalists’ telephones, threatened others and done everything it can to keep the Burmese people and the world in the dark about the humanitarian tragedy that is unfolding.
“All journalists here are working undercover,” said a Burmese journalist in
Rangoon. “If the authorities know we are journalists, we are unwelcome."
The tightly controlled local media is forced to print stories that make the military government appear to be in control of the relief effort, and not to publish stories that contain foreign estimates of the dead and missing or the problems of international aid agencies. Another taboo topic is the compassionate work of the monks in aiding the people.
The New Light of Myanmar and other government-approved media outlets only show images of the junta distributing aid and comforting survivors, with little or no mention of the aid from foreign sources, especially western countries.
Few foreign journalists, like many foreign aid workers, have not been allowed to enter the country. The foreign journalists now inside Burma operate largely in secret, making it dangerous and difficult to tell the story’s aftermath.
Many telephones are tapped. People who take photographs are at risk. While one AP reporter in Burma was talking to an editor in Bangkok, he said he heard loud tick-tick-tick sounds on the telephone, an indication of a tapped phone. That day, the reporter had been informed the government it was not pleased by unflattering details about the junta in one of his stories.
"Journalists have an important role to play," the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a recent statement. "Their reporting often uncovers previously undiscovered areas of need, and they help keep the international community of donors informed of conditions on the ground."
Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders and other media watchdogs have urged the junta to lift its ban on visas for journalists, noting that news reports and images broadcast around the world play a key role in helping disaster victims and reconstruction efforts.
At the Burmese Embassy in neighboring Thailand, several journalists seeking visas were told they were blacklisted after entering Burma on tourist visas in September 2007 during the junta's deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks.
Incriminating images of troops firing on monks broadcast by global news networks enraged the junta and prompted a tightening of the already severe restrictions on media freedoms, the CPJ said.
Among those killed in last year's crackdown was Kenji Nagai, 50, a video journalist for Japan's APF News. Video footage of his death appeared to show a soldier shooting the journalist at close range.
Burma's military government said Nagai's death was an accident and that he had not been deliberately targeted.
However, commentaries in the state-controlled press implied Nagai was responsible for his own fate because he came into the country pretending to be a tourist and then placed himself in a dangerous situation.
Since the cyclone, a few foreign reporters have managed to get into Burma, concealing their satellite phones, battery packs and generators needed to operate in the cyclone-hit areas where electricity is down and there is no cell phone coverage.
Getting into the country is just the first of many hurdles.
Undercover police keep constant watch over hotels popular with journalists in Rangoon, the commercial capital, prompting many reporters to constantly change locations to avoid attracting attention.
"Myanmar [Burmese] authorities are now searching hotels outside the capital looking for Westerners. The authorities were going room to room in a number of hotels," the London-based aid group PLAN said in a statement, citing accounts from journalists in the country.
The junta's jitters are rubbing off on international aid organizations, many of which say they are uncomfortable speaking in public to reporters out of fear that associating with media could jeopardize their relief efforts.
At police checkpoints along the roads that link Rangoon to the devastated Irrawaddy delta in the south cars are stopped, and officers ask passengers to show their identity cards, passports and reasons for travel.
"This area is restricted.
