“Just sign it,” the officers told him at the station. “Our bosses are seeing your live streams. They’re putting pressure on us.”He initially refused, then agreed after a night in jail. Once released, he went straight back to reporting.
“The mainstream media have few journalists in ethnic areas, so ethnic media has a responsibility to cover them,” Papui, 50, told VICE World News, referring to the frontier regions that host Myanmar’s more than 130 distinct ethnic groups—most overlooked by a global media struggling to access major cities let alone far-flung border states.The country’s decade-long experiment with democracy is in shambles after the military takeover on Feb. 1. But the limited freedoms over the past 10 years paved the way for an explosion in independent media operating in areas once cut off from the outside world under previous military regimes. The widespread availability of smartphones has also given journalists new tools to document protests, abuses and deadly crackdowns that have killed at least 60 people in recent weeks.“Our bosses are seeing your live streams. They’re putting pressure on us.”
People use their mobile phones to take photographs of a spent shotgun shell, which was believed to contain rubber bullets, as protesters face off with security forces during demonstrations against the military coup in Yangon on March 9, 2021. Photo: STR / AFP
In a press conference on March 11, Myanmar’s junta spokesperson accused journalists of provoking unrest and refuted allegations about restrictions on the media. But the reality on the ground tells a different story of official harassment, beatings and further arrests throughout the country. International outlets are not immune. An Associated Press photographer was one of the many arrested and charged since the coup.“We could not sign because we didn’t do these things. So they replaced it with a document saying we won’t shoot videos and photos of police.”
This picture taken on February 26, 2021 shows Associated Press (AP) photographer Thein Zaw posing for a photo during his coverage of demonstrations by protesters against the military coup in Yangon, a day before he was arrested. Photo: STR / AFP
They’re used to seeing tanks on the streets, having their cameras confiscated, spending hours in interrogation rooms and having documents shoved in their faces. Quinley spoke with one outlet in Rakhine state—the site of Myanmar’s Rohingya genocide—that already had several team members on the run. After the coup, the rest of their colleagues joined them in hiding.“We have experience reporting on conflict,” said Mai Kaung Seng, editor of Shwe Phee Myay News in northern Shan State, where the military has clashed with several different armed groups for years. “But some new journalists are a little scared. Some are afraid of being arrested. Being arrested is easy. Anything is possible right now.”Mai Kaung Seng said his ten-member staff is stretched thin, struggling to cover the coup and the ongoing clashes between local armed groups and the military which have simmered for years.“The role of ethnic media is extremely important here,” he said. “The mainstream media can’t cover all of the issues across the country. The mainstream media can’t even cover everything happening in Yangon.”“Local papers face particular risk. There’s not a lot of international attention being paid to them. They can go missing, they can be detained without people even noticing.”