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.
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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.