Tuesday, October 09, 2007 Cabaero: Internet activism on Myanmar By Nini B. Cabaero Beyond 30
AT the height of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the fax machine served as the alternative means of getting news on the killings of Chinese activists to the outside world.
Foreign journalists were banned at that time and the Chinese people didn’t have access to information except from the government. What the Chinese nationals abroad did was to fax news clippings from foreign publications about the Tiananmen Square protests to friends and relatives left in China.
The recipients then faxed the news clippings about the suppression of protest actions to other people within China.
Despite the ban on foreign media by the government and the reporting of the controlled press, Chinese activists received and sent out information through fax.
In the crisis in Myanmar (also known as Burma) today, the protest movement is using mobile phones, e-mail, blogs and websites as ways to communicate despite curtailments imposed by the military government.
There are ways of beating censorship or the stranglehold on information in crisis situations with the use of technological improvements.
In Myanmar, the military government cut Internet connection at the height of the demonstrations led by monks to limit the free flow of information on the violent crackdowns. Foreign journalists’ movements were restricted for fear they would suffer the same fate as the Japanese journalist who was shot in the head while covering a rally.
What Myanmar citizens did was to take photos of the rallies, at times with the use of hidden cameras or camera phones. Then, their videos found their way to international news organizations and to web pages and blogs.
A blog featured by CNN was that of Ko Htike at http://www.ko-htike.blogspot.com. Ko Htike is a 28-year-old Myanmar citizen currently in London for his studies. He said his is a blogger’s fight for Myanmar. He updates his blog several times a day or as soon as he received pictures from his country.
Ko Htike said residents do this at great risk to themselves because the Myanmar government has forbidden the taking of pictures of the protest actions, yet they find ways of sending the video to him and to foreign media outfits.
The CNN, in fact, has used several video clips submitted by dissidents inside Myanmar. CNN has not been allowed into the country.
In social networking websites like Facebook or in the video sharing website of YouTube, several photos and video clips on the Myanmar crisis have been uploaded for everyone to see. There are photos of wounded monks, the body of a badly-beaten monk floating face down in the river, the killing of the Japanese journalist, and the body of a dead activist.
They say that all it takes for evil to spread is for good men to keep quiet. The people of Myanmar have decided they cannot remain silent; the world must know what is happening inside the country. Technology is giving them the opportunity to be good men making a lot of noise.
