Taking Journalistic Risks in Myanmar

Myanmar’s junta has said foreign powers and journalists are responsible for the recent unrest. It accuses them of inciting the population to protest.

It was the Japanese journalist's own fault that he died, says the state newspaper "The New Light of Myanmar". If he had behaved like a tourist, nothing would have happened to him -- he should not have been working as a journalist without telling the authorities.

But for a while now foreign journalists have not been able to get journalists' visas to Myanmar. Most who were able to report on the protests and brutal crackdown were there on tourist visas. As was the journalist Kenji Nagai.

"Accidental death"

Myanmar’s junta claims that his death was an accident. But it is clear from the footage of the whole incident that he was shot at close range by a soldier. He had no chance of survival, said David Jimenez from the Spanish daily newspaper "El Mundo" who witnessed the killing at close hand.

"We were just running when then they started shooting," he recalled. "Our Japanese colleague couldn’t get away -- in front of him were fleeing protestors whereas the soldiers were behind him. I ran to the side where there were fewer people and saved myself."

A British TV reporter, who wanted to remain anonymous so as not to jeopardise his helpers in Myanmar, described the soldiers' brutality: "It wasn’t clear how vicious or how brutal they might be. Obviously, we’d seen some very worrying things but those kinds of things like the Japanese journalist being killed just happened, and I wasn’t quite aware of them."

Smuggled footage

A reporter from a Thai television channel travelled to Myanmar shortly before the brutal crackdown. He and his cameraman brought back film footage of the last days, which could not be acquired from Myanmar itself because by then the junta had cut all access to the Internet and most journalists, amateur and professional, had been arrested or gone into hiding:

"Obviously, it was very difficult to film," Nipon Tungsangpratep said. "It was especially very dangerous to take pictures of the soldiers. But pretending to be tourists with our camera hidden in a bag, we did manage to film some scenes."

Not only was it dangerous to film but it was also very difficult to trust anyone said the anonymous British reporter: "You just have to be very careful who you work with, and that’s actually one of the trickiest parts of operating there because you don’t know whom you can trust, and a lot of the people who might be prepared to help and work with journalists have gone to ground for their own safety."

Protecting colleagues

El Mundo correspondent David Jimenez added that it's important to protect co-workers: "When I was doing risky things, such as taking pictures of the soldiers or talking to monks in a monastery, I always went alone in case those whom I was working with were arrested."

Whereas most foreign journalists have now left Myanmar, the Burmese journalists remain in constant danger, including those who are still managing to give information over the Internet about the on-going crackdown via photos, reports and blogs.

The junta is now taking revenge, said Zin Linn from the Burmese government-in-exile in Thailand. "They are searching the entire footage for people with cameras and mobile phones. They are looking for journalists and those who worked with them. They search their houses, one after another. It is a real manhunt."

The arrests in Myanmar are continuing despite international protests and agreements reached between the junta and the UN. Having arrested most of the protest leaders, the junta is now specifically targeting journalists in the hope that the international community will stop caring about Myanmar if it no longer gets any information.