PRESS FREEDOM | Informing citizens, ensuring accountability
14 May 2008
Burma Imposing Heavy Restrictions on Disaster Coverage
News reports could spur more ordinary citizens to support relief efforts
Washington – Burma’s military leaders have accepted international aid donations in the wake of the May 2 and 3 cyclone, but they have carefully controlled all news coverage of the disaster from inside the country and all foreign reporters continue to be banned despite the scale of and global concern over the humanitarian catastrophe.
Journalists, of course, are suffering the same fate as professional emergency workers, whose requests to enter the country to deliver badly needed food, water, medicine and shelter continue to be held up by the junta.
But the news media plays an important role in the aftermath of humanitarian disasters, as Indonesia’s Jakarta Post argued on May 7, explaining how wide coverage of the December 2004 tsunami disaster affecting the Indian Ocean region led to unprecedented generosity on the part of individual aid donors around the world.
Foreign journalists were among the first to enter isolated areas of the Indonesian region of Aceh. There they found destruction and chaos -- with one third of Aceh’s administration dead -- few operable transportation or infrastructure resources and no assistance from authorities in the capital Jakarta.
“They had to be resourceful. Not surprisingly, some of the best journalism emerged from the Aceh tsunami, carrying powerful messages for people around the world to help in whatever way they could. Free access and unimpeded reporting certainly helped,” the Jakarta Post reported.
Thanks to the news coverage, ordinary citizens were moved to reach into their wallets and contribute to the assistance efforts. “They came from all walks of life, including prison inmates in Hong Kong and American schoolchildren donating their allowances for children in Aceh,” the Post said.
With Indonesia’s tsunami experience in mind, the article concluded that for Burma “to secure all the help it needs, the regime must open up the country to international journalists.”
But Burmese authorities have imposed strict roadblocks on routes leading to the affected areas, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported May 14, even refusing access to Burmese citizens if they could not provide exact names and addresses of people they said they would be visiting.
AFP said the official government media also has kept a firm control over information that is being provided to Burmese citizens.
“For days, state-run television has neglected the grim scenes of despair from the ruins of the southern Irrawaddy delta, instead broadcasting footage of generals handing out water and food to grateful citizens,” the article said.
The junta is allowing Burmese reporters to visit the affected areas, but has placed tight restrictions on what they are allowed to document.
JOURNALISTS PERSIST DESPITE CENSORSHIP, HARASSMENT
India’s New Delhi Mizzima reported May 12 that the coverage of the disaster inside Burma has been very general in nature, with journalists closely watched by the authorities and having difficulty conducting interviews with survivors or taking photos. Reporters are allowed to mention only death tolls that have been broadcast or published in the official state media, which currently stands at 38,500 dead and 27,838 missing. International organizations estimate the death toll to be closer to 100,000, with millions in need of help.
One Burmese journalist told Mizzima under condition of anonymity that "we cannot mention about the insufficient aid for cyclone victims in delta regions and we are not allowed to publish close-up photographs of dead bodies in our journals."
"If you are carrying a camera, some authorities come and ask some questions, and we can only take photos when they are away," said another.
But some foreign reporters, working surreptitiously in nearly impossible conditions, are getting word out to audiences outside Burma of scenes of “almost unimaginable misery and despair” according to AFP.
“Untold numbers of corpses have been left rotting in ground that is little more than a saltwater swamp, thousands of hungry people are begging in the streets, and most rice stocks are soaked and ruined,” the report said.
The BBC’s Paul Danahar published a special report May 14 detailing how he became “briefly, the most wanted man in Burma” after reporting on the disaster.
“There were a handful of other journalists who had also sneaked into Burma as tourists but they were all working anonymously,” Danahar said. “I had done something foreign correspondents do not normally do in Burma. I had put my name and face on the TV while I was still in the country. “
Danahar’s account details his efforts to evade Burma’s military intelligence, and how he ultimately was deported by the authorities. For more information see “Escaping Burma's Special Branch” on the BBC News Web site.
