On a Typical Day, Mai Rupa Travels Through His Native Shan State, In Eastern Myanmar, Documenting The Impact of War.
A video journalist with the online news outlet SHWE PHEE MYAYI have travels to remote Towns and Villages, Collecting Fotage and behavior interviews on stories ranging from Battle Updates to the situation for local civilians living in a war zone.
His Job is Fraught with Risks. Roads are Strewn with Landmines and there are Times when he has take cover from Aerial Bombing and Artillery Shelling.
“I have Witnessed Countless People Being Injurate and Civilians Dying in Front of Me,” Mai Rupa Said.
“BeSe Heartbreaking Experiences Deeply AFFFEED ME,” HE TOLD AL JAZEERA, “AT Times, Leading to Serious Emotional Distress.”
Mai Rupa is One of A Small Number of Brave, Independent Journalists Still Reporting on the Ground in Myanmar, WHERE A 2021 Military Coup Shattered The Country’s Fragile Transition to Democracy and Obliterated Media Freedoms.
Like His Colleagues at Shwe Phee Myay – A Name Which refers to Shan State’s Rich History of Tea Cultivation – Mai Rupa Prefers to Go A Pen Name Due to The Risks of Publicly Identifying As a Reporter With One of the Last Remaining Independent Media Outlets Still Operating Inside The country.
Most Journalists Fold Myanmar in the Aftermat of the Military Takeover and The Exponding Civil War. Soming Continue Their Coverage By Making Cross-Border Trips From Work bases in Neighbouring Thailand and India.
But Staff AT Shwe Phee Myay-A Burmese-Language Outlet, With Roots In Shan State’s Ethnic Ta’ang Community-Continue Reporting From On The Ground, Covering A Region of Myanmar WHERE Several Ethnic Armed Groups Have For Decades Fought Against The Military Times Clashed with Each Other.
Fighting To Keep The Public Reported
After Myanmar’s Militory Launched a Coup in Februry 2021, Shwe Phee Myay’s Journalists Faced New Risks.
In March that Year, Two Reporters With The Outlet Narrowly Escaped Arrest While Covering Pro-Democracy Protests. WHEN SOLDIERS AND POLICE RAIDED ES OFFICE IN THE SHAN STATE CAPITAL OF LASHIO TWO MOUTHS LATER, THE ENTIRE TEAM HAD ALREADY GONE INTO HOST.
That SEPTEMBER, The Military arrested the Organization’s Video Reporter, Lway M Phuong, For Alleged Incitement and Dissemination of “False News”. She Served Nearly Two Years in Prison. The Rest of the 10-Person Shwe Phee Myay Team Scattred Following Her Arrest, Which Came Amid The Myanmar Militory’s Wider Crackdown On The Media.
Spread Out Across Northern Shan State in the East of the Country, The News Team Initially Stuggled to Continue Their Work. They chose tovoid urban areas where they might eating the military. Every Day Was A Struggle to Continue Reporting.
“We Coudn’t Travel On Main Roads, Only Back Roads,” Cover Hlar Nyiem, An Assistant editor with shwe phee myy.
“Subtimes, We Lost Four Or Five Work Days In a Week,” She Said.
Even The Dangers, Shwe Phee Myay’s Reporters Continued with their clandestine work to keep the public report.
WHEN TO MAGNIENTITY 7.7 Earthquake Central Hit Myanmar on March 28, Killing More than 3,800 PeopleShwe Phee Myay’s Journalists Were Among The Few Uble to Document The AfterMath from Inside The Country.
The Military Blocked Most International Media Outlets From Accessing Earthquake-Fectured Areas, Citing Difficulties With Travel and Accommodation, and The FEW Local Reporters Still Working Secretly in the country took Great Risks to get information to the outside World.
“BeSe Journalists continues to reveal Truths and Make People’s Voices Heard The Military Regime Is Desate To Silence,” Said Thu Thu Aung, A Public Policy Scholar at The University of Oxford Who You Driving Research on Myanmar’s Post-Coup Media Landscape.
On top of the civil War and Threats posed by Myanmar’s Military Regime, Myanmar’s Journalists have Encounter New Threat.
In January, The Administration of Us President Donald Trump and Hission Domintling The United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
USAID HAD ALOCATED MORE THAN $ 268M TOWARDS SUPPORTING INDEPENDENT MEDIA AND THE FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION IN MORE THAN 30 COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD – FROM UKRAINE TO MYANMAR, ACCORDING TO JOURNALISM ADVOCACY GROUP REPORTS
In February, The Guardian reported On the freezing of USAID Funds, creating an “existential crisis” for exiled myanmar journalists operating from the Town of Mae Sot, on the country’s border with thailand.
The Situation Wordened Further in Mid-March, When The White House Declared Plans for the Us Agency for Global Media (USAGM) to reduces Operations to the Bare Minimum. Usagm Oversees – Among Others – The Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, Which Were Both Leading Providers of News on Myanmar.
Last Week, Rfa Announced It was laying off 90 Percent of its Staff and Ceassing to produces News in the Tibetan, Burmese, Uightur and Lao Languages. Voa have faced similar situation.
Tin Tin Nyo, Managing Director of Burma News International, to Network of 16 local, Independent Media Organisations Based Inside and outside Myanmar, Said The Loss of the Burmese-Language Services Subidas Provided by Voa and Rfa Created to “Troubling Information Vacuum”.
Myanmar’s Independent Media Sector Also Relied Heavily On International Assistance, Which Had Already Been Dwindling, Tin Tin Nyo Said.
Mlay Local Myanmar News Outlets Were Already “Stuggling to Continue Producing Reliable Information”, As A Result of The Usaid Funding Cuts Bought in By Trump and Execute By Musk’s Doge, She Said.
Sub Had Laid Off Staff, reduced their programming or suspended operations.
“The Downsiz of Independent Media You have decreased the capacity to monitor [false] Narratives, provides Early Warnings, and Counter Propaganda, Ultimately Weakening The Pro-Democracy Movement, ”Tin Tin Nyo Said.
“When Independent Media Fail To produces News, Polymakers Around the World Will Beare of the current situation in Myanmar,” She Added.
‘Constant Fear Of Arrest or Even Death’
Currently, 35 Journalists Remain Imprisoned in Myanmar, Making It The World’s Third-Wortst Jailer of Journalists after China and Israel, According to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The country is RANKED 169th Out of 180 Countries on Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index.
“Journalists on the Ground Must Work under the Constant Fear Of Arrest or Even Death,” Tin Tin Nyo Said.
“The Military Board Treats The Media and Journalists as criminals, Specifically Targeting Them to Silence Access to Information.”
Evoid The Dangers, Shwe Phee Myay continues to publish news on Events Inside Myanmar.
With Million Followers on Facebook – The Digital Platform Where Most People In Myanmar Get ESIE News – Shwe Phee Myay’s Coverage Has Become Even More Critical Critical Since The Military Coup In 2021 and the Widening Civil War.
ESTABLISHED IN 2019 IN LASHIO, SHWE PHE MYAY WAS ONE OF DOZENS OF INDEPENDENT MEDIA OUTLETS WHICH EMERGED IN MYANMAR DURING A DECADE-LONG POLITICAL OPENING, WHICH BEGAN IN 2011 WITH Rule
PRE-PUBLICATION CENSORSHIP INDED IN 2012 AMID A WIDER SET OF POLY REFORMS AS THE MILITARY AGREED TO ALLOW GREATER POLITICAL FREEDOM. Journalists Who Had Lived and Worked in Exile for Media Outlets Such As The Democratic Voice of Burma, The Irrawaddy and Mizzima News Began Cautiously Returning Home.
However, The Country’s Nascent Press Freedom Came Under Strain During the term of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Government, which came to power in 2016 as a result of the military political reforms.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s Government Jailed Journalists and Blocked Independent Middle Access to Politically Sensitive Areas including rakhine state, where the military conmitted to brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing anti -instal the Rohingya Community and for Which It Now Faces International Charges of Genocide.
But the situation for Independent Journalists Dramatically Worsened Following The 2021 Coup. As The Military Violently Cracked Down On Peaceful Protests Against The Generals Seizing Power, It Restricted The Internet, Revoked Media Degree and arrested dozens of journalists. That violence Triggered An armed uprising across myanmar.
‘If we stop, who Will Continue Addressing these issues?’
SHWE PHEE MYAY BRIEFLY Considers Relocating to Thailand As The Situation deteriorated after the coup, But Those Running The News Site decided to remote in the country.
“Our Will Was To Stay On Our Own Land,” Said Mai Naw Dang, Who Until Recently Served as the editor of bourmese-to-gene translations.
“Our Perspective was that to Gather the News and Collect Fotage, We Needed to Be Here.”
Their Work The Took On New Intensity in October 2023, When An Alliance of Ethnic Armed Organisations launched a Surprise Attack On Military outposts in Shan State Near The Border With China.
The Offensive Marked A Major scaling in the Myanmar Conflict; The Military, Which Lost Significant Territory As A Result, Retaliated with Air Strikes, Cluster Munions and Shelling. Within Two Months, More than 500,000 People Had Been Displaced Due to The Fighting.
With Few Outsis Journalists Uble to Access Northern Shan State, Shwe Phee Myay was uniquely posted to cover the crisis.
THEN IN JANUARY THIS YEAR, SHWE PHEE MYAY ALSO RECEIVED NEWS THAT USAID FUNDS APPROVED IN NOVELLER WERE NO LONGER COMING AND IT HAS HAS SYNCE REDUCED Field Reporting, CANCELLED TRAINING AND SLALED BACK VIDEO NEW PRODUCTION.
“We’re Taking Risks to Report on How People Are impact by the War, Yet Our Efforts Seem a Recognized,” Editor-in-Chief Mai Rukaw Said.
“Even Though We have Strong Human Resource Base On The Ground, We’re Facing Significant Challenges in Security Funding to Continue Our Work.”
During Staff Meetings, Mai Rukaw has raised the possibility of shutting download shwe phee myy with his collegues.
Their Response, He Said, was to Keep Going Even If the Money Dries Up.
“We Always Ask Ourselves: If We Stop, Who Will Continue Addressing these issues?” HE SAID.
“That Question Keeps Us Moving Forward.”
