Thazin Pan, Covering Asia special correspondent

When Burma was ranked by the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) as 163rd out of 167 countries in the “world wide press freedom index” this year, some Burmese journalists complained in whispers that RSF was not doing a good job. They said their country deserved to rank at least 166th in the index because its only major rival was North Korea. But later they agreed with a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on May 3, World Press Freedom Day, which ranked Burma as the world’s second most censored country after North Korea. At least CPJ seemed to realize that the country’s media policy is, “In Censors we trust”.

Not many people remember that Burma enjoyed a free press during the period of parliamentary democracy that lasted for 12 years after its independence from British rule in 1948. It was then a country with many respected and independent newspapers. But Burma became one of the most repressive societies in the world for media freedom after the army seized power in 1962. The Printers and Publishers Registration Act that can impose a jail term of up to seven years on journalists was established by the junta in that year. Independent journalism became a forbidden craft and Burma became “the land that time forgot.”
In order to pass on the principles of journalism, older editors and writers who experienced a free press with international standards of reporting teach the new generation in what are known as whispering classes. A veteran journalist in Rangoon has said that journalists have become the country’s most endangered species.
In fact, the junta has allowed the establishment of several new publications since 2005, and this new market has helped develop a younger generation of journalists. But some of those magazines included “sensitive” issues like HIV/AIDS and Burma’s environmental problems, which simply strengthened the military’s policy of tight control over the media.
The persistence of unfavorable conditions, such as repressive censorship and the lack of journalism schools and institutions, still generates lots of challenges for the media industry.
According to the censorship authorities’ recent announcement, there are 141 magazines and 121 journals in the country’s present market, but circulation remains limited. In Burma, a country with approximately 50 million people, a successful monthly news magazine has a circulation of only 4,000. One of the top weekly journals circulates 50,000 copies, while in neighboring Thailand, the 25 Bangkok-based newspapers average 4 million readers in Bangkok alone.
Since the country’s universities still have no room for journalism, young journalists have to study the reporting craft from short workshops run by the American Center and the British Council. Until recently these classes used the title “English Learning” to avoid the junta’s notice.
And when informal whispering classes began to play a major role in producing some of the most talented and dedicated young journalists in the society, the generals declared war against journalists in their mouthpiece newspapers. They accused journalists of cooperating with western neo-colonialists and warned that the whole media industry has the duty to counter those western destructive elements and their supporters.
The tension between the junta’s Ministry of Information and local journalists is growing. In 2006 the generals recruited a group of editors and publishers, who are known to be close to the Information Minister, by offering positions in the state-controlled Myanmar Writers and Journalists Association.
Their task was to serve as informants and report on movements in media circles while leading the campaign to counter critics from Western media and internal opposition groups. Many people said the generals’ hand-picked journalists had been noted for asking “leading questions” of the Information Minister in state press conferences.
Some organizers of the journalism workshops also came under surveillance by the notorious Military Intelligence. A magazine editor in Rangoon, who asked for anonymity, joked sadly that in Burma the watchdogs are watched by the dogs.
But even though Burma is one of the biggest jailers for journalists in the world, some brave, dedicated reporters and editors keep pushing their crusade to inform people. Their average monthly income is only US$ 50.
These self-taught watchdogs use photocopiers to exchange small reporting handbooks that widen their journalistic knowledge. But if the media are to play an important role in strengthening civil society, journalists will need further support and help from the outside world.
UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism provides a scholarship award for one journalist from Burma each academic year but this is clearly not enough to develop the industry as a whole. In order to democratize the country, even as the generals head in Pyongyang’s way to isolate the society, it is crucial to encourage the development of inside media.
This is the time for international NGOs, scholarship foundations, media organizations and universities to lend a hand to Burma’s struggling media society.