Myanmar coup demonstrates fragility of reliance on the Internet

Myanmar coup demonstrates fragility of reliance on the Internet

Myanmar coup demonstrates fragility of reliance on the Internet

The International Telecommunication Union estimates that 53.6% of the world’s 7.75billion population are users of the Internet. The internet is inextricably linked to the lives of many of these four billion plus people. They rely on it for communication, entertainment and information. It provides a window on the world. That frightens some governments and so the Internet becomes vulnerable to being the first “off switch” that authoritarian regimes reach for at times of crisis.

That is exactly what happened in Myanmar as the military coup unfolded at the start of February 2021. Telecommunication connections were disrupted from around 0300 local time in the country on 1 February. By 0800, according to Netblocks, national connectivity fell to around 50% of usual levels. By midday on 1 February, connectivity had increased to around 75% of normal levels.

On 3 February, users of state-owned provider MPT found that access to Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and in part WhatsApp was restricted. On competing Telenor, restrictions on Facebook were more limited. On the evening of 4 February, Facebook was curtailed on most major telecom operators in the country, ranging from restricted access to the Facebook website to blocking the entire suite of Facebook products and mobile applications.

At the weekend, connectivity fell across Myanmar with users of major networks in the country reporting difficulty getting online. This increased level of restrictions came as protests against the military coup gathered pace across the country. By the afternoon of Saturday 6 February, the Internet was almost entirely shut down.

Telling the story is a challenge

The restrictions made reporting from Myanmar challenging for broadcasters, with limited access to pictures and reports as the Internet shutdown continued. Via the AIB, pooling of resources started to be discussed as rivalries between channels were put aside in an effort to report about developments in the country to the world.

Berlin-based news agency Ruptly says that it has provided a range of coverage from Myanmar since the coup. The agency has two producers on the ground in the country and is also sourcing and verifying UGC to offer the most complete coverage it can aim for. The agency says that its live coverage at the beginning had to be covert, filmed from within the crowds of protesters.

For continuing coverage, Ruptly says that it aims to provide live transmissions every day as further crackdowns against protesters loom. Both its producers on the ground are active and are following events. Ruptly’s Video Unit team is collecting a portfolio of sources among protesters and will try to uncover “side stories including small experiences that reveal bigger impact”.

Reaching audiences in the country

For broadcasters trying to serve audiences in Myanmar, the challenge of Internet restrictions is a major headache. With international broadcasters now relying heavily on social media platforms and their own websites to reach audiences, a shutdown such as the one imposed in Myanmar means significant potential reductions in impact in the country. Shortwave broadcasts do remain on the air in the Burmese language from the BBC, Radio Free Asia, NHK World and Voice of America, alongside religious broadcasters Adventist World Radio and Trans World Radio. However, shortwave has fallen out of fashion in Myanmar just as it has in the rest of the world, so its reach is limited compared to the immense potential audience that exists in the online world.

Broadcasters aiming programmes to Myanmar are encouraging audiences to use VPNs to access services. The use of VPNs has increased dramatically since the coup with some reports estimating that requests for VPNs from people in the country have increased by 4,600%. Specialist peer-to-peer services such as BriarOuinetNewNodeQaul.net, and Ayanda promoted by the US-based not-for-profit Open Technology Fund allow users to potentially circumvent national restrictions to access Facebook and similar social media platforms. Other services include Psiphon, Lantern, FreeBrowser and the Tor Browser.

Meanwhile Norway’s Telenor – which operates Telenor Myanmar – says that since restrictions were imposed in certain regions in the country in June 2019, it “has been advocating for the restoration of services and emphasised that freedom of expression through access to telecoms services should be maintained for humanitarian purposes”.

It is unclear when the restrictions on Internet access and social platforms will be lifted in Myanmar. It is worth noting that even in Myanmar, pressure delivered by social media on the military has been effective. Freedom House reports that after a video showing abuse at a military academy went viral in Myanmar, public outrage forced the military to launch a high-level investigation, something that Freedom House says was an unprecedented gesture toward accountability from the country’s most untouchable institution. Perhaps there is hope that the current shutdown will be relatively short-lived.

 

Photo: A couple interrupt their wedding in Myanmar to join protesters against the military coup TWITTER/@KhinGantgawKyaw

VoA Bangla launches Rohingya lifeline radio show

VoA Bangla launches Rohingya lifeline radio show

The Voice of America’s Bangla language service has launched a five-day-a-week radio show in Rohingya, the language spoken by Muslim refugees who have fled Myanmar. More than 800,000 people have taken refuge at the Kutupalong camp, one of the world’s largest refugee camps at the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.

Titled Lifeline, the 30-minute radio show is transmitted via short and medium wave. The programme focuses on the lives and needs of the refugees, providing them with valuable information on security, family reunification, food rations, available shelter, education and health including vaccinations and water purification. In addition, a daily segment of the programme offers the refugees the opportunity to share their stories, extend greetings to their families and learn about the hazards of joining extremists groups. One overarching objective of the broadcast is to counter Muslim extremists’ narratives and recruitment efforts in the camps and inform the Rohingya about the US and the international community’s involvement in the crisis.

“After visiting Cox’s Bazaar and the Kutupalong refugee camp last year, it became obvious to me that we needed to address the informational needs of these people caught in the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world today,” said VOA Director Amanda Bennett. “Providing them with a reliable and authoritative source of news, as well as practical information that will improve their lives, is what the Voice of America does well in various hotspots around the world.”

Prior to launching the Rohingya language programme, a VOA Learning English team travelled to the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, in March of this year at the invitation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The VOA instructors offered six days of intensive training on teaching techniques and methods for 100 selected English teachers. The teachers, in turn, will use their new skills to train a further 5,000 of their colleagues in the camps.

One year on, Reuters journalists remain imprisoned in Myanmar

One year on, Reuters journalists remain imprisoned in Myanmar

News organisations across the world have marked the one-year anniversary of the jailing of two Reuters journalists in Myanmar.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were convicted of breaching the country’s official secrets act, despite a lack of credible evidence against them and in the face of international condemnations from governments and civil society organisations.

On 12 December, fellow journalists and others working in the international news industry came together to demonstrate their solidarity with Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo as our selection of images shows.

At the AIB, we too have marked the anniversary. We have raised the issue with the Myanmar Ambassador in London – although we have yet to receive any acknowledgement or response from the Embassy. Along with other organisations involved in media freedom, we will continue to seek the release of the Reuters journalists, as well as pressing home the need for media freedom through a new collaborative venture that the AIB is developing with its Members across the world.

Burmese edition of BBC’s Click now on MRTV

Burmese edition of BBC’s Click now on MRTV

BBC News Burmese has launched the Burmese edition of the BBC’s flagship digital technology programme, Click.   The weekly programme is aired in Myanmar by the country’s largest TV network – the state broadcaster MRTV – and is available on demand on the BBC News Burmese website bbc.com/burmese and YouTube channel.

 

The weekly 10-minute edition of the BBC’s TV guide to the latest technology news is produced and presented by BBC News Burmese. Click brings latest reports on apps, gadgets and games, and on technological innovations from around the world.

 

BBC News Burmese Editor, Soe Win Than (Min Htet), says:  “In addition to BBC radio content, MRTV will now broadcast our new TV programme which will inform viewers about the most important global and regional developments in the world of digital technologies, and about the technical know-how to help improve their daily lives. This is excellent news for the BBC’s presence in Myanmar and our collaboration with MRTV. I hope our audience will welcome this addition to their weekly evening TV schedule.”

 

MRTV rebroadcasts BBC News Burmese weekly radio programmes: the youth show, Mobigeno (Monday at 15.15 local time), the technology and digital innovations programme, CoolTech (Tuesday at 14.20), and the programme about innovative farming methods, San Thit Tehtwin Lai Myay Ta Kwin (Thursday at 08.45).

 

Director of MRTV, Moe Thuzar Aung, adds: “I am really glad that, thanks to our cooperation with the BBC’s Burmese service, our channel will bring the latest technology news around the world to our audiences.”

 

Click will be broadcast by MRTV at 18.15 local time on Fridays and will be repeated the following Mondays at 09.20.  The programme will be available on demand on the website bbc.com/burmese and BBC News Burmese YouTube channel.

 

In addition to collaboration with MRTV, the BBC News Burmese Monday to Friday TV news programme is broadcast by Myanmar’s digital channel, Mizzima TV (20.45).  The radio programmes, Global Newsbeat, Mobigeno and the English-learning series, The English We Speak, are aired by Myanmar’s FM network, Padamyar FM.  Daily top headlines from the BBC News Burmese website are directly available to users of Yangon-based website, Frontier Myanmar.  Selected stories appear on the Burmese-language index of Thailand-based news website, Khaosod.

 

Burmese-speaking audiences can access the BBC via Facebook (over 14m followers), as well as Twitter and YouTube.

 

BBC News Burmese is part of the BBC World Service.

(Source: BBC press release)

US international broadcaster cuts operations in Myanmar

US international broadcaster cuts operations in Myanmar

Radio Free Asia (RFA), the private, nonprofit US government-funded corporation that broadcasts to Asian countries, halted its TV broadcasts to Myanmar saying it “will not compromise its code of journalistic ethics.”

Myanmar

RFA aired its last original TV broadcast on the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) network on state-owned Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) on 11 June.

RFA took this decision after the Myanmar government told DVB that it could not carry RFA’s programming if the word “Rohingya” continued to be used. RFA’s Burmese Service’s TV programming has been available on DVB since October 2017.

Explaining the  broadcaster’s decision to pull out, RFA’s President Libby Liu (pictured) said: “Radio Free Asia will not compromise its code of journalistic ethics, which prohibits the use of slurs against ethnic minority groups. RFA will continue to refer to the Rohingya as the ‘Rohingya’ in our reports. Use of other terms, even those that fall short of being derogatory, would be inaccurate and disingenuous to both our product and our audience.

“By forbidding the use of the word ‘Rohingya,’ Myanmar’s government is taking an Orwellian step in seeking to erase the identity of a people whose existence it would like to deny. RFA will continue to provide audiences in Myanmar with access to trustworthy, reliable journalism, particularly when reporting on issues that local and state-controlled media ignores and suppresses.”

Following a Burmese military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since August 2017.

RFA indicates that its content and programming will continue to be available for its audience in Myanmar on shortwave, social media (YouTube/ Facebook) and RFA Burmese’s website.

DVB, which aired RFA TV broadcasts, is a Thailand-based multimedia organization run by Burmese expatriates. It was launched in Norway in 1992, broadcasting to Myanmar on shortwave. It started TV broadcasts in 2005. In February DVB signed an agreement with MRTV to broadcast its channel free-to-air in digital format in the country.

Two Reuters journalists were arrested in Myanmar on 12 December 2017 and charged with violating the Official Secrets Act.