I. Background

New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists ranked Burma as No. 5 on the world's leading jailer of journalists list in 2006 and named one of the "Ten most censored countries" in a report entitled “Attacks on the Press in 2006”.

Successive Burmese military governments have exerted authoritarian control over all media, harassing or jailing journalists who strayed from the official line in their reporting or who helped foreign journalists with critical reporting.

At present, neither free press nor media schools exist in the country. But in Burma’s neighboring countries, number of Burmese journalists working for various news agencies, publications and radios is increasing. When democracy is restored in Burma, these exiled journalists will have a very important role in revitalizing country’s much neglected media and freedom of expression.

Annual Burma Media Conferences (BMC), organized by the Burma Media Association (BMA) and sponsored by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) serves as an important meeting point for exiled Burmese media community

The first BMC was organized by Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) in 2002. During the conference, the BMA was assigned by the delegates to take the responsibility of convening future media conferences. The second and third conferences were held in Chiangmai, Thailand in 2004 and 2005. The fourth Burma Media Conference, to which this report concerns, was again held in Chiangmai during 21-23 November 2006.

The National Endowment for Democracy partially sponsored the first two conferences, and the last two conferences were entirely supported by it.

II. Project Objectives

·             To consolidate efforts to protect Burmese journalists inside Burma and its neighbouring countries;

·             To facilitate cooperation among Burma-related media groups, with special attention on inter-ethnic and international collaboration; and

·             To improve the professional capacity of Burmese journalists.

III. Project activities

Organizing Committee

To be able to arrange the conference in satisfactory manner, following task groups were formed in advance to take care of administrative, financial and security matters.

Administration: Maung Maung Myint (Norway), Zin Linn (Bangkok), Nyein Wai (Maesot), Thet Linn (Japan) and Yan Naing Htun (Korea) took the administrative responsibilities of the conference.

Finance: Financial issues were managed by Maung Maung Myint and Thinn Thiri (France), and supervised by Oo Oo Khin, BMA’s treasurer.

Security: Nyein Wai (BMA, Maesot) and Aung Moe Myint (Network Media Group, Chiangmai) coordinated with Thai officials for safe transport of participants from border areas.

Participants

125 potential participants were invited to attend the conference among which 115 responded positively including three journalists from Burma.

Two BBC journalists were not able to attend as the conference coincides with their in-house journalism training in Indonesia.

Most of the participants are based in Thailand, but journalists from India, Bangladesh, Korea, Japan, Philippines, USA, France and Norway also attended the conference.

Some journalists and journalism students from Chiangmai who were not previously notified about the conference also came to attend the conference. Altogether 113 participants were registered at the conference. Among them are – 13 senior journalists and media teachers, 4 senior officials from Burmese language international radio stations, 26 radio/video journalists, 46 Print-media/Multimedia journalists/personnel, 12 journalism-students, 4 representatives from Press Freedom Organizations, 5 representatives from Rights Organizations, 2 Burma Analysts, 1 representative from donor organizations. Some journalists from Chiangmai attended the conference without having registered at the front desk.  (Detailed list of the registered participants in alphabetical order is described underneath.)

Senior journalists and Media teachers: 13

Senior officials from Burmese language foreign radio stations: 4

Broadcast Media: (Radio & Video): 26

Print media/Multimedia: 46

Journalism-students: 12

Press Freedom Organizations: 4

Rights Organizations: 5

Burma Analysts: 2

Donor organizations: 1

Among the participants 25 people from Thai-Burma border areas (Maesot and Sankhlaburi) didn’t have travel permit in Thailand. BMA had to cooperate with local Thai security officers to bring these journalists to Chiangmai.

Participants from Thai-Burma border regions had to submit their names and photographs to local Thai intelligence officers 2 weeks before the conference. The officers then made necessary coordination with their colleagues in Chiangmai to safely transport the participants to the conference.

The conference hotel was chosen after a careful consultation with Chiangmai Security Officers. During conference days, two Thai intelligence officers stationed at the conference arena – perhaps to watch the movement of the border-based journalists and monitor the proceedings of the conference. After the completion of the conference, border-based participants were brought back by Thai Military Intelligence to their place of domicile.

Although the whole security arrangement was very expensive and stressful to all parties concerned, everything went well.

Conference Agenda

Based on the Opinion Poll from BMC 2005, Conference Agenda was designed to include 3 components – (1) panel presentation, (2) workshop and (3) Lightning Courses. Panel presentations were conducted either in English or Burmese and followed by question and answer sessions. Workshops and lightning courses were conducted only in Burmese, carried out in round-table fashion and participation was open to all. Nevertheless, a profession real time translation service with 40 headsets was provided to make sure that no one missed anything because of language barrier.

            Traditionally, BMC conference proceedings take place for 2 days. But the urgent issue of protecting Burmese journalists in Burma’s neighboring countries convinced us to use 23 November morning session for this particular issue. 23^rd November proceeding was jointly organized by BMA and SEAPA – BMA provided the location and facilities (with no extra expense involved), and SEAPA provided the BKK-CNX travel expense for 4 people who were originally not on the list of BMC invitees. BMA did not receive any kind of financial or material support from SEAPA for this matter.

21 November 2006

Panel Presentations 1: “Challenges in Media”

(1) “Perils & Promises of Media Freedom: Solidarity in the Struggle for Democracy” – Chris Conybeare

(2) “Burma Media Watch: Ups and Downs in 2006” – Zin Linn

Panel Presentations 2: “Burma Media”

(1) “Exile Burmese Media seen from Thai Perspectives” – Wandee Suntivutimetee

(2) “New Media For New Generation” – Kanjin Sugita

Panel Presentations 3: “Video Journalism”

(1) “Power of the Video Cameras” – Khin Maung Win

(2) “Video Journalism in Documenting Human Rights Violations”  – Sam Kalyani

Panel Presentations 4: “Literature, Media and Burma”

(1) “Art and Burmese Politics” – May Nyane

(2) “Burmese Poems Before and After 1988” – Nyein Wai

(3) “Different Roles of Literature and Journalism: Burma Context” – Than Win Htut

Lightning Courses:

(1) “Basic Concepts in Photo Journalism” – Khin Maung Soe

(2) “Basic Concepts in Video Journalism” – Khin Maung Win

22 November 2006

Panel Presentations 1: “Media Freedom”

(1) “Young Ethnic Journalists: A New Voice for Social Harmony” – Name withheld

(2) “Protection of Journalists in Conflict” – Mr. Red Batario

(3) “How to Overcome Internet Censorship” – Philippe Latour

Panel Presentations 2: “Media and Community 1”

(1) “Media as a Tool to Promote Community Health” – Dr. Lun Swe

(2) “Prospects of Burmese Online Media” – Maung Tharmanya

Panel Presentations 3: “Media and Community 2”

(1) “Politics and Media: An Unholy Mix?” – Mya Kyay Mone

(2) “Burma Media Institute: What is it? Do We Really Need it?” – Maung Maung Myint

Workshop 1: “How to Strengthen Burmese Media Quality”

Session 1: Discussion on “Biases and Balancing in News Reporting”