Myanmar's Junta 'Block or Censor' Everything, Journalists say
With the risk of arrest or injury high for those reporting on the Myanmar junta, many journalists have fled to borderlands or neighboring countries.
From there, journalists like Hsa Moo try to keep news flowing to their audiences.
Working from the Thai border, Hsa Moo documents evidence collected directly from her sources in Myanmar's Kayin State. Her coverage includes military clashes and how the military coup is impacting communities and internally displaced people or IDPs.
It's a tough beat. Airstrikes from Myanmar military warplanes and helicopters make travel risky in what is one of the hardest hit regions.
Under attack
Normally controlled by the Karen National Union army's 5th Brigade, the region has come under attack from junta forces.
"When you go, you face the Burmese army shelling and everything," said Hsa Moo, as she edited photographs of a bombed village.
But she added, "When you see the [displaced people] and when they see you, they also feel very happy because they know that somebody, some people, still care for them,"
Hsa Moo contributes to the Karen Peace Support Network, a civil society network for one of Myanmar's ethnic groups. Made up of 30 organizations in Myanmar and Thailand, the network provides support and information to communities in the region.
Like Hsa Moo, many Myanmar journalists have chosen to work in neighboring countries. Some are trying to avoid arrest. Rights groups say the junta is using laws to target critics.
"If you are inside Burma [Myanmar] they will just block or censor everything. The government has a propaganda newspaper and the TV shows, but that is all the lies," Hsa Moo said.
The junta is also proposing cybersecurity legislation that could block the use of Virtual Private Network or VPNs.
With access blocked in Myanmar to social media and other websites, VPNs have offered a workaround for those wanting access to information.
Many had come to rely on social media as a source of news. When Myanmar opened up in the early 2000s, a number of independent media turned to Facebook as a platform to post news from their regions.
"Myanmar is not like other countries. Before, it was called the Facebook nation because 99% of the public use Facebook so that is why [military] also tried to ban Facebook," said a Kachin news editor, who goes by the pseudonym Seng Li.
