You’d be forgiven for thinking history is repeating itself. Only this time there is at least one significant difference. Access to immediate information.
You Tube, blogs, email, video taken from mobile phones - this time its less about the mainstream media on the ground and more about where they are getting their information from. Photos are catapaulted out via email, sometimes shaky footage taken on the run, but an immediate documentation of what is going on right now! Check our here and here to see the footage. Mainstream media is calling for footage and eyewitness accounts of those inside Burma.
Blogs have temporarily discontinued their analytical studies to provide video, photos and information of events as they unfold. Ko Htieke is a newsroom in himself right now. Prior to the more recent events Moezack was posting photos of the marching monks. For a very brief but fruitful one day he was Burma’s most popular blogger. Don’t bother visiting his site now though. You’ll only be greeted with the military’s intolerance of freedom of speech, ie a blank screen.
Mogok Media, a blog out of Kachin State (written in Burmese) has been reporting on political issues under the guise of environment and cultural documentation.
This time the people in Burma are providing us with information and we’re getting it live.
Of course the military are aware of this. There are already reports of the junta cutting off phone lines. Bloggers have been threatened or in the case of Moezack their site shut down.
But others continue on. Providing the rest of the world with records of what the Burmese are trying to achieve and what appalling retaliations the military is handing out. They’ll continue to do so for as long as they physically can.
Will the provision of immediate information and extensive documentation make this time different?
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