Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07CHIANGMAI33
2007-02-14 11:26:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Consulate Chiang Mai
Cable title:  

AN OVERVIEW OF NORTHERN THAILAND-BASED BURMESE MEDIA

Tags:  PHUM ECPS KPAO OIIP TH BM 
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 CHIANG MAI 000033 

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM ECPS KPAO OIIP TH BM
SUBJECT: AN OVERVIEW OF NORTHERN THAILAND-BASED BURMESE MEDIA
ORGANIZATIONS

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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 CHIANG MAI 000033

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM ECPS KPAO OIIP TH BM
SUBJECT: AN OVERVIEW OF NORTHERN THAILAND-BASED BURMESE MEDIA
ORGANIZATIONS

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1. SUMMARY. Increasing numbers of Burma-centric media
organizations operate out of Chiang Mai, creating a dynamic
community of exile journalists that produces a diverse and
relatively reliable stream of information for Burma watchers
both inside Burma and living abroad. Shut out from Burma by the
military junta's tight censorship and persecution of
journalists, these organizations find that northern Thailand
offers a convenient roost from which to observe events on the
ground in Burma and transmit information into their home
country. However, as exiles living in a foreign land these
journalists face security and legal challenges as they attempt
to build lasting institutions for a free press that cannot exist
under the current government in their own country. End Summary.

A Nexus for Burmese Exile Media
--------------


2. Chiang Mai has long served as a nexus for the Burmese
exile community - it is one of the closest population centers to
Burma's border areas and northern Thailand's growing number of
refugees, migrants, and exiles provides a local audience for
Burmese media and NGOs as well. In recent years, the Burmese NGO
presence has expanded, presenting new opportunities for these
fledgling Burmese media in exile to improve the quality of their
reporting and the reach of their distribution.


3. Despite the generally friendly climate in Thailand, these
organizations face significant challenges. Most Burmese
journalists working in northern Thailand do not have legal
residence status and do not speak fluent Thai. Exile groups must
remain in the good graces of their Thai hosts, particularly
security agencies, especially as they sometimes skirt
immigration and business ownership regulations. Some
organizations go so far as to feed information to the RTG's
National Intelligence Agency - one journalist shrugged off this
potential ethical conflict by noting that "we're both in the
business of collecting news."


4. Burma watchers throughout the international community
point to northern Thailand-based media as among their most
reliable and detailed sources for news out of Burma. Despite the

relative inexperience of many journalists working on the border,
as well as some of their organizations' own political agendas,
most observers see the reporting as generally accurate. Exile
reporters also strive to maintain close contact with journalists
operating inside Burma, who although they must bear government
censorship, are often able to better develop reliable sources
through more frequent and direct contact. The news gathered by
these internal Burmese reporters eventually filters out into the
exile journalism community and then into the larger
international media.

Media Organizations
--------------


5. THE IRRAWADDY. The crown jewel of the local Burmese media
community is The Irrawaddy (www.irrawaddy.org),founded in 1992
by former student dissident Aung Zaw. The English-language
Irrawaddy has grown substantially from its humble beginnings as
a largely volunteer-driven publication, and now operates on a
$700,000 annual budget with some 30 paid staff members. In
addition to a monthly magazine, its website features daily
updates and it runs its own in-house journalism training program
for new staff. The Irrawaddy maintains active sources inside
Burma and its generally thorough editing standards result in
better overall accuracy than its counterparts, according to many
Burma media consumers.


6. The Irrawaddy receives funding from a variety of sources,
including annual National Endowment for Democracy (NED) grants
that usually account for some 20 percent of its budget. However,
with a growing staff and a market eager to consume more news on
Burma, Irrawaddy managers told the Consulate they are looking to
diversify their funding pool with more grants from European
governments.


7. DEMOCRATIC VOICE OF BURMA. The Norway-based Democratic
Voice of Burma (www.dvb.no),also founded in 1992, moved its
Thailand headquarters to Chiang Mai last year and also maintains
a bureau in Mae Sot. DVB produces radio and television newscasts
for Burmese exiles and broadcasts its programs to audiences
inside Burma, achieving a radio listenership surpassed only by
BBC and Voice of America (VOA) and matched by Radio Free Asia

CHIANG MAI 00000033 002.2 OF 004


(RFA). Embassy Rangoon notes that these four radio services
supply many Burmese with their daily news, exceeding the
capacity for print and other media to reach the general
population.


8. DVB currently produces twice-daily hour-long radio news
segments and one-hour satellite television programming on
weekends. A DVB editor based in Chiang Mai said the
proliferation of cheap Chinese radios in Burma had increased its
potential radio audience, although he admitted the group's
official estimate of 10 million television viewers based on 2
million satellite customers seemed overly optimistic. Other
estimates peg the number of satellite dishes in Burma at no more
than 100,000.


9. In addition to a small NED grant and support from the
Norwegian government, DVB receives funding from several other
Europe-based organizations and governments. Local Chiang Mai
staff includes ethnic Burmese, Karen, and Kachin, along with a
Western reporter. DVB is using its Chiang Mai office to develop
sources in the border region and also to improve distribution of
its products inside Burma.


10. MIZZIMA. New Dehli-based Mizzima (www.mizzima.com) is
another exile media organization that has recently expanded to
open a formal presence in northern Thailand. Mizzima
journalists focus on gathering news from inside Burma via
networks of sources on the Burmese borders with India,
Bangladesh, Thailand, and China. Mizzima employees said the
company publishes 2,600 copies of a monthly journal targeted
mainly at the Burmese diaspora, while its website gets 3,000
visitors per day.


11. The multi-lingual Mizzima has also been working on TV
production since 2002, cooperating with VOA, DVB, RFA, and BBC
Burmese. In 2004 it located four of its 35 staff members in
Chiang Mai. It uses internship positions to develop and train
journalists and also encourages staff to network with Thai and
Indian journalists covering Burma. The overall organization
attracts funding from a number of sources including NED,
although the Canadian government is the primary supporter for
the Chiang Mai office.


12. ETHNIC MEDIA. In addition to exile media organizations
that attempt to cover all aspects of Burma's politics and
current events, several ethnic groups have focused resources on
maintaining their own media outlets for specific coverage of
their own interests. Groups such as the Shan, Kachin, and Karen
have developed their own media networks based largely in
northern Thailand. The ethnic media are popular in border areas
where audiences are more receptive to media in their own
languages than English or Burmese. Also, a perception that the
major exile media groups are dominated by the majority Burman
perspective leads some ethnics to shun those media, say some
journalists.


13. Founded in 1996, the Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN -
www.shanland.org) reports in four languages (Burmese, Shan,
Thai, and English) out of its Chiang Mai office. Media include a
website, with daily updates and 400-plus hits per day, and the
monthly Independence journal, which dates back to a 1974
newsletter put out by Shan activists. SHAN's coverage has a
significant focus on illegal drug trafficking and finds an
audience among academics, NGOs, and foreign governments. Its
staff includes four permanent positions and several part-time
help and freelance stringers who operate in both Thailand and
Burma.


14. Many non-Shan Burmese exiles and citizens (as well as the
SPDC) do not differentiate between SHAN and ethnic Shan
political groups resisting the military junta, such as the Shan
State Army-South. Although SHAN Editor-in-Chief Khuensai Jaiyen
told PolOff that SHAN journalists had moved beyond armed
political resistance, their tone remains distinctly activist:
"We started out as fighters and still are, but in the past we
used guns. Now we fight with the truth." Still, SHAN does not
keep formal ties with any political organization. Other media
groups with a presence in northern Thailand, such as the Burma
Independent News Agency, Karen Information Center, Karen
Students Network Group, and the Kachin News Group have more
readily apparent connections to political organizations
representing ethnic or political resistance groups.


CHIANG MAI 00000033 003.2 OF 004


Associations and Support Organizations
--------------


15. With the growing community of media organizations here,
many groups have banded together or sought to further expand
their network of contacts, and several umbrella groups and
associations have likewise established a presence in Chiang Mai.
Organizations such as the Bangkok-based South East Asian Press
Alliance (www.seapa.org) and Washington-based Burmese Media
Association (www.bma-online.org) have helped organize annual
conferences in Chiang Mai over the past three years and have
pooled resources for cross-organization journalism training.
Faced with limited budgets and the challenges of operating in a
foreign country, many of the smaller exile organizations can
turn to these umbrella groups for assistance with legal and
security issues. SEAPA also provides a connection to the larger
Asian press, creating the potential for exile reporting to reach
larger audiences and influence opinions among Burma's neighbors.

Equipping the Next Generation of Burmese Media
--------------


16. A number of active media training programs attract exiles
and those from inside Burma to Chiang Mai for journalism courses
ranging from one week to one year. These training programs
identify would-be journalists who are active in communities
inside Burma, as well as NGOs in Thailand, and help them secure
reporting positions with Burmese media outfits in the region.
The training programs help ensure that future generations will
be able to succeed the founders of the current organizations.


17. International NGO Internews began training Burmese
journalists in Thailand in 2000 and opened an office in Chiang
Mai two years later. Internews focuses on basic journalism,
business management, and media design. Local staff members
manage a one-year training program for approximately 15 students
per term. Of the program's 55 alumni, about 70 percent work as
active journalists. Nearly all local exile publications boast at
least one graduate of the program.


18. Other organizations, some with a scope beyond Burma, also
add to the educational opportunities for Burmese journalists.
The Chiang Mai-based Indochina Media Memorial Foundation, for
instance, last year completed training courses for Southeast
Asian reporters that included Burmese participants. Major
funders for journalism training programs in the region include
the NED, Open Society Institute (OSI),and several European
governments and charities.

Distribution
--------------


19. Journalists say that many people in Burma must elude
strict SPDC media controls and beware potential persecution
against anyone caught distributing magazines, pamphlets, or CDs
- thus creating major barriers to media access. Moreover, many
Burmese do not have access to the technology needed to access
electronic media. The junta's policies have prevented any
large-scale distribution of exile media, but some organizations
have found success with smaller operations.


20. Groups such as SHAN mail materials to contacts in southern
China, who then bring newsletters and CDs into Shan State and
elsewhere. SHAN and other exile groups told PolOff they feel
Burma's border with China is less closely monitored for
political activity than in Thailand. While Thailand offers a
freer environment for journalists than what they could find in
China, the SPDC keeps such a close watch over the Thai-Burma
border that many contacts do not want to risk a crossing there
carrying banned media.


21. As long as their scope remains small, most journalists say
they are able to get their product into Burma. A Mizzima
representative said her organization disguises CD-ROMs of radio
and television news programs as pirated American movie DVDs,
while others send their publications via ConGen Chiang Mai or
Embassy Bangkok to Embassy Rangoon for distribution via the
American Center. The American Center also produces daily news
clippings from dissident media organizations, inviting visitors
to see reports that ordinarily might not reach local audiences.
DVB staff said they have begun using opposition National League
for Democracy (NLD) members to help distribute materials through
their networks inside Burma.

CHIANG MAI 00000033 004.2 OF 004




22. Many exile journalists said they were successfully
reaching the Burmese public and even lower-ranking government
officials. A DVB television editor said he was able to get
officials at Insein Prison to comment off-the-record on new
arrivals and the health of long-term political prisoners. For
the most part, though, engaging with their targeted audience and
creating an open public forum for discussion remains an elusive
goal.

Activism vs. Journalism
--------------


23. As exiles, most of the Burmese journalists living in
Thailand don't see themselves as impartial observers to the
events in their homeland. Many are current or former members of
opposition groups such as the NLD, All Burma Students'
Democratic Front, and Assistance Association for Political
Prisoners. Some media organizations try to maintain barriers
between their operations and the leadership of political groups,
while training in journalism fundamentals by outside groups
helps to impart a greater understanding of ethics. Still, the
close-knit exile community leads to much overlap in membership
among smaller activist and media organizations. The larger
organizations such as The Irrawaddy and Mizzima (whose name
translates roughly as "Middle Ground" in Pali language),
meanwhile, have set up stronger standards of editorial review
and balance, if not outright neutrality.

A Friendly Audience
--------------


24. In a refreshing take for U.S. diplomats interacting with
foreign media, the exile journalist community here remains
steadfastly pro-American. Groups such as DVB and The Irrawaddy
continually seek more input from U.S. officials and make
frequent use of interviews, press releases and audio clips
posted on USG websites. A live interview with a U.S. diplomat is
a prized commodity, one even capable of stoking a healthy
competition among rival news organizations to land a scoop. A
2006 Irrawaddy interview with EAP DAS Eric John multiplied into
several articles and circulated widely throughout the exile
community and mainstream media.


25. USG funding plays some role in this goodwill, but much of
it comes from strong pro-democracy positions on Burma over the
years. Still, with USG money coming into these organizations via
NED, OSI, and others, there is a strong reliance on donor
funding for these groups' continued existence. Even the largest
media, such as the Irrawaddy, take in little advertising
revenue, and are not viable businesses.


26. COMMENT: It is encouraging to see such a healthy interest
in a free media and civil society prosper. The fiscal longevity
of these organizations remains heavily reliant on Western
funding, but there is no shortage of local exiles and young
activists within Burma eager to sign up for Thailand-based
training programs and become the next generation of Burma's free
media.


27. Like many of their political colleagues involved in
governments-in-exile, these Burmese journalists have created a
parallel existence in Thailand to one that they cannot have in
Burma. There are important aspects of a future "united Burma" in
their interactions with each other worth noting - such as the
potential for cooperation balanced against occasional ethnic
mistrust, as well as the struggle to maintain contact and
relevance with a home many left two decades ago. Rivalries and
frustrations do exist, both among the exile community and
between them and their counterparts inside Burma, who take great
risks to communicate with those on the outside. But the common
goal of getting information about the SPDC's misrule out into
the larger world hopefully serves as an effectively uniting
force to enhance cooperation to report timely, accurate, and
provoking news. End Comment.
CAMP