Media and Protests in the Myanmar Crisis

Abstract

Recent public protests that had initially started in Myanmar in August 2007 found strong publicity in international news media coverage. New communication technology played a key role in the circumvention of censorship and enabled the submission of information to a global audience. Many of these images and information were collected by citizen journalists. The impact of the internet became blatantly obvious when the regime took the extreme measure of a complete internet shutdown on 29 September to finally control the flow of information. This analysis examines the circumvention of censorship as well as the respective strategies of the involved actors in their news coverage. Moreover, the regime’s response to the high attention is of central interest as well as the context in which the media news coverage has operated. Arguably, global awareness led to a high amount of international pressure on the regime. It is argued that the regime responded with a mixed strategy of increased repression on the one hand and a more cooperative attitude on the international level on the other hand.