Beyond Borders | Myanmar in Mayhem, A Radio Station That's More than Radio and Migrant Workers in COVID-19
Many might find it harder to be celebratory as our corner of Southeast Asia marks the traditional new year – Songkran in Thailand, Pimai in Laos and Thingyan in Myanmar – next week.
As the brutality continues in Myanmar, countries like the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia find themselves in new outbreaks of COVID-19. Public Songkran activities have just been cancelled, entertainment venues - the source of the new cases - are expected to close for two weeks and offices are headed back to work-from-home routines.
Myanmar, of course, continues to wage a struggle on these two fronts - a political crisis and a pandemic. The level of brutality has now ascended to what some find unreal: the killing of children, the stealing of corpses. The evening news on controlled TV announces lists of people for whom warrants of arrest are issued - and identifies them by their Facebook profile photos and links to their FB account. An ASEAN leaders' summit is due to be held within April. This month too, news reports say, the formation of a unity government around a federal system is due to be announced.
But a sense of foreboding, about civil war not being far away, is there too: There is talk of more people training on how to make bombs, willing to take up arms. This week saw several unexplained explosions in Yangon. Key cities in Myanmar are looking like war zones and the number of internally displaced urban residents continues to rise. The Thai-Myanmar border drew attention in the wake of the Myanmar military's airstrikes in Karen state in late March, causing people to flee towards the Thai side. This reminds us too of the nearly 92,000 refugees from Myanmar still in the camps on the Thai side (infographic below).
In this issue, we discuss the realities about journalism in Myanmar: Many are on the run, out of jobs and were not given due benefits and/or salaries in recent months. Below too are updates on journalists' arrests, and links to Reporting ASEAN's data viz on this. Here too is a chat with Khaosod English on Myanmar's journalists.
We look at what has changed, if any, in the understanding of migrant workers' lives amid COVID-19 in Singapore and Malaysia, as well as how a Lao radio station is making waves thanks to a creative push by the pandemic.
The new year may be more muted, but sawasdee pii mai anyway to all of us –
Johanna Son - Editor/Founder, Reporting ASEAN
1 Myanmar in Mayhem
No-Safety Zone: 5 Realities About Journalism in Post-coup Myanmar -
BY KO THET PAING in Yangon and JOHANNA SON in Bangkok
Amid risks to their lives, worries about getting arrested and the loss of jobs, Myanmar's journalists face a a future of tough questions. But the hardy profession soldiers on in the face of the military's crackdown on media.
Updates on arrests of journalists
Click below for full data viz, which Reporting ASEAN updates regularly with data from inside Myanmar — www.reportingasean.net
Data from the Detained Journalists Information group, plus other verified information from within Myanmar. Data viz by Yvonne T Chua.
2 Infographics: Remembering refugees | Costs of internet shutdown
3 Migrant Workers and COVID-19
The ‘We’ Needs to Include Migrant Workers — www.reportingasean.net
BY PHILIP GOLINGAI
Read this in Burmese | in Thai
COVID-19 may have forced Singapore and Malaysia to address the appalling living conditions of migrant workers they host. But larger and wider problems persist.
4 #mediaonmedia
INTERVIEW: In Laos, A Radio Station That's More Than Radio — www.reportingasean.net
BY VANNAPHONE SITTHIRATH
COVID-19 was bad news for many media outlets, but it pushed Lao Youth Radio to experiment. It's now an online media outlet with infographics and visual stories, keen on hosting networking among young journalists. Reporting ASEAN talks to its founder and managing director, Bounheng Southichak.
5 Clickworthy
Amid Myanmar's Military Takeover, a Dissident Musician Speaks Out — www.rollingstone.com
"But we will not be saved by the world. It’s a bitter truth. And it’s really hard for me to convince the young people that they should let go of hope of being saved by the international community. They really believe in it. And I don’t believe in it. We will not be saved by the U.N., for sure. The U.N. will probably release 1,000 more statements, and maybe they will release stronger statements, but … I don’t know," indie-rock musician Darko tells 'Rolling Stone'
Why are Myanmar 'realists' desperate for compromise? - Asia Times — asiatimes.com Bill Hayton, associate fellow with the Asia-Pacific Program at Chatham House, has earned some flak over his argument that the international community
Researchers Are Hatching a Low-Cost Covid-19 Vaccine — www.nytimes.com A new formulation entering clinical trials in Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam could change how the world fights the pandemic.