Surveillance, fear: The perils of reporting in Myanmar's Rakhine

Sub-title: 

Myanmar is restricting media access to the far western state of Rakhine where the military is fighting Arakan Army rebels.

Description: 

""I think I might have told you too much already. Someone will probably tell the government I've been speaking to journalists," the shopkeeper told me. We were in Maungdaw, a once-bustling town in the northern part of Rakhine state, Myanmar. We looked around. There wasn't anyone who stood out as secret police. After all, it's usually not difficult to pick them out. They are normally better dressed than villagers. A close-cropped haircut means they are most likely to be military intelligence. Sometimes there's a tell-tale sign- a walkie talkie. But the shopkeeper was still worried. He wouldn't tell us his name or give us his phone number. We were on a government-arranged media trip to northern Rakhine. This was where the Myanmar military had launched a brutal crackdown on 25 August 2017, targetting the mainly Muslim Rohingya, an ethnic minority in Myanmar. Soldiers and Buddhist mobs were accused of killing, torturing and raping Rohingya men and women. Homes were ransacked and set ablaze. The fires raged for days and could be seen from across the border in Bangladesh..."

Creator/author: 

Florence Looi, Cape Diamond

Source/publisher: 

"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)

Date of Publication: 

2020-03-06

Date of entry: 

2020-03-06

Grouping: 

  • Individual Documents

Category: 

Countries: 

Myanmar, Bangladesh

Administrative areas of Burma/Myanmar: 

Rakhine State

Language: 

English

Resource Type: 

text and video

Text quality: 

    • Good