Cams Over Burma: Joshua Reports for 'Burma VJ'
Source: AOL
Posted: 05/05/09 2:35PM
Filed Under: Hot Docs 2009
Burma's only uncensored media outlet, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), is populated by reporters who are nothing less than heroic. In a country where international media is blocked and the local press is government-censored, DVB's undercover video journalists must navigate the military junta's omnipresent iron fist and the very real threat of torture in order to report the truth about Burmese life.
The bravest of these men may be "Joshua," the star of Anders Ostergaard's documentary Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country. Having been with DVB since it launched its own TV network in 2005, the Rangoon native knows everything about the organisation and its recruits. Unfortunately, that means that if Joshua is caught by the Burmese government they will do anything in their power to obtain this information. The 27-year-old reporter thus uses a pseudonym in order to protect his family, his colleagues and himself.
'Burma VJ' at Hot Docs |
All photos and captions by Christopher Manson. www.christophermanson.com |
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Burma has been ruled by the military since General Ne Win led a coup in 1962. From 1964 to 1988, his Burma Socialist Programme Party became the country's only political party and rendered the country impoverished. From the start there were protests against the government, often organised by students, and these were virtually always violently suppressed by the military.
Joshua documented the Burmese anti-government protests in August 2007. Following the arrest and detainment of a number of the protesters, Burma's Buddhist monks took to the streets in peaceful protest, an action that was unprecedented for the otherwise non-partisan spiritural community. The direct cause of the uprising was the junta's decision to remove fuel subsidies, causing petrol and diesel prices to skyrocket. Burma VJ documents the events that surround these protests.
AOL sat down at Toronto's Hot Docs festival to talk with Burma VJ star Joshua, Dutch director Anders Ostergaard, and the deputy executive director of Democratic Voice of Burma, Khin Maung Win.
I thought the government in Burma would be a lot less blatant in their abuse of power than they are in this film. None of their activities are particularly surreptitious in 'Burma VJ.' Is this what the oppression is like in Burma?
Khin Maung Win: What you learn from the film is a very small portion of the [Burmese] reality. For example, you can’t visit your family – your mother, your brother – and stay overnight without government permission. You will be taken away during the night [if you do]. That’s normal procedure for ordinary citizens.
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They [also] use this tactic to punish political advocates for staying overnight with their parents. But the political advocates know they will use these tactics to punish them, so they go to the local authorities to ask permission. They don’t give them permission and at night they come and arrest them.
This is why Aung San Suu Kyi [pro-democracy activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her non-violent struggle under Burma's military dictatorship] says: “There are two types of prisons in Burma: one with walls and one without.” That’s how the Burmese people have been living for more than half a century.
One of the most poignant moments in the film is right before the monk's demonstration. Joshua, you're on a public bus and you sense a change in the air, but you're unable to question anyone because in Burma trust can lead to you being informed upon. As a journalist, how do you get around this wariness?
Joshua: When you’re talking about not trusting people, you may be talking about the time before the monks’ demonstration. Of course, the government [still] uses informants and intelligence to investigate people. The other thing is, we are undercover journalists and we cannot show our press cards to everybody. They might want to talk to a reporter but they may think [the actual reporter is] an informant. So, what we have to do is we just try to make conversation and build trust. We have a strong rule in DVB that if we don’t get the permission, we would never show the face or we only use the voice without identifying [the source].
Since the monks’ demonstration, people find the camera to talk to reporters. Before this, our stories were without interviews. But people have seen what we can do: because of the cameras on the street, there were less people killed on the streets in Rangoon during the monks’ demonstration. When the government knows there are a lot of reporters with cameras, they do less violence. They were still strong, but they didn’t use the same force as before.
Do people usually seek out DVB reporters solely?
J: Well, for TV we are the only channel with which they can talk openly. Burma doesn’t allow international journalists with press visas. We don’t have any private channels, only government television and DVB.
How do you, as a video journalist, remain inconspicuous?
J: I just behave as an ordinary person. I am quite OK in Rangoon because I have been living there for many years. I know everything about Rangoon. Now I can even tell people how to find a story, from Thailand. Sometimes I talk to junior reporters and they don’t know what to cover. I just say, “OK, go to that bus stop and you will see a grocery store and you will find someone to speak to.”
If a reporter in Burma is arrested, what can happen to them?
J: One of my colleagues was arrested just after the monk’s demonstration. He was paralysed by torture, his nose was broken and he has been in prison for 17 years now. We even have a reporter who is in for 65 years.
'Burma VJ' Trailer
But I would be the worst because I know 100% about the [DVB] network and about the operation. I’m one of the first generation of DVB reporters with a camera. And, of course, I’m Joshua. So, they will find out everything I know.
During the investigation you have to face a lot of torture, so you are expected to want to get to the prison as fast as you can. You just want to reveal everything because you cannot resist the torture.
KMW: We [DVB] don’t allow journalists to know everything, that's not our policy. We just allow them to know the portions they need to know. For Joshua, he came to know everything because he went from being the most junior [person at DVB] to being a trainer for the new recruits.
Because of limited resources during the monks revolution, [our reporters] couldn’t work independently. All we had were 5-6 cameras and 4-5 computers, so they had to work together. That’s how they got to know each other. Joshua was the one making arrangements for everyone. If the government got Joshua, that would be a danger for him and for our network.
So, Joshua, do you have extra protection?
J: No, god protects me. [Laughs]
K: No one’s got protection in Burma. In the case of Aung San Suu Kyi, the whole population was condemning her detention but she was put under house arrest anyway. No one can really protect anybody in Burma.
In reviews of 'Burma VJ,' critics have written that the film is an indictment of the country's military dictatorship. But the film seems to show more the chink in the Burmese government’s armour. Was that the intention?
Anders Ostergaard: It was to show the power of the media. Cameras might be [the Burmese government's] biggest enemy ever. That’s a universal thing that goes for any tyrant anywhere in the world.
Was that the main point of the film?
A: It is about Burma but it is certainly also about what free media can do. I’m not only trying to promote the Burmese issue - this is important enough - but I’m also trying to inspire people to use cameras anywhere in the world.
Joshua, have you always wanted to be a reporter?
J: Yes, I actually wanted to be a reporter since I was a teenager. I was inspired by the reporters covering the war in Kuwait. I saw so many stories about this on TV. I had to go to my friend’s home and we see it together. And he is now working with me in Rangoon.
In the beginning I didn’t realize I would be a television reporter. I first worked as a print journalist. I thought all the [media outlets] were the same at the time, so I just went with a paper that would let me work. But that was a government propaganda machine. They published in English daily and I found out I couldn’t go on with this anymore because they were just telling me what to write. I moved to a private-run weekly paper, but that was the same because they were still legal. They had to pass a censorship board each week before they were issued.
Finally, I got into contact with the DVB. At the time they were launching a TV channel - the first free TV for Burmese people. I was proud to work with them.
Is TV available to everybody?
J: We have quite a large number of satellite receivers. You can say it’s illegal, but at the same time, the government gets licensing fees from them. It’s on the margin. Even the government officials – like senior ministers etc. – they don’t watch their government TV channels. They tune into CNN, BBC and even DVB. For them it’s too difficult to stop the DVB because even their people are getting information. They can’t see what’s happening in their area if they’re just looking at government media.
KMW: We started television in 2005. Until 2007, the government didn’t pay any attention to us. They allowed all the satellite TVs because they thought it was no threat to them – people were watching football matches and lotteries. Only when the monk demonstration went around the world and appeared on TV channels in Burma for 24 hours a day, did we become a threat.
At the end of 2007, they tried to raise the satellite licence fee. It was $8 (the average monthly wage of a Burmese resident is $30) and they increased it 100 times. Then they became worried that that would spark another demonstration.
Has the Burmese government commented on 'Burma VJ?'
[Collective laugh]
A: It would be very unwise of them to give it that kind of attention.
Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country screens at Hot Docs on May 6 at 1:45 pm at The Isabel Bader Theatre and May 10 at 7:15 pm at The ROM Theatre. To learn more about Democratic Voice of Burma, go here .
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