Bullets and mines give Violet's job an edge

By Brenda Cottingham

The first thing Burmese journalist Violet Cho noticed about New Zealand’s news media was its different news priorities – like a burglary story on page one of the NZ Herald.

The kind of journalism she does involves avoiding being shot or having her limbs blown off by land mines.

“I couldn’t believe that a burglary would be so important that it warranted being on page one,” she told Whitireia Journalism School students during a visit to Wellington this month.

She is surprised at the New Zealand media’s lack of international coverage and focus on local issues.

Violet has emerged from the unlikely roots of a Thai refugee camp, and is in New Zealand taking her journalism education a step further.

She fled Myanmar/Burma (she uses both names) with her family to Thailand when she was seven, and says growing up in a refugee camp was not easy.

A lot of young people were depressed in the camps, which indirectly spawned journalism and led to her career.

She was taught basic journalism by a South African woman, and with the help of the camp’s community leader, was able to covertly set up a radio transmitter within her camp, which raised spirits.

Telling the stories
Since taking up journalism, she has aimed to tell the stories of the people, but says getting even a simple story could prove dangerous and difficult because of the Burmese military presence.

In 2005, she risked her life reaching a remote Burmese village.

“The Burmese conflict policy is to shoot on sight,” says Violet.

The people of the village were teaching children to use whatever materials they had, which included a large stone-face used as a blackboard.

Violet, an indigenous Karen, holds a Burmese passport, and says Burma is a corrupt country where those in power do not share the wealth, and drugs and trafficking are just a few of the problems.

After she completes her journalism studies at Auckland University of Technology, she hopes to visit her family, who now live in America, before returning to work in Thailand.

Her dream is to see a free Myanmar and to work there.

Violet - who is hosted in New Zealand on the AUT University's Pacific Media Centre inaugural Asian Journalism Fellowship supported by the Asia: NZ Foundation - would like NZ journalists to visit Myanmar to write about the lives of the people and their hardships.

Picture: Violet Cho at Whitireia. Photo: Brenda Cottingham

Brenda Cottingham is a student journalist at Whitireia Journalism School in Wellington. This story was published originally on Newswire.

Karen journalist in critical voice for change
In exile - Bryan Crump on Radio NZ National's Nights (Nov 2)

Dissident journalist tells of media perils in Burma

By Vanita Prasad:
Pacific Media Centre

Risking your life is a given when reporting in and around Burma, says the Pacific Media Centre’s first Asian journalism fellow.

A moving seminar and film screening held by the centre at AUT University this week documented the perils of being a dissident Burmese journalist.

The seminar was delivered by Violet Cho, one of Burma’s “young heroes” – as she was described by an AUT academic in the audience - who spoke candidly about her life as an exiled reporter in the border territories of Thailand and Burma.

Cho, 25, an indigenous Karen, was born in Burma and has spent most of her life exiled in Thailand.

She learnt English in a refugee camp and worked for Irrawaddy magazine and an underground radio station.

She spoke of the secretive nature of journalism in a land where the media is suppressed and information must be smuggled to the outside world for fear of being thrown into jail or death.

“It’s hard to be an ethnic minority journalist in a conflict area because it’s secret and illegal,” said Cho.

She spoke of a trip she made back with a small group into Burma to document a mountain village on the border, a trip that should only take a few hours but because the travelled by foot it took days.

Cho described the intense fear of being caught at a checkpoint and shot for carrying a camera and film equipment.

“It was very dangerous, we couldn’t use torchlight, we walked quickly and we couldn’t stop.

'Too dangerous'
“It was even too dangerous to go to the toilet, so we had to just keep walking,” said Cho.

The film that followed Cho’s seminar echoed this plight.

Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country, directed by Dan Østergaard, documented the struggles and achievements of the underground journalist network Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), whose reporters risked their lives to give a voice to the silenced people of Burma.

They ran a bare bones operation using only handicams hidden in backpacks and sending their data to Oslo, Norway, to be compiled.

Their footage of the 2007 peaceful demonstrations led by monks against the junta - and brutally crushed - was used by major news networks worldwide to inform people about the dire situation of the Burmese people.

The junta then targeted DVB to shut down the operation which had exposed their brutality.

This meant that like the uprising which brought so much hope to the people of Burma, the DVB had to disband for safety.

Three of the members of the DVB were captured and are currently serving life sentences.

After the screening a discussion was held about the current situation in Burma.

Senior lecturer Alice U, an expatriate Burmese academic inAUT's School of Languages, said education was fundamental to the progress and liberation of Burma.

'Rice bowl'
“Before the military seized control Burma was considered the ‘rice bowl’ of Asia.

“Education was high and Burmese English set the precedent for neighbouring Asian countries.”

Naing Ko Ko, a prominent Burmese spokesman and council director for the Union of Burma, said the military regime in Rangoon spends less than one per cent of its budget on health and education.

Ko Ko, who spent nine years in jail as a political prisoner learnt English from a dictionary that was smuggled into his cell.

He has since gone on to complete two Bachelor of Arts degrees with honours, and is currently working on a Masters in International Relations at the University of Auckland.

Alice U said: “People who are still in the country and people who get out of Burma and get educated and risk their lives to expose the atrocities of the junta - like Violet and Naing Ko Ko - are the heroes.”

Violet Cho arrived in Auckland two and a half months ago and is doing a Bachelor of Communication Studies (Honours) at the Pacific Media Centre.

As well as her studies, she files stories for the PMC website and for Irrawaddy.

Her fellowship is funded jointly by the Asia New Zealand Foundation and AUT’s School of Communication Studies.

Vanita Prasad is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student.

Karen journalist in critical force for change
Irrawaddy Magazine
Underground 'VJs' expose Burmese horror
Pacific Media Centre's Asian Journalism Fellowship

From Thai refugee camp to politics student in NZ

By Deirdre Robert: Pacific Media Centre

It has been eight years since Cicilia Dwe and her family left their United Nations refugee camp in Thailand and set foot on New Zealand soil.

The Burmese 18-year-old is now looking to the future with her eyes set on gaining a politics degree at the University of Auckland, beginning in July.

The road to a brighter future has led from a tumultuous past.

Her parents fled Burma in 1988 during the student-led protests for democratic change, in which 3000 people are believed to have killed.

Cicilia Dwe (pictured) says her parents feared the ruling military junta of Burma and felt it was not safe to stay.

“In Burma the government can take away anything you own. If they decide to develop an area they can just take away your land. You have no rights.”

Dwe has family in Burma she has never seen and may never get the chance to meet.

Even as New Zealand citizens, Dwe and her family are on the blacklist, meaning if they return to Burma they could be at risk.

Born in Thailand, Dwe’s move to life in a refugee camp was sudden.

One day her sister picked her up from school and they went straight to the UN refugee camp where they were joined by their mother, father, three sisters and one brother.

NZ home
The family spent two years at the camp before being offered a permanent home in New Zealand.
Dwe’s parents chose New Zealand because it provided better future prospects and opportunities for their children.

Culturally, life in New Zealand is very different says, Dwe.

If she were still in Thailand she would likely be married. In that country the focus is on “getting married, looking after your kids and being a housewife”.

She says in New Zealand there are a wider range of opportunities for education and career.

Being young proved an advantage to her integration into New Zealand society.

She was well received at primary school and had support from her fellow students from the start.

Family sponsors have also played a big role in the family’s settlement.

Local North Shore volunteer Catherine Geeves is one of the family’s main sponsors and was heavily involved in their integration.

She helped enrol the kids in school, found the family a local GP and negotiated with Housing New Zealand for a family home.

Rewarding role
Being a sponsor is “enormously rewarding”, she says.

She is extremely proud of the way Cicilia and her older sister Elizabeth have managed to get themselves to university.

“I think they are an inspiration and show what you can achieve if you work hard.”

She says the whole family is a huge asset to the community.

While being a sponsor is a very involved task, Geeves says it is a “two-way street”.

When her mother died later that year, the entire Dwe family prepared food for the funeral.

“There is a huge willingness to muck in and help,” says Geeves.

Dwe echoes these sentiments.

“The sponsors are part of our family and we are part of their family.”

Now firmly a part of New Zealand, Dwe is herself looking at becoming a refugee sponsor.

Beyond that, and with her life experience as motivation and inspiration, she envisions herself working for the UN or the Human Rights Commission as a social worker.

Deirdre Robert is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student at AUT University.

End Burma's system of impunity

Labour MP vows to seek parliamentary support for Aung San Suu Kyi

By Violet Cho: Pacific Media Centre

Outspoken Labour MP Maryann Street has vowed to initiate a motion in New Zealand’s Parliament calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all Burmese political prisoners, saying it was a responsibility of parliamentarians to “add our voices” to the international clamour.

She spoke during a vigil last night organised in support of Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who is on “trial” by the military regime after being accused of breaking state law.

About 40 people – including local politicians, activists and students – braved the rain and cold to attend the vigil.

Street, who is also chairperson of the NZ Parliamentarians’ Caucus on Burma, said: “It is our responsibility to add our voices to the clamour of international voices heard for Burma to move towards democracy”.

Dr Suu Kyi has been charged for breaching the terms of her 13 years of house arrest after an American Mormon John W. Yettaw swam across a lake and entered her house this month.

The trial started on Monday and is continuing. She is being held in Burma’s notorious Insein Prison in Yangon while the charges and evidence are being heard.

Many commentators believe this trial reveals that Burma’s military regime, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), plans to justify the extension of her detention, which would have expired by the end of this month.

She could face five years’ imprisonment if she is found guilty.

“We are gathering to show our support for Aung San Suu Kyi and demand international action,” said Naing Koko, director of the National Council of the Union of Burma’s New Zealand office.

“Suu Kyi has been detained for more than 13 years and she must be freed.”

“The trial is all about keeping any voices of dissent silent in the run up to rigged elections next year.

'Exposing the lies'
“It exposes the lies the generals have been telling that elections next year will bring change. In fact, the election and constitution are all about keeping the generals in power.”

Joe Carolan, a representative of Socialist Aotearoa, gave a speech calling for New Zealand companies to stop all trade with Burma.

He also rejected the idea that international governments should play a key role in bringing change to Burma:

“Change is going to come to the region from the ordinary people, from the poor and from the student movement there, not from the likes of the British, the United States or the United Nations”.

On Wednesday, Dr Suu Kyi’s trial was briefly opened up for reporters and diplomats but generally it has been closed for the public.

Su Kyi has been in detention without trial for more than 13 of the past 19 years.

There was a schedule for her to be freed by the end of this month after serving six years’ house arrest that started in May 2003.

To justify her security, the military placed her under house arrest after her travel to northern Burma was ambushed by pro-government mobs.

Demonstrations have been taking place this week in more than 20 cities across the globe.

Pictures: Top: The Auckland vigil (Violet Cho); middle: Aung San Suu Kyi at a Yangon rally when out of house arrest; and above: local Burmese leader Naing Koko.

Violet Cho is the 2009 Asian Journalism Fellow with AUT’s Pacific Media Centre.

Burma junta bars media and diplomats from Aung San Kyi trial again

Burma's armed conflict cripples food supplies

Villagers who have fled their homes in eastern Burma keep moving. Many areas are dangerous because of landmines, military checkpoints and patrols.

By Violet Cho: Pacific Media Centre

Burmese civilians and internally displaced people in eastern parts of Burma are suffering severe food shortages due to the ongoing armed conflict and an increase of state militarisation.

“The food shortage is a serious problem among internally displaced civilians and they now heavily rely on eating bamboo shoots and other food sources that they can collect in the jungle for their survival,” says Saw Steve, an executive member of Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP).

The Burmese civil society group, based on the Thai-Burma border, is working to assist communities effected by the crisis.

Burmese rights organisations are expressing deep concern for the civilians who are suffering direct consequences from the conflict between state military and ethnic resistance groups.

They also condemned the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the ruling military regime in Burma, which has intensified their military operations in ethnic minority areas.

Local rights groups claim the food crisis is a direct result of systematic militarisation and exploitation by the regime.

Saw Albert, a leading member of the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), has been working on a recently released report on the crisis.

“The food crisis has been gradually worsening since the beginning of the SPDC's Northern Offensive in late 2005” he says.

“With increased attacks on village communities and an intensified forced relocation campaign over the last three and a half years, food insecurity is at an all-time high.

“In military-controlled areas, villagers struggle to both meet the constant demands of the SPDC and their allied military groups and provide food for their families.”

No hiding places
Because of the ongoing conflict and repression in the area, it is very difficult and dangerous to meet affected villagers and provide relief.

Villagers who have fled their homes never have a permanent place to hide – they are constantly moving so local NGOs cannot know where to find them. Many areas are dangerous because of landmines, Burmese military checkpoints and patrols and active combat with insurgent armies.

Despite these risks, CIDKP field staff secretly distribute much needed supplied to small communities hiding in the forests.

If caught with supplies like food and medicine, field staff can be killed by Burmese troops, who use a strategy of cutting supplies to insurgent groups.

It is even more risky to carry equipment like cameras and recorders, as they are only used by activists documenting abuses. KHRG staff secretly collect testimonies from villagers in hiding and photograph abuses, which they use for their reports and advocacy.

One villager explained the extent of the food crisis to an anonymous KHRG field worker: “Only two villagers out of 10 have enough rice. They are borrowing from each other just to stay alive.”

Another villager from Nyaunglebin District, in northeastern Burma, explained that villagers do not have a proper time to do their own work for their survival.

“The SPDC army camp is located beside our village, so we always have to do loh ah pay [forced labour] for them. We do not have much time to do our own work. Now we are doing their work, such as cutting bamboo poles and delivering them to their [SPDC] camp.”

Villagers in displaced areas are sharing limited food supplies with each other just to stay alive. Because they are on the run, they cannot plant crops like rice, which is their staple food.
Instead they rely on collecting food from the forest.

Paddy plants
A villager who is displaced by the on-going military offensive said that “every time when the Burmese [SPDC] soldiers have arrived at our villager, we have had to flee. So, we haven’t had time to take care of our paddy plants in the fields. They [the fields] are covered with weed. If the SPDC did not disturb us, we would have enough food every year.”

Burmese populations in eastern parts of Burma can be categorised into two groups: those living in the SPDC controlled areas and those who hide in the jungle, refusing to live in forced relocation sites under military watch.

Due to the combination of military demands in the form of forced labour, arbitrary taxation, looting and ad hoc demands for food, money or other supplies, have placed a dangerous burden on villagers' livelihoods.

The practice of land confiscation, restriction of movement (villagers are not freely allowed to go to their farm or plantation areas) and forced relocation exacerbate poverty and dramatically increase food insecurity.

Meanwhile, in areas not under the military control, the SPDC troops are forcing villagers into relocation sites through their common practice of attacking villagers and destroying food stores, burning rice fields and livestock.

Villagers who managed to escape the military attacks are facing further threats of food insecurity their unstable living condition in hiding side in the forest, according to the KHRG report.

The report also documented the regime government’s shoot-on-sight policy, planting landmines and restrictions on villagers to trade with each other also created an extreme difficult for villagers to leave their hiding site in order to collect hidden food stores, to work in their former fields or purchase food supplies.

A villager interviewed by KHRG staff, complained that they felt like they were not treated as human beings. “The SPDC doesn’t see us as villagers. They identify us as their enemy. So when they see us, they shoot to kill us all.”

By documenting the food crisis, KHRG is providing recommendations for the international community on actions that can be taken to ease the current crisis and prevent future abuse and malnutrition in rural Burma.

The recommendations include increased support for cross-border aid and local civil society organisations, which can access affected populations and support the local food security protection measures that villagers in rural Burma have already developed.

Humanitarian aid
KHRG spokeswoman September Paw called for increased humanitarian aid to villagers in rural Burma: "Villagers in Karen State are faced with a serious food crisis as the direct result of military abuse.

She explained how Burmese villagers have been trying their best seeking various ways to address this food crisis, to maintain their livelihoods and to resist military abuse. “Despite these strategies, there is a great need for humanitarian aid to be scaled up to reach these people.”

However, She confirmed that, “the locally-driven protection measures developed by villagers themselves should first be taken into account in order to effectively address this crisis.”

Like civilians in eastern part of Burma are now suffering form food crisis, Burmese people in western part of Burma, Chin State has been plagued by a severe food shortages due to the reduction of local harvest and food production.

The crisis was started in 2006 when a new cycle of bamboo flowering that occurs about every 50 years in the region.

This bamboo flowers are eaten by rats and triggering the explosion of rats population, which destroyed the crop.

This has caused serious food shortages for Burmese villagers, as they are primarily dependent on subsistence farming through shifting cultivation.

Violet Cho is from Burma and is the Asian Journalism Fellow with the Pacific Media Centre. She is is studying on the Bachelor of Communication Studies (Honours) programme. The picture of displaced Burmese villagers is from the Karen Human Rights Group report.

Food crisis: The accumulative impact of abuse in rural Burma

Student report slams Burmese military’s ethnic land grabs

By Violet Cho: Pacific Media Centre

Three Burmese ethnic youth and student organisations in Thailand have strongly condemned the military regime’s policy of increasing militarisation and seizing land without compensation.

The forced land confiscations cause widespread problems for civilians throughout Burma, the movements say in a new report.

The report, titled "Holding Our Ground" - documented by the All Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress, Mon Youth Progressive Organisation and Pa-O Youth Organisation, says military government mismanagement and militarisation of ethnic lands causes daily suffering for Burmese citizens who do not have enough food and water or enough income to provide education for their young.

According to the report, the regime has confiscated lands for house barracks, outposts and training sites for the troops.

The seized lands are also being used for farming and gardening in order to supplement rations and generate additional income for the troops.

The land grabbing from civilians has increased drastically due to a policy of self-reliance whereby the Burmese army must produce its own food and obtain basic materials.

Aung Marm Oo, chief author of the report, said: “The abundance of natural resources and biodiversity, together with the presence of rebel groups, have seen these three areas suffer a high level of land confiscation as part of the SPDC’s [“State Peace and Development Council”] policy of increased militarisation and the exploitation of natural resources for profit.”

Another reason for land confiscation is government construction and so-called development projects of building dams, mining and destruction of the forest for building roads.

Forced labour
These projects often use forced labour and have disastrous environmental effects in many areas.

Burmese troops have set up their posts in civilian lands to protect international corporations that are working in Burma.

A villager from near Kyauk-phyu township in Arakan state, in western Burma, said: “The army is based there not for waging war but for guarding foreign companies involved in oil and gas exploration in Arakan coastal areas.”

The military regime policy of increasing troop deployments has caused many ethnic villagers to flee, abandoning their land and property. Consequently, tens of thousands of people are fleeing Burma in search of a better life.

The Burmese military is constantly expanding to sustain the continual growth of the regime’s power.

Military infrastructure is developed while civilian needs are repeatedly neglected.

The obsession with increasing the size of Burma’s army is underlined by the fact that in the period 1993-2004, 29 percent of central government spending went on defence, while the corresponding health and education figures were only 3 percent and 8 percent respectively.

Today, the SPDC Army numbers around 490,000; having more than doubled in size since 1989. There are an additional 72,000 people in the Myanmar Police Force, including 4500 in the paramilitary police.

This corresponds to roughly one soldier for every 100 citizens, despite Burma facing no external enemies.

Violet Cho is the Asian Journalism Fellow at AUT’s Pacific Media Centre.

Irrawaddy magazine
Holding Our Ground report

Underground 'VJs' expose Burmese horror

By Violet Cho: Pacific Media Centre

REVIEW: A dramatic film exposing the struggle of underground Burmese video journalists who chronicled the monk-led Saffron Revolution has featured in this month’s New Zealand world cinema showcase.

Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country is a mix of original footage of the popular and peaceful protests in September 2007 shot by Burmese video journalists, international media footage and dramatic reenactments filmed from the safety of Thailand.

The military junta brutally crushed the protests and a Japanese journalist was among more than 30 people shot dead.

The footage is strung together through the narration of Joshua, a young and enthusiastic journalist who flees Burma soon after the protests start, after getting some sensitive footage and attracting the attention of police intelligence.

He was investigated but fortunately the police did not realise who he was.

The film, shown at Auckland’s Academy cinema, follows Joshua and his group of young video journalists as they film the oppression by the military junta inside Burma and send it to the exiled Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), based in Thailand, and Norway.

It is the only Burmese independent satellite TV. It is broadcast back into Burma, providing a key source of information for citizens who otherwise have to rely on a mediascape restricted by heavy government censorship.

From Thailand, Joshua continues to coordinate a small group of video journalists who were doing daily documentation of the event. They were one of the key sources of footage for international broadcasters , such as BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera - who were denied access to Burma.

The atmosphere of the film is raw – with lots of handheld cameras and quick editing techniques, designed to give viewers a feel for what it is like being a video journalist in a closed country in crisis.

While Joshua is the main character of the film, we do not see his face – he is only shown from behind. This is for his security, so he can go back to Burma and continue working for media.

Risking lives
Apart from documenting journalists, the film effectively shows how average Burmese people are suffering from economic crisis and military mismanagement and how this was important to push people onto the streets, risking their lives in doing so.

Burma VJ was directed by Danish documentary filmmaker Anders Østergaard and has received international success, being shown at international film festivals. It won an award at Amsterdam Film Festival last December.

As a Burmese exiled journalist, I don’t feel like the film is for me – I was in Thailand reporting about the Saffron Revolution at that time, making daily phone calls so it is an all too familiar story.

I am also less interested in the views of journalists from exile like me, sitting in an office trying to comprehend events.

I would have liked to have seen more from the perspective of those working from Rangoon during that time, as they are working in the battleground.

It reminds me of a journalist friend I met in Thailand a month after the crackdown and was reporting from Rangoon secretly for exiled media.

When the government soldiers tried to crack down and shoot protesters - she was there watching soldiers shoot people and taking photos of it.

She wept when she told me about that. She also had to run for her life.

Out of fear of being arrested, she hid under a car for about two hours, because at that time carrying a camera in Burma was a serious crime.

I would like to see more from the standpoint of people like her.

Violet Cho is the Asian Journalism Fellow at the Pacific Media Centre. Burma VJ has also screened in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country, directed by Anders Østergaard. 84min.

More on BurmaVJ at Hotdocs

PMC welcomes Asian media pair for studies

By Josephine Latu: Pacific Media Centre

Two Asian journalists – from very diverse backgrounds – were welcomed by Dr Alan Cocker, head of AUT’s School of Communication Studies, in a cosy ceremony at the Pacific Media Centre today.

Wang Nan, 28, from China, and Violet Cho, 25, an indigenous Karen from Burma, will be attached to the centre while they pursue postgraduate studies at AUT.

Wang is a cultural affairs editor for China Daily.com and is on a semester-long exchange internship.

The Beijing native holds a degree in English language and literature, and counts painting and photography among her creative interests.

Her attitude reflects the mutual benefits of cultural exchange.

“If people want to know about Chinese culture and custom, I am happy to share my knowledge and work,” she said.

“But I also want to learn new things. Some of the paper courses I’m taking – like photography and design – I’ve never touched before.”

Her colleague, Cho, who writes for Irrawaddy magazine, is more interested in raising awareness about the challenges of her homeland as well as the Burmese community in New Zealand.

“It’s impossible for a people outside of a country to know what it’s really like in another society,” she said.

Cho’s childhood was spent moving between refugee camps, fleeing to Thailand because of the threats her family faced from the military due to her father’s involvement in the Karen National Union (KNU).

Now living in exile because of her activism and “dissident” reporting, Cho is this year’s inaugural winner of PMC’s Asian Journalism Fellowship. She hopes her BCS (Hons) degree will help her produce more critical media about Burmese issues.

“We can build networks and maybe help each other achieve some of our aims in activism,” she said.

At the welcome ceremony, both Cho and Wang were garlanded with traditional lei flowers and presented with AUT tee shirts.

Cho thanked Dr Cocker, PMC director Dr David Robie and the sponsoring Asia New Zealand Foundation for the “tireless efforts” in getting her to New Zealand.

Pictured: Top: Violet Cho (left) and Wang Nan at the welcome. Above: Cho, Wang and Dr Robie. Photo: Alan Koon.

China Daily
Irrawaddy
Asia New Zealand Foundation

Karen journalist in critical force for change

Violet Cho, a 25-year-old Karen journalist writing for Irawaddy magazine and living in Thailand, has won AUT Pacific Media Centre's inaugural Asian Journalism Fellowship. The fellowship is supported by an Asia: NZ Foundation grant. She arrives in New Zealand today and will join the Bachelor of Communication Studies (Honours) programme and be a resource journalist with the PMC for a year. Here is her story:

By Violet Cho: Pacific Media Centre

I was born in Pa-an, Burma, in January 1984. My family were farmers but we didn't have money to cultivate the land. I spent the first seven years of my life in Pa-an and Loikaw until my family fled to Huay Kaloke refugee camp in 1991.

My father was already working for the Karen National Union on the borderline so we were in a dangerous situation Even though he had a low position in the KNU, if the military realised about my father’s involvement with the resistance, my mother, brother and I could be arrested.

Later, my father called us to join him for our security. So we escaped across the border into Thailand. At that time, I was still young and I was sent to Huay Kaloke refugee camp where I could do some primary schooling.

The experience living in the camp wasn't a happy one. Almost all the time we were afraid of Burmese military attacks because the refugee camp was close to the border and not secure.

In 1998, Huay Kaloke refugee camp was attacked and burnt down by the Burmese military. Our house and all our possessions were destroyed and there was a lot of shooting.

This was my first direct experience with military oppression and human rights abuses and it is a day that I always remember. I was afraid and angry too.

By the end of 1999, my family and lots of others moved to a new camp called Umpiem Mai, where I could go to school. I was really pleased at having a chance to study again, even though resources were small.

Teenage broadcaster
I first became involved in media when I was a teenager living in Umpiem refugee camp. I volunteered for a new community radio station under Karen Student Network Group (KSNG) which I helped set up.

KSNG is a student organisation that organises Karen students in refugee camps and in the border areas of Burma to work together for the aim to find opportunities for refugee students and people without access to education, to prepare them to be leaders, to preserve and maintain the culture of Karen people, to raise awareness about human rights among youth and to work for campaigns to protect environment and human rights, such as the current Salween Dam campaign.

In KSNG, I have worked in all of these areas with a focus on community media. Through KSNG, I got a chance to study at a journalism school organised by Internews. In KSNG, I have worked as a secretary and radio and print editor.

While full time working with the student organisation on the Thai-Burmese border, I used to do some reporting and file stories to Kwekalu which is a semi-independent Karen newsletter based near the border with Southern Burma. I also did some news reporting for Burmese independent media agency Mizzima which it is now based in New Delhi.

I also spent one year working as a features reporter for Radio Free Asia. I made radio features in the Burmese language that were broadcast to Burma through shortwave. It was good because I love working in radio. Some of my stories included the problem of domestic violence in refugee camps, the daily struggle of undocumented migrant workers in Thailand and the dreams of refugee youth.

Since 2007, I have been working for Irrawaddy Publishing Group, which has a daily news website and a monthly glossy magazine. It was started by Burmese exiles and is the most prominent Burmese exiled media organisation.

It is an exciting place to work and has allowed me to get a lot of sources inside Burma and internationally. I spend most of my time writing stories for the website but I do some commentary for the magazine too. I really like to try and do investigative reporting – but since I am working with a media organisation that is unregisterered in Thailand, there are so many security challenges.

Migrant issues
At Irrawaddy, I have been interested in reporting on migrant worker issues, environmental problems and the struggles of ordinary impoverished people. I also think media should be a watchdog of UN agencies and NGOs as they play an important role in my community – so I also have written some reports about their policies and actions that are problematic.

As a person from Burma, I have a high expectation about change. I do believe that the Burmese have to know their political destination and be working hard towards it.

As a person who has worked for the change of Burma as an indigenous youth activist and an independent journalist, I will continue working with free media and community organisations in exile.

Studying journalism at AUT University will greatly help my work as a journalist. To produce critical media, I need a stronger academic background in media and a theoretical framework.

I think I will grow a lot if I can also attend university and use the skills and knowledge to work to improve Burmese media so it can be a greater critical force for change.

Irawaddy magazine
Mizzima news agency
Asia: NZ Foundation profile