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Myanmar: The world is watchingStory Highlights
Burma rates 164 out of 168 in a tally of the most repressed media in the world

One per cent of the Burmese population have internet access

On Friday the government blocked use of the country's main internet server...

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Close the borders, shut down the media, expel dissidents and restrict visitors: The world's most oppressive regimes have developed watertight ways of shielding themselves from the eyes of the world.


A Buddhist monk holds an alms bowl upside-down as a symbol of protest.

Myanmar is no exception. Democracy has been repeatedly quashed; an uprising in 1988 left thousands of citizen protesters dead, while a democratically elected leader has not been allowed to govern and remains under house arrest.

The military junta rules and the press is government-controlled and heavily censored. Yet as images of the monks' protests are splashed around the world's media, it is apparent technology in the form of blogs, digital photos, and text messaging has become the chink in the regime's armor.

"The technology is making a huge difference. Now everyone in the world can know what is happening in Burma (Myanmar) via the Internet," said Sein Win, managing editor of Mizzima News, an India-based news group run by exiled dissidents, "It is a reality of globalization. Whether the junta likes it or not, the government cannot isolate itself from the international community," Sein Win said.

While the Myanmar government has reportedly moved to shut down the Internet, the events in the country in the last week show technology can transform the geo-political landscape and empower dissidents and activists. It has transformed the world into a witness; and that, activists hope, will be enough to subdue the military.

The dissidents

Today's dissidents in Myanmar were politicized in the 1988 uprising in the country, according to Vincent Brossel spokesman for the Asia branch of Reporters Without Borders.

He told CNN that as a result of that uprising many journalists were expelled. Those that remained were required to work in a "censor's paradise." Reporters Without Borders rates Myanmar 164 out of 168 in a tally of the most repressed media in the world.

Says Brossel: "Everything that is published -- articles, cartoons, even calendars are scrutinized by the army censors. The censors have the power to control everything and restrict the power of journalists."

The government also restricted visas to foreign journalists; prior to the new wave of technology, news had a difficult journey out of the country.

"From this oppression and the 1988 uprising there was an organized group of dissenters, usually professionals. Now you have a particularly strong exiled community of Burmese journalists in Norway, Thailand, India and UK. Most of them left after the '88 movement. They are working with underground networks."

Underground networks in the past relied on word of mouth, letters and mailed newsletters to keep in touch, restricting the speed and impact of the dissenters' message, but now according to Brossel, "technology has made the underground network more effective. Technology has been used by the activists for a couple of years."

Although less than 1 percent of Burma's population have access to the Internet, the government underestimated how it would be used and were unprepared for this "leak" in the system according to Brossel.

Established journalists have been joined by a legion of citizen journalists -- or bloggers -- who operate from within Myanmar.

"Young people love to blog and it's popular in Burma," said Brossel.

This week, skilled Myanmarese bloggers have been able to evade firewalls set up by the government to restrict the flow of information in and out of the country.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/28/ww.burma/index.html#cnnSTCText