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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 CHIANG MAI 000033 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM ECPS KPAO OIIP TH BM
SUBJECT: AN OVERVIEW OF NORTHERN THAILAND-BASED BURMESE MEDIA 
ORGANIZATIONS 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000033  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
¶1.      SUMMARY. Increasing numbers of Burma-centric media 
organizations operate out of Chiang Mai, creating a dynamic 
community of exile journalists that produces a diverse and 
relatively reliable stream of information for Burma watchers 
both inside Burma and living abroad. Shut out from Burma by the 
military junta's tight censorship and persecution of 
journalists, these organizations find that northern Thailand 
offers a convenient roost from which to observe events on the 
ground in Burma and transmit information into their home 
country. However, as exiles living in a foreign land these 
journalists face security and legal challenges as they attempt 
to build lasting institutions for a free press that cannot exist 
under the current government in their own country. End Summary. 
 
A Nexus for Burmese Exile Media 
----- 
 
¶2.      Chiang Mai has long served as a nexus for the Burmese 
exile community - it is one of the closest population centers to 
Burma's border areas and northern Thailand's growing number of 
refugees, migrants, and exiles provides a local audience for 
Burmese media and NGOs as well. In recent years, the Burmese NGO 
presence has expanded, presenting new opportunities for these 
fledgling Burmese media in exile to improve the quality of their 
reporting and the reach of their distribution. 
 
¶3.      Despite the generally friendly climate in Thailand, these 
organizations face significant challenges. Most Burmese 
journalists working in northern Thailand do not have legal 
residence status and do not speak fluent Thai. Exile groups must 
remain in the good graces of their Thai hosts, particularly 
security agencies, especially as they sometimes skirt 
immigration and business ownership regulations. Some 
organizations go so far as to feed information to the RTG's 
National Intelligence Agency - one journalist shrugged off this 
potential ethical conflict by noting that "we're both in the 
business of collecting news." 
 
¶4.      Burma watchers throughout the international community 
point to northern Thailand-based media as among their most 
reliable and detailed sources for news out of Burma. Despite the 
relative inexperience of many journalists working on the border, 
as well as some of their organizations' own political agendas, 
most observers see the reporting as generally accurate. Exile 
reporters also strive to maintain close contact with journalists 
operating inside Burma, who although they must bear government 
censorship, are often able to better develop reliable sources 
through more frequent and direct contact. The news gathered by 
these internal Burmese reporters eventually filters out into the 
exile journalism community and then into the larger 
international media. 
 
Media Organizations 
----- 
 
¶5.      THE IRRAWADDY. The crown jewel of the local Burmese media 
community is The Irrawaddy (www.irrawaddy.org), founded in 1992 
by former student dissident Aung Zaw. The English-language 
Irrawaddy has grown substantially from its humble beginnings as 
a largely volunteer-driven publication, and now operates on a 
$700,000 annual budget with some 30 paid staff members. In 
addition to a monthly magazine, its website features daily 
updates and it runs its own in-house journalism training program 
for new staff.  The Irrawaddy maintains active sources inside 
Burma and its generally thorough editing standards result in 
better overall accuracy than its counterparts, according to many 
Burma media consumers. 
 
¶6.      The Irrawaddy receives funding from a variety of sources, 
including annual National Endowment for Democracy (NED) grants 
that usually account for some 20 percent of its budget. However, 
with a growing staff and a market eager to consume more news on 
Burma, Irrawaddy managers told the Consulate they are looking to 
diversify their funding pool with more grants from European 
governments. 
 
¶7.      DEMOCRATIC VOICE OF BURMA. The Norway-based Democratic 
Voice of Burma (www.dvb.no), also founded in 1992, moved its 
Thailand headquarters to Chiang Mai last year and also maintains 
a bureau in Mae Sot. DVB produces radio and television newscasts 
for Burmese exiles and broadcasts its programs to audiences 
inside Burma, achieving a radio listenership surpassed only by 
BBC and Voice of America (VOA) and matched by Radio Free Asia 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000033  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
(RFA). Embassy Rangoon notes that these four radio services 
supply many Burmese with their daily news, exceeding the 
capacity for print and other media to reach the general 
population. 
 
¶8.      DVB currently produces twice-daily hour-long radio news 
segments and one-hour satellite television programming on 
weekends. A DVB editor based in Chiang Mai said the 
proliferation of cheap Chinese radios in Burma had increased its 
potential radio audience, although he admitted the group's 
official estimate of 10 million television viewers based on 2 
million satellite customers seemed overly optimistic. Other 
estimates peg the number of satellite dishes in Burma at no more 
than 100,000. 
 
¶9.      In addition to a small NED grant and support from the 
Norwegian government, DVB receives funding from several other 
Europe-based organizations and governments. Local Chiang Mai 
staff includes ethnic Burmese, Karen, and Kachin, along with a 
Western reporter. DVB is using its Chiang Mai office to develop 
sources in the border region and also to improve distribution of 
its products inside Burma. 
 
¶10.     MIZZIMA. New Dehli-based Mizzima (www.mizzima.com) is 
another exile media organization that has recently expanded to 
open a formal presence in northern Thailand.  Mizzima 
journalists focus on gathering news from inside Burma via 
networks of sources on the Burmese borders with India, 
Bangladesh, Thailand, and China. Mizzima employees said the 
company publishes 2,600 copies of a monthly journal targeted 
mainly at the Burmese diaspora, while its website gets 3,000 
visitors per day. 
 
¶11.     The multi-lingual Mizzima has also been working on TV 
production since 2002, cooperating with VOA, DVB, RFA, and BBC 
Burmese. In 2004 it located four of its 35 staff members in 
Chiang Mai. It uses internship positions to develop and train 
journalists and also encourages staff to network with Thai and 
Indian journalists covering Burma. The overall organization 
attracts funding from a number of sources including NED, 
although the Canadian government is the primary supporter for 
the Chiang Mai office. 
 
¶12.     ETHNIC MEDIA. In addition to exile media organizations 
that attempt to cover all aspects of Burma's politics and 
current events, several ethnic groups have focused resources on 
maintaining their own media outlets for specific coverage of 
their own interests. Groups such as the Shan, Kachin, and Karen 
have developed their own media networks based largely in 
northern Thailand. The ethnic media are popular in border areas 
where audiences are more receptive to media in their own 
languages than English or Burmese. Also, a perception that the 
major exile media groups are dominated by the majority Burman 
perspective leads some ethnics to shun those media, say some 
journalists. 
 
¶13.     Founded in 1996, the Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN - 
www.shanland.org) reports in four languages (Burmese, Shan, 
Thai, and English) out of its Chiang Mai office. Media include a 
website, with daily updates and 400-plus hits per day, and the 
monthly Independence journal, which dates back to a 1974 
newsletter put out by Shan activists. SHAN's coverage has a 
significant focus on illegal drug trafficking and finds an 
audience among academics, NGOs, and foreign governments. Its 
staff includes four permanent positions and several part-time 
help and freelance stringers who operate in both Thailand and 
Burma. 
 
¶14.     Many non-Shan Burmese exiles and citizens (as well as the 
SPDC) do not differentiate between SHAN and ethnic Shan 
political groups resisting the military junta, such as the Shan 
State Army-South. Although SHAN Editor-in-Chief Khuensai Jaiyen 
told PolOff that SHAN journalists had moved beyond armed 
political resistance, their tone remains distinctly activist: 
"We started out as fighters and still are, but in the past we 
used guns. Now we fight with the truth." Still, SHAN does not 
keep formal ties with any political organization. Other media 
groups with a presence in northern Thailand, such as the Burma 
Independent News Agency, Karen Information Center, Karen 
Students Network Group, and the Kachin News Group have more 
readily apparent connections to political organizations 
representing ethnic or political resistance groups. 
 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000033  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
Associations and Support Organizations 
----- 
 
¶15.     With the growing community of media organizations here, 
many groups have banded together or sought to further expand 
their network of contacts, and several umbrella groups and 
associations have likewise established a presence in Chiang Mai. 
Organizations such as the Bangkok-based South East Asian Press 
Alliance (www.seapa.org) and Washington-based Burmese Media 
Association (www.bma-online.org) have helped organize annual 
conferences in Chiang Mai over the past three years and have 
pooled resources for cross-organization journalism training. 
Faced with limited budgets and the challenges of operating in a 
foreign country, many of the smaller exile organizations can 
turn to these umbrella groups for assistance with legal and 
security issues. SEAPA also provides a connection to the larger 
Asian press, creating the potential for exile reporting to reach 
larger audiences and influence opinions among Burma's neighbors. 
 
Equipping the Next Generation of Burmese Media 
----- 
 
¶16.     A number of active media training programs attract exiles 
and those from inside Burma to Chiang Mai for journalism courses 
ranging from one week to one year. These training programs 
identify would-be journalists who are active in communities 
inside Burma, as well as NGOs in Thailand, and help them secure 
reporting positions with Burmese media outfits in the region. 
The training programs help ensure that future generations will 
be able to succeed the founders of the current organizations. 
 
¶17.     International NGO Internews began training Burmese 
journalists in Thailand in 2000 and opened an office in Chiang 
Mai two years later. Internews focuses on basic journalism, 
business management, and media design. Local staff members 
manage a one-year training program for approximately 15 students 
per term. Of the program's 55 alumni, about 70 percent work as 
active journalists. Nearly all local exile publications boast at 
least one graduate of the program. 
 
¶18.     Other organizations, some with a scope beyond Burma, also 
add to the educational opportunities for Burmese journalists. 
The Chiang Mai-based Indochina Media Memorial Foundation, for 
instance, last year completed training courses for Southeast 
Asian reporters that included Burmese participants. Major 
funders for journalism training programs in the region include 
the NED, Open Society Institute (OSI), and several European 
governments and charities. 
 
Distribution 
----- 
 
¶19.     Journalists say that many people in Burma must elude 
strict SPDC media controls and beware potential persecution 
against anyone caught distributing magazines, pamphlets, or CDs 
- thus creating major barriers to media access. Moreover, many 
Burmese do not have access to the technology needed to access 
electronic media. The junta's policies have prevented any 
large-scale distribution of exile media, but some organizations 
have found success with smaller operations. 
 
¶20.     Groups such as SHAN mail materials to contacts in southern 
China, who then bring newsletters and CDs into Shan State and 
elsewhere. SHAN and other exile groups told PolOff they feel 
Burma's border with China is less closely monitored for 
political activity than in Thailand. While Thailand offers a 
freer environment for journalists than what they could find in 
China, the SPDC keeps such a close watch over the Thai-Burma 
border that many contacts do not want to risk a crossing there 
carrying banned media. 
 
¶21.     As long as their scope remains small, most journalists say 
they are able to get their product into Burma. A Mizzima 
representative said her organization disguises CD-ROMs of radio 
and television news programs as pirated American movie DVDs, 
while others send their publications via ConGen Chiang Mai or 
Embassy Bangkok to Embassy Rangoon for distribution via the 
American Center. The American Center also produces daily news 
clippings from dissident media organizations, inviting visitors 
to see reports that ordinarily might not reach local audiences. 
DVB staff said they have begun using opposition National League 
for Democracy (NLD) members to help distribute materials through 
their networks inside Burma. 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000033  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
 
¶22.     Many exile journalists said they were successfully 
reaching the Burmese public and even lower-ranking government 
officials. A DVB television editor said he was able to get 
officials at Insein Prison to comment off-the-record on new 
arrivals and the health of long-term political prisoners. For 
the most part, though, engaging with their targeted audience and 
creating an open public forum for discussion remains an elusive 
goal. 
 
Activism vs. Journalism 
----- 
 
¶23.     As exiles, most of the Burmese journalists living in 
Thailand don't see themselves as impartial observers to the 
events in their homeland. Many are current or former members of 
opposition groups such as the NLD, All Burma Students' 
Democratic Front, and Assistance Association for Political 
Prisoners. Some media organizations try to maintain barriers 
between their operations and the leadership of political groups, 
while training in journalism fundamentals by outside groups 
helps to impart a greater understanding of ethics. Still, the 
close-knit exile community leads to much overlap in membership 
among smaller activist and media organizations. The larger 
organizations such as The Irrawaddy and Mizzima (whose name 
translates roughly as "Middle Ground" in Pali language), 
meanwhile, have set up stronger standards of editorial review 
and balance, if not outright neutrality. 
 
A Friendly Audience 
----- 
 
¶24.     In a refreshing take for U.S. diplomats interacting with 
foreign media, the exile journalist community here remains 
steadfastly pro-American. Groups such as DVB and The Irrawaddy 
continually seek more input from U.S. officials and make 
frequent use of interviews, press releases and audio clips 
posted on USG websites. A live interview with a U.S. diplomat is 
a prized commodity, one even capable of stoking a healthy 
competition among rival news organizations to land a scoop. A 
2006 Irrawaddy interview with EAP DAS Eric John multiplied into 
several articles and circulated widely throughout the exile 
community and mainstream media. 
 
¶25.     USG funding plays some role in this goodwill, but much of 
it comes from strong pro-democracy positions on Burma over the 
years. Still, with USG money coming into these organizations via 
NED, OSI, and others, there is a strong reliance on donor 
funding for these groups' continued existence. Even the largest 
media, such as the Irrawaddy, take in little advertising 
revenue, and are not viable businesses. 
 
¶26.     COMMENT: It is encouraging to see such a healthy interest 
in a free media and civil society prosper. The fiscal longevity 
of these organizations remains heavily reliant on Western 
funding, but there is no shortage of local exiles and young 
activists within Burma eager to sign up for Thailand-based 
training programs and become the next generation of Burma's free 
media. 
 
¶27.     Like many of their political colleagues involved in 
governments-in-exile, these Burmese journalists have created a 
parallel existence in Thailand to one that they cannot have in 
Burma. There are important aspects of a future "united Burma" in 
their interactions with each other worth noting - such as the 
potential for cooperation balanced against occasional ethnic 
mistrust, as well as the struggle to maintain contact and 
relevance with a home many left two decades ago. Rivalries and 
frustrations do exist, both among the exile community and 
between them and their counterparts inside Burma, who take great 
risks to communicate with those on the outside. But the common 
goal of getting information about the SPDC's misrule out into 
the larger world hopefully serves as an effectively uniting 
force to enhance cooperation to report timely, accurate, and 
provoking news. End Comment. 
CAMP