It is 2007 on the steamy tropical streets of Rangoon, Burma, where journalism is against the law, and where no outside reporters are allowed. Fed up with living under the oppression of a heavy-handed military dictatorship, a few courageous citizens dare to speak out. They are quickly silenced and carried off by police and plain-clothes thugs—but a small band of video journalists is able to capture the events and begin leaking the news to the outside world.
With the help of ex-pats and sympathetic supporters in Oslo, Norway, the shaky, grainy images are uploaded to the Internet and broadcast via satellite where they can be seen inside Burma. And then the protests begin to grow.
Soon the people are joined in the streets by thousands of Buddhist monks, clad in their traditional saffron robes. Again, the video journalists, acting covertly in an ad hoc network, record what’s happening and make the pictures available to outside news outlets, where they are seen on the BBC, CNN, and back inside Burma.
At first, the ruling junta is unsure how to respond. The monks and their followers stage massive marches, with hundreds of thousands of people parading through the streets, shouting their demands for reform, freedom, peace, and democracy. But there is no violence, no looting, and the demonstrators make no threats. Still, the situation is untenable and a confrontation appears imminent.
All this was front-page news two years ago, and it electrified millions around the world. It seemed as though the first fruits of citizen video journalism might be seen in a peaceful overthrow of a brutal regime. Unfortunately, the military generals who’ve ruled the country for two decades made the choice to bring down the iron hand once again. They moved against the marchers, using tear gas, clubs, and ultimately machine guns. No one knows for sure how many were killed.
Video was shot, though, on hand-held cameras and even cell phones. The shocking pictures were soon uploaded to the Internet, and when the government shut that down, cutting off electronic access to the outside world, couriers smuggled videotapes across the border into Thailand.
The thugs continued their repression, raiding the Buddhist monastery compound, beating and arresting hundreds of peaceful non-resisting monks. Then they went after the journalists. Anyone seen with a camera was either shot or arrested. They found the Rangoon headquarters of the DVB—the Democratic Voice of Burma, which coordinated the covert journalistic efforts—and carted off their computers and video equipment. Staff members were arrested and sentenced to life in prison.
Finally, it was over. After several months of tumult, the government had reasserted their totalitarian control. Order was restored and the people’s lives went back to ‘normal’. No one spoke of protest any more, for fear of being arrested.
The first real-world attempt to remake a country via the Participatory Panopticon had failed. But a vital lesson had been learned. The next time, instead of five or six video cameras—which was all they had—they would need ten times as many, or a hundred times as many. For information has power. Journalism is the dance partner of freedom. They can’t be separated.
As Thomas Jefferson once said, “Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.” Sadly, that’s not the case today in Burma, nor is it in many areas of the world.
That is part of our task as technoprogressives, to make freedom accessible to all through open journalism.
IEET Blog