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Myanmar’s Cinema Centenary and Film Censorship
The 2018 documentary film Child of the Revolution opens with a shot of the rolling green mountains in Myanmar’s eastern Kayin State. A Karen woman begins her story—that of a family torn apart by decades of conflict but committed to improving access to education in the community. “I wanted to make a film about Karen…
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Myanmar Women Seek Social and Political Change in 2020
Nearly five million first time voters (aged 18-22) are anticipated to cast their ballots in Myanmar’s 2020 general election on 8 November, according to figures from the last census. While youth involvement in political parties is uncommon, the number of women standing as candidates in the election – the country’s second since the transition from…
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Myanmar’s menacing frontier
The dangers of reporting on Myanmar’s border-security forces and their business interests. Journalist Naw Betty Han rubs the bruises on her wrists left by the handcuffs she was forced to wear while detained for 27 hours by the Kayin State’s Border Guard Force (BGF) – a unit under the command of Myanmar’s military. In early…
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This 25-year-old podcaster is Myanmar’s leading voice for gender equality
Nandar is trying to build a movement through her two podcasts. Sitting cross-legged on a couch, Nandar (who goes by one name) places a pair of headphones over her ears and a lapel microphone on her collar. Seated across from her, in a makeshift home recording studio, is A.J., a feminist documentary filmmaker. Nandar, 25,…
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Once a Safe Haven, Bangkok Now a “Hunting Ground” for Dissidents
Joseph steps off the subway train onto Bangkok’s Chatuchak metro station platform. As the 29-year-old Laotian refugee exits to the street above he notices two men trailing behind him. Both men are carrying large suitcases that seem light to the touch as they lift them easily on to the escalator, Joseph* recalls. He had recently…
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Myanmar’s ‘Peacock Generation’ silenced as political prisoners being politicized
Three Burmese men wearing traditional blue longyis shackled at the waist and feet carefully step down, one after the other, from a police truck in Ayeyarwady Region – 84 kms from the commercial capital, Yangon. Armed officers lead Zayar Lwin, Paing Ye Thu and Paing Phyo Min into a courthouse. The three are members of…
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Yangon’s Pirates of Pansodan St. – A new copyright law may bankrupt Myanmar’s book business
Along Yangon’s Pansodan Street toward Merchant Road, located among the heritage Victorian buildings of colonial-era Rangoon, a pirated book market thrives. The books lining the shelves of street-side stalls, or inside adjacent bookstores, give the appearance of a booming business, featuring longtime bestsellers from Aung San Suu Kyi’s Freedom from Fear and Letters from Burma…
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Aung San Suu Kyi turns to Facebook to get coronavirus message out
Myanmar leader’s live broadcasts on Facebook draws hundreds of thousands of views. YANGON, Myanmar – Broadcasting live from Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, Aung San Suu Kyi shuffled some papers, looked straight at the camera and smiled before welcoming her guests to a teleconference call on Facebook. “Currently, migrant workers are coming back from Thailand and some…
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In Laos, price of free speech a heavy one
BANGKOK [OP-ED] – The imprisonment of Houayheuang “Muay” Xayabouly, a young, female Lao environmentalist turned internet activist who simply asked for help for flood victims, should be a matter of deep concern to the international community. On Sept 5, 2018, Muay used her 17-minute-long Facebook Live broadcast to counter the official narrative of the government…
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Vietnam’s battalions of ‘cyber-armies’ silencing online dissent
‘Force 47’, thought to be 10,000-strong, seen as government’s online enforcers as new cyber crime law takes effect. HANOI, Vietnam – Wearing his trademark black fedora, human rights defender Anh Chi updates his YouTube audience on the situation in Dong Tam village, 40km (25 miles) southwest of Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, the site of a recent…
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Adam Bemma 