Myanmar Blogger Arrested: One Voice Heard
by
on January 31, 2008,
There was a little-noticed bit of news out of Myanmar this week; a blogger, Nay Myo Latt, was arrested after writing about what is happening within the country, including increased loss of freedom following last fall's protests and subsequent government crackdown
As a blogger, I see stories like this fairly regularly coming out of countries with much more oppressive government controls of what people can do and say online. In Myanmar, this arrest is symptomatic of a much larger issue. I spoke with the spouse of a Burmese expatriate, living here in the U.S., to get a better understanding of the access to information and contact with the online community outside Myanmar.
According to my source, who asked to remain anonymous to protect family and friends still in Myanmar as well as safety during any future travel, the government control of Internet cafe users isn't new since the protests. During a visit last summer, these cafes (which really only exist in Yangon and Mandalay, which have more widespread Internet usage than other areas of Myanmar), patrons were required to submit fingerprints as well as personal information All access to free services such as Yahoo! and Google are blocked. Some savvier patrons manage to access sites outside of the allowed sites using anonymizing tools, but the government pays such close attention that access to anonymizers is quickly blocked.
On the whole, the Burmese people live in fear. Both foreign travelers and Burmese citizens are required to provide identifications at checkpoints throughout the country, register if they are staying anywhere other than their own homes (including hotels or other citizens' homes), and are tracked via regular paper reporting.
My source felt that, especially as the owner of Internet cafes, Nay Myo Latt knew exactly what would happen by posting the blog entry. In cases such as this one, it is likely that the dissident felt that the purpose far outweighed the potential risks; after all, Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years, even after winning an election whose results were summarily ignored by the regime.
I view blogging as many different things; an outlet, a news source, and a creative endeavor. People blog for many different reasons, but for Nay Myo Latt, it was an attempt to get news out of the country, so that others could understand the situation there and hopefully add more international pressure for the current regime to compromise with pro-democracy supporters. The story needs more attention, to make Nay Myo Latt's voice heard.
More information about loss of freedoms, including the ability to use the Internet to get news in or out of the country, can be found at The Irrawaddy and Mizzima News.
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Eunice Lindsey
Nichole Mclaughlin
Mitch Roberson
Rolf Lopez
Opensource 
Michael Fidler 
Scary stuff over there for sure! What Brave people like Nay Myo Latt are doing is very important* I just mentioned on Flickr to someone who had posted Free Burma Photos that this Issue has all but disappeared off the Media here in the West*
Fortunately with amazing Communication tools like the Internet + Blogs + conscientious World Citizens like Bloggers - Word of these infringements on Basic Human Rights will continue to get the Word out* A few short years ago U would never even Hear about this*
Peace*
I have spent some time in Myanmar recently. We stayed mostly in Yangon but travelled about 1.5 hrs north most days. We used an internet cafe almost daily. And we passed through 'check points' I think - they had boom gates with official looking people, somtimes with guns - almost daily.
We never had to give our details (except to the hotel staff when we arrived) and could get to quite a number of blog sites. I blogged almost daily for family and friends without any issue. Blogger was blocked. I couldn't get to a number of news sites. I could get to Google News no probs. Never had to give personal details at the very friendly internet cafe we used.
We did have to register our attendance at a larger gathering. We spent every day with local people who spoke good English. They are careful but I certainly did not get the impression they lived in fear.
I got through customs no problems in both directions. There was no significant presence of military personnel. We felt very safe on the streets (often quite late at night). It was a great place to visit and very different to the picture painted in the local news.
Having said all that I am sure the locals who step over the 'line' would find themselves in trouble quickly. Our friends are cautious. But they are not scared. It seemed to me that if you stayed away from anything political all would be well. It was with us and our friends.
People like Nay Myo Latt do have my full support, admiration and prayers. A voice does need to be raised to help bring liberty and democracy to the great country of Burma. I will be doing my best to see that happen. And may it happen soon.
@BillyWarhol Are we just so sure that it can't happen here that we ignore it?
@Bill My source is a frequent traveler to Myanmar married to a Burmese citizen. I sent the AP article and the source felt that it was misinformed. I'm wondering if the difference in your experiences may have been which Internet cafe you used (i.e. Was it one of the ones owned by Nay Myo Latt and therefore already lax on the government requirements for tracking users?) and where you were traveling in-country. My source did mention that there are certain areas that are acceptable for foreign travelers to visit, some that recently began to allow foreign travelers to visit that are much more strict, and some that don't allow foreigners to travel at all.
I don't know who the owner of the cafe was. We used two and both seemed to have some freedom to blog and what not. But not complete freedom. There were many sites that were blocked. We were also not right in the town center so maybe that helped. I understand it is much more restricted in the north of the country. But we didn't travel there. I don't mean to suggest that what was written was incorrect. I just had a different experience. Could be lots of reasons for it as you have described.
What Bill said is right and Bill may not be aware that Myanmar can’t blog as you blog there. The simple answer is explaining by the only ISP in Myanmar as follows.
” The access to requested URL has been denied. http://www.blogspot.com/
To have the rating of this web page re-evaluated please contact your administrator.” It happens to almost everything but we do have a way out to use.
As Bill said Myanmar is safe country to travel unless you touch things politically. Politics here mean something taboo Not depends on Right or Wrong you say. It depends on how you threaten or abuse the-whatever-authorities. This is simplicity to understand the situation of the most complex nation. You can even go and discuss at Google Groups http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.burma