How Western Media Approach Myanmars Politics - Literature review Example

?Beyond Rangoon (1995) and Burma VJ (2008 How Western Media Approach Myanmar’s Politics The baffling political and economical changes in Myanmar, also known as Burma, have accelerated a very active debate trend among people associated with Western media. The reporting by many prestigious international media outlets has led to a greater in-depth understanding of the ups and downs in Myanmar’s politics. The very strict and biased censorship board previously active in Myanmar refused to adopt an open attitude and banned all politically sensitive material. This left many reporters utterly frustrated as no freedom of speech was welcomed by authoritative bodies in the country. Regarding the global attitude towards Myanmar’s politics, most Western countries adopted a wait-and-see approach in addition to commenting that there might exist an opportunity of a positive change for the public now on grounds of “government pledges of reform and Aung San Suu Kyi’s expression of cautious optimism” (Human Rights Watch, 2012). Complete media freedom is yet to be seen in Myanmar but as a result of complete military control on media for the last 48 years, foreigners often used to know more about Burmese news than Burmese themselves previously (Rocchi, 2009). Most of what the Myanmar public would read was controlled by Mr. Tint Swe who was Myanmar’s last censor in chief and so it was his job to manipulate and change the literature written by journalists, critics, and scholars. It is explicitly claimed by him that though the authoritative people in the censorship board did not arrest or torture any critic writing against the government largely made by former generals, still “we had to torture their writing” (Fuller, 2012). It is not a fact hidden from the Western media that almost for past five decades, military governments active in Myanmar literally made it their business to strictly examine every page, article, book, photo or poem before allowing it to be printed in any newspaper. This was because most of the stuff got returned from censors with red lines through entire passages which signifies the ultimate insecurity of the military governments. Even the country was sealed off for foreign journalists by Myanmar’s military government (Mydans, 2007). It was a hectic job for the military itself also as controlling every facet of citizens’ lives was not exactly a very facile job (Fuller, 2012). The Western media is well aware of the fact that this was the choicest way of military governments in Myanmar to exercise control on the public. After about 48 years of continual censorship and literary torture, this strategy of scrutinizing the important material that was controlled by military is banned but before that the state was such that “even the yellow pages of the phone book passed through the censorship office” (Fuller, 2012). It is widely acknowledged outside Myanmar that the changes brought about inside the country which overthrew military government have to do a lot with the gradual realization process which made many bureaucrats decide that military rule and media propaganda was not sustainable and the work done by the censorship board did not comply with the global standards. Monks’ Protest also contributed a lot in bringing changes as it reportedly challenged Burmese Junta a lot. Thousands of onlookers back in 2007 cheered huge masses of Buddhist monks while shouting supportive slogans for the detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi (Mydans, 2007). It is commented by journalists that another factor which remained helpful in overthrowing military rule was the technological innovations which could not be scrutinized by censorship board. Burma VJ is an important example in this regard which according to a 2009 report made use of technology by providing “powerful evidence of the new ways in which oppression can be documented and world opinion swayed” (Anderson, 2009). According to another source, these video-journalists widely known as Burma VJs became a source of humiliation for the military regime which kept “nearly 1,546 political prisoners behind bars” (Democratic Voice of Burma, 2011). According to a respected international media source, Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar has become an international symbol of peaceful resistance in the face of oppression like the South African leader Nelson Mandela” (bbc.co.uk, 2012). As already discussed, the military government previously active in Myanmar was very forceful and used to imprison the opponents which is why Aung San Suu Kyi also spent the last 20 years of her life suffering some form of detention because she struggled a lot against oppression and dictatorship. Until 2012, she was repeatedly stopped by military officials to stand for elections. The political changes which has taken place in Myanmar appear to be rather rapid, complex, and confusing to the outside world as the new civilian government has announced to start a journey of reform, there is hope and opportunity for a change now that did not exist throughout the last five decades. As a dutiful daughter of the country’s independence hero General Aung San who got assassinated during the transition period, Ms. Suu Kyi took it upon herself to change the political conditions in Myanmar for better and successfully made her way into the parliament after remaining a political prisoner for years. The military authorities put her under house arrest on many occasions. Once when Burma was amidst major political upheaval as a result of which she led the revolt against the then-dictator of Myanmar, she said in a speech in Rangoon that as her father’s daughter she could not remain indifferent to the negative authoritative leadership practiced in her country (bbc.co.uk, 2012). In context of more positive changes, it is commented by Burma Campaign UK that in order to establish genuine and sustainable democracy and undisturbed freedom in Burma, “no political activists must remain in Burma’s jails” (cited in Burma Campaign UK, 2012). In an address to British Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne who is responsible for Burma, it is claimed that Burma should be pressured to free Zaw Zaw Aung who is another political prisoner sent to life imprisonment back in 2008. In order to establish real democracy, Burma Campaign UK is identifying a new case of a political prisoner in Burma every month (Burma Campaign UK, 2012). In this regard, a petition campaign is also launched in Burma to release imprisoned activists. According to one member of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters Network which has launched this petition, “when the government is carrying out reforms in the country, political prisoners especially human rights activists must be released unconditionally” (Lay, cited in Noreen, 2012). Methodology This section will identify the methodologies used to approach and discuss the research question. This will also provide a glimpse regarding the nature of the qualitative method used throughout the research and discourse analysis on both films. The political scene in Burma took a prominent turn in the early 1960s when the military forces decided to establish military dictatorship in Burma overlooking the benefits offered by a civilian government. Since then Myanmar adopted a policy of limiting the number of foreign travelers wanting to travel there. This policy was adopted because the military government did not want any news about political events in Myanmar to reach out of the country. The military junta also limited a lot of freedom as many presses were forced to shut down. The media people had to suffer appalling consequences at hands of military rulers and a great number of activists criticizing the rulers were made political prisoners. Then Burmese military government did not want news about such horrendous events to go out and reach the Western media. So the military decided to close the country and not allow any foreign journalist to visit the country. On these grounds, this research can only make use of qualitative data from the secondary sources. Also the general idea of qualitative data is to learn about how and why people think and behave and make meaning as they do in the certain period of time (Ambert, et al, 1995, p, 880) and this idea relates to the aims of this research to discuss the nature of Burmese military government, its behavior, and its reaction to the world under media pressure. The concept behind including films like Beyond Rangoon and Burma Vj in the research is largely related to these films showing the details regarding what happened during the period of military leadership. These movies also reflect what beliefs people held in those times when they were oppressed by dictators. The film directors aiming at unveiling the real circumstances by making such films surveyed and studied what occurred and then create the film on basis of that learning. Beyond Rangoon discusses the charismatic character of Aung San Suu Kyi through the main character, Laura Bowman. The discourse analysis comes from the dialogue between characters that reflect on life in that period as Budd and Raber (1995, p.218) describe that media communication is a sensitive process which can manifest itself in many ways. On the other hand, Burma Vj is different from Beyond Rangoon in that it is basically a documentary which makes it easier to access the facts. It presents a collection of various footages compiled by myriad reporters in that time. Although such a strategy of making a collection of real footages lends a more realistic touch to the information but all the informative still has to be checked. To approach questions in this dissertation, analysis is based on both these films but still not every aspect of political events in Burma since early 1960s could be covered as scripts can show in depth only what films want to point out and discuss. However, the qualitative method is still the key factor to approach the questions and address them in detail by exploring how and why people called for democracy. Bibliography Anderson, J 2009, Monks, Tanks and Videotape, The New York Times, [Online] Available at bbc.co.uk 2012, Profile: Aung San Suu Kyi, BBC NEWS, [Online] Available at Burma Campaign UK 2012, No political activists must remain in Burma’s jails: Free Zaw Zaw Aung, [Online] Available at Democratic Voice of Burma 2011, FREE BURMA VJ, [Online] Available at Fuller, T 2012, Chief Censor in Myanmar Caps His Red Pen, The New York Times, [Online] Available at Human Rights Watch 2012, World Report 2012: Burma, [Online] Available at Mydans, S 2007, Monks’ Protest Is Challenging Burmese Junta, The New York Times, [Online] Available at Noreen, N 2012, Petition campaign launched to free imprisoned activist, DEMOCRATIC VOICE OF BURMA, [Online] Available at Rocchi, J 2009, Film: Burma VJ, Mother Jones, [Online] Available at Read More