SOFII - A message from Myanmar

‘Tribal peoples in our country experience a number of social disadvantages. Their children are more likely to need special help in education. Unemployment is higher among ethnic tribal minorities than among Burmese people. There has not been any effort to promote equality of opportunity for all groups and to remove racial discrimination.

Tribal editors, broadcasters and journalists are not well represented in national radio and press. Established tribal actors and actresses have not been acknowledged.

Broadcasting is a state monopoly. Its network and studio centres cover all cultural and linguistic regions of the country.

People across the country have access to a wide range of media – TV, radio, newspaper and periodicals. But not in different languages and dialects, solely in the Burmese language and often not at their doorsteps.

Easy access to official information is still considered a privilege reserved for a few insiders in the Junta. The phobia of secrecy blurs transparency and negates accountability, both of which are essential for healthy democracy. There is a great dearth of literature presenting the people of Burma's viewpoints.

These responsibilities of the press are voluntary and self-imposed. Poor people need to have access to information resources and to be able to use communications tools to express themselves, so that they can become better citizens and thereby increase their own interest in building a new world. Then, they will become interested in opposing the control of media by a small group of people and will come to see that this control of media is depriving people of the freedom of having their own voices.

Today’s people are becoming increasingly responsible for the messages they receive because they themselves are mastering various communication technologies like email, website development, ICT and networking. They have discovered that this emerging new professionalism is improving media criticism and influencing the decision process throughout Burma.

Professionals from journalism and from other communication fields are expected to be in touch with new educational experiences. Tribal Media Group draws together strategies that promote the practice and participation of free expression in a way that teaches young people about their right to communicate and at the same time introduces them to new technologies. We have been working hard to deal with the issue of working for peace, in a creative way.

Because travel to foreign lands is so difficult, Tribal Media Group is looking at the chances to open up communication media to young people and adults in their day-to-day teaching. But we need help in this from other professionals in other parts of the world.

In Burma we are a long way away from having a media system which prioritises young people and their special needs. We suffer from a lack of available funds to guarantee the desirable level of quality. We appeal to international donors to help us in different means and ways, particularly in raising funds. Our major problem in our work is lack of funds.

Media have been the leaders in public affairs and for the promotion of social progress and peace. We hope they are seen as beacons of enlightenment. We are willing to collaborate to increase dialogue between generations and in favour of fostering a new and more peaceful world.

Through Tribal Media Group, young people are invited to express themselves, to analyse media and especially to produce messages according to their knowledge and interest. Youngsters are being helped to become active in their families and communities. But Tribal Media Group is not a recognised organisation within our country.

Tribal Media Group believes local media alone can serve the needs of the people in their language and idiom, because they are familiar with the environments in which people live. Often, remote villages are out of contact because they are not connected by any passable road. The people are visiting market places on foot, walking a distance of up to one week’s journey. Distances of many miles over mountainous terrain are covered, just by people walking. In such an environment, rumours too spread at an alarming speed and multiply in the process. Thus, if the electronic media are prompt and their credibility is good, their role in countering false rumours can be of far-reaching importance. Tradition and tastes are deep rooted. The media planners have to be sensitive to all this.

As far as possible, journalism is intended to serve the community in understanding the developments taking place in the social, economic and political systems.

The activities of the mass media follow closely the developments in various fields, informing people, reacting to policies and creating the social climate in which development and nation building programmes can take place. We are looking at the former primarily as instruments of achieving social and economic development within the value framework of democracy, secularism and equality.

Can SOFII please help us?’

S, Myanmar, June 2009.