Covering Rakhine: Journalism, Conflict and Identity
Eaint Thiri Thru, a Myanmar journalist and fixer, describes the dilemmas of objectivity, identity, and trust posed by reporting in a state riven with communal animosity.
In December 2016, I made my 25th reporting trip to Rakhine State in western Myanmar. More than any other state, and any other conflict, Rakhine has changed me and my understanding of my country.
Even though my family is a mix of four ethnicities, I grew up as a Burman Buddhist. That gave me a double majority status and privilege, both religious and ethnic. Living in Yangon, the capital until 2006, my life was coloured by propaganda from the military government. In our school history books we could only read about the Great Burmese Empire.
The histories of the minorities were left out. From the state-controlled newspapers we learned that the ethnic armed struggle was an insurgent, rebel movement created by people who wanted to destabilise the country. No one mentioned that the Burman-led military had unjustly taken control of the ethnic lands. All I knew about minority ethnic groups was their traditional costumes and dances. I did not know why they were fighting, or how their lives were affected by conflict. I grew up in ignorance.
In this essay I explore the challenge of gaining access, and being impartial, in an ethnic state where you are expected to be on one side of the conflict or on the other. For decades the military junta restricted access to information and wielded a powerful propaganda strategy. This has had a long-lasting impact.
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