One Blogger On The Inside In Myanmar Delivering Updates To The World

If you’ve been following the junta-led crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Myanmar over the last week or so, you’ve likely learned that foreign news services have thus far been barred from entering the country to cover the activity within. So you probably recognize that all that you’ve read and seen of the goings on inside the military-run state has been coming by way of a series of brave bloggers and photographers.

Well, things have gotten a mighty bit harder for Myanmar’s citizen newsmakers as of the close of September, as the backdoor methods used for feeding the outside world with updates, done almost entirely via the Web, have since been closed. That’s right, closed. Almost completely. The junta hasn’t only put strong filters and things on Internet traffic going in and out of the country. They’ve effectively kinked their tubes to the point where most all of ‘em now run dry.

And yet we find there’s a trickle of facts and figures still emerging from the Burmese landscape. But from where? Well, it turns out that a lone blogger from inside the country, known only as Niknayman, has been subverting the government’s blocks with a nifty, barebones messaging service called CBox, offering a steady supply of short snippets of information gathered from a series of sources scattered throughout Myanmar. You can read those posts here.

There’s no telling whether Niknayman’s “feed” will continue to be available to the outside for long, as it’s certain that the authorities are continually scouring the country, both physically and digitally, for leaks. Nonetheless, it’s necessary that Burmese bloggers/journalists, both within and without the closed border, continue with their courageous efforts to bring new information to the world, as that information is the only effective tool forces looking on from international reaches can use to bring a stop to the wrongs being perpetrated by the junta.

How incredibly crucial technology can be. For weeks, monks would walk the streets of Myanmar’s cities in protest of the junta freely. Then the general public joined them. Soon thereafter, the pro-democracy movement came to a crashing (and deadly) halt. Now we’re left peering through the smallest of windows into an entire country imprisoned by its rulers. Here’s to hoping this window doesn’t get broken.

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