Yesterday was International Bloggers' Day for Burma, so the day after is a good moment for oD Today to look at the range of voices gathered in support of the democracy movement inside and outside the country. We at openDemocracy support the free circulation of information, debate and reporting that blogging Burma (much of it by Burmese living in exile) represents, and as we have tracked the unfolding story in Burma we have also published several items about the political crisis: [more]
Joakim Kreutz's piece titled " Burma: protest,crackdown - and now?" argues for a careful political strategy that can include the various actors in Burmese society (including the Burmese military, the democratic opposition and the ethnic rebel groups) in the search for a long-term solution; Aung Zaw's "Burma's question" questioned the international community's political will to take action; an article article published last August on the anniversary of the "8-8-88" uprising by Kyi May Kaung reminds us that "the spirit and example of Aung San Suu Kyi is a beacon of hope that Burmese people's collective agony will indeed come to an end"; and last but not least, our oD photo-feature displayed stunning pictures taking during the current protests.
Outside our openDemocracy site, the best place to start to explore the blogosphere and the Burmese question would be this technorati page, which lists blogs who tagged their recent entries with "Burma".
Also of great interest are the recent entries posted on Global Voices, from their Myanmar hub. A pertinent entry posted by MoaMaka Media underlines the need for Myanmar citizens to be cohesive when it comes to making statements about the crisis, which is, according to the blogger, often downplayed in some media. Another entry, submitted by an anonymous blogger, goes in depth trying to explain the mechanism behind the blog-censorship which struck Burmese bloggers.
Worth noting: the " Support the Monks' protest in Burma" group on Facebook is now rallying 332,000 members (on the 24th of September the group had a timid 3,500 members). Of course, one can always be slightly dubious when facing the efficiency and point of such groups and petitions, but the speed at which the information is spreading -and the willingness that people displayed in joining an online advocacy group- is nothing but impressive.
Maybe such displays won't change a thing when it comes to oppression, but at least the online presence of supporters is undeniable: if censorship occurs, we will be more likely to know about it than we were 10 years ago. For more information about it, read "Burma's Internet crackdown, the 'nuclear bomb' of Internet repression ", an interview with John Palfrey.
Related links: Irrawaddy News, a site covering Burma and SouthEast Asia, is recovering from a virus which attacked the site on the 27th of September; Mizzima News; Aung Zaw's official website and Democratic Voice of Burma, a "non-profit Burmese media organization committed to responsible journalism".
