Scaling mountains to report the news

"Under the military council, we cannot go back.”

Salai Sangte* is an editor at an Indigenous news outlet Inter Pares supports in Burma’s Chin State.

A month and a half after the military’s attempted coup in February 2021, Salai Sangte and most of his colleagues fled to India. Near the border with Burma, they now run the online news outlet remotely. 

Today, Burma is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist, according to Reporters Without Borders. Since the coup, four journalists have been killed and at least 176 arrested. Just a handful of Salai Sangte's reporters remain in the country. He fears for them and hopes someday he’ll be able to rejoin them in Chin State.

“If the federal democracy is established ... we’ll surely move back to the country – our country.”

But in southern Chin State, the military has had all communication services shut down for over a year. 

“In the southern side, it’s very, very difficult to communicate,” says Salai Sangte. That doesn’t stop journalists in the area from working – they use the cell signal that bleeds across the border from India to send information. “The reporters go to where they can get it on top of a mountain. One or two hours they spend [travelling] to get the signal.”

Like Salai Sangte’s news outlet, six other Indigenous news organizations Inter Pares supports are adapting to the conflict while informing the world about the military’s atrocities. They are recruiting and training citizens to gather news that professional journalists can’t. With our counterparts, we’ve supported training for nearly 200 citizen journalists throughout Burma.

Through the hardship, many outlets rely on donor funding to operate. But funds are drying up as the conflict escalates, says Salai Sangte. Of more than 20 media outlets in Chin State pre-coup, he estimates only six are left.

“We have to struggle more and more to survive,” he says of the media in Burma. “That is our future.”

We are proud to support this Indigenous news outlet and others as they work for democracy in their country. 

*Nickname used for his security

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