Myanmar’s Journalists Need Digital Safety Support
A new Foundation-supported study from EngageMedia unpacks the digital threats journalists face in post-coup Myanmar—and why international donors must start baking holistic digital safety support into all projects they support.
It’s called Reporting Against the Odds, and you can get highlights here in a three-minute video:
Navigating pervasive fear
Myanmar’s February 2021 military coup reignited a climate of pervasive fear, especially among journalists—in an environment where media freedom was already fragile and economic resources concentrated among a select few. At least 195 journalists have been arrested thorough this span, and 14 media houses have lost their licences. Today, even identifying as a reporter poses significant risks not just to them but also to their family, friends and sources.
EngageMedia set out to investigate how journalists are managing to continue their vital work in this climate, both inside and outside Myanmar. Digital tools are vital to the modern reporter’s craft—even more so in these fraught conditions with limited mobility. But this reliance also opens up new vectors for digital surveillance, harassment and disruption. And so the researchers focussed on investigating journalists’ digital security perceptions and practices.
They found that Myanmar journalists do face significant digital harms in their daily work, from doxxing and data loss to exposed sources. None, however, saw evidence of sophisticated surveillance tools like Pegasus or Cellebrite. Instead, they flagged a wide array of “low tech” threats crossing into their digital worlds. Like having their smartphone phones seized and searched at military checkpoints and through warrantless home raids. Or surveillance carried out by neighbourhood or online informants.
Improvising digital safety
Myanmar’s independent media houses, many now based in Thailand, generally leave digital safety up to the journalists. And even when journalists do receive training, it generally focusses narrowly on tools and devices—ignoring their human and social context. As one reporter put it, strong passwords don’t help when a checkpoint soldier tells you to unlock your phone. Another warned that encrypted messaging tools can backfire by arousing the military’s suspicions.
In practice, journalists are learning to improvise to stay safe. That might mean adopting adopting two phones, including a “clean” one with no work data. It can mean adopting pseudonyms and cover stories, or contacting sources only through trusted third parties. It may mean painstakingly deleting data from devices and messaging accounts at the end of each day. Or any number of tactics to confront the real threats that they perceive.
But journalists should not have to to tackle these challenges alone. Robust digital safety requires not just improvisation, but especially preparation and teamwork. One journalist shared their experience with external deactivation. Detained at a checkpoint, they were able to alert HQ in a predetermined way—triggering a process to remotely scrub all of their online work accounts.
That kind of strategy requires shared insight, risk assessment, advance planning and real-time teamwork. That’s rare. And we cannot expect cash-strapped independent media houses in a conflict zone to now organically transform their security postures. For that, they need help.
International donors: a call to action
International donors play a vital role supporting humanitarian and other civil society organizations in Myanmar, including independent media houses. This is why donors—urgently—must start building digital safety directly into the support they bring to this country.
Media houses and their staff/reporters need comprehensive digital safety support. That means digital vulnerability assessments, operational audits and all-staff training. This will equip them to navigate real threats they face in real time. Conversely, if donors continue to fund civil society and media activities without baking in digital safety support, they will be putting lives at risk.
The SecDev Foundation has extensive experience in this area. Our CyberSTAR methodology is purpose-built for small, at-risk civil society organizations and independent media. Over the last decade, CyberSTAR implementations have helped hundreds of organizations transform their digital safety postures—primarily in Eurasia, but also in the MENA region and Southeast Asia.
About the researchers
EngageMedia is a nonprofit that promotes digital rights, open/secure technology, and social issue documentary. Combining video, technology, knowledge, and networks, they support changemakers in the Asia-Pacific region and around the world. The Foundation has been pleased to partner with EngageMedia to defend and advance digital rights, resilience and citizenship. Since 2014, our SEA Changemakers program has promoted digital resilience among youth in Southeast Asia.
Interested in learning more about post-coup Myanmar’s digital-facing challenges? Check out our Myanmar Digital Research series—27 studies led mostly by young and emerging Myanmar researchers.
