The civilian protest movement in Myanmar against the military coup of February 1st continued on Monday, when a general strike was held and hundreds of thousands again took to the streets of major towns and cities, including the capital Nay Pyi Taw, Yangon and Mandalay, despite the junta's warnings against a “confrontation path where they will suffer the loss of life”. A group of young journalists in Myanmar, a collective called The Myanmar Project, have spent the past three weeks documenting the unfolding events across the country. Here, under cover of anonymity, they tell Laure Siegel what motivated them and how they go about their reporting.
One evening, about a week after the military coup in Myanmar which overthrew the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, ending a process of democratisation of the country after ten years of relative liberalization, “M” sent a message on a social media discussion group linking students and teachers from his graduation year. “Teachers, I want to ask something,” he wrote. “I am sitting here, I am thinking and I cannot sleep. I am involved in the overthrow of the dictatorship. Does it break the ethic of not taking sides as a journalist?”
