From Myanmar to Thailand: Displaced journalists tell their stories

They left after the coup but continued to report the situation in their communities

Originally published on Global Voices

This article by Sicha Rungrojtanakul was originally published by Prachatai, an independent news site in Thailand. An edited version has been republished by Global Voices under a content-sharing agreement.

Since the 2021 coup in Myanmar, the military junta has continued its campaign of repression against the country’s citizens. Among the many groups targeted for harassment are independent journalists covering resistance groups. Many fled to Thailand, often illegally. Some later managed to legalise their immigration status by claiming to be migrant workers. However, most journalists have been forced to keep their real occupations secret.

Over the course of the past three years, women and LGBTQ+ journalists have risked their lives in the field while dealing with sexual harassment and the burden of looking after family members while displaced. At the same time, they have faced the added difficulties of communicating with local sources and struggling to obtain legal status in Thailand.

Exiled journalists

Mee (a pseudonym), a journalist with over 14 years of experience, fled Yangon to covertly work as a journalist in a border town in Thailand. Prior to the coup, she used to be able to report freely. After the coup, however, the state imposed strict censorship.

She joined the resistance but continued to work underground in Myanmar. However, two years after the coup, when military officers searched her neighbourhood while she was not home, she decided to flee to Thailand. The breadwinner of her household, she has continued working as a reporter here.

To reside in Thailand legally, Mee spent over TBH 50,000 (USD 1,470) on a student visa. Mee spends most of her time in class while doing her journalism work online. Stress from politics back home and working remotely from Thailand have taken a toll on her mental health.

After I arrived (in Thailand), I asked myself why I put myself through all this. Work was already stressful enough. Now, though, the week before my period, I get so stressed that I feel like I might explode. So much so that at times, I wonder whether life has a purpose at all.

Kay Zue, an Arakanese journalist (of the Rahkine people)  with over 10 years of experience, suffered harassment in his own country, so he invested a small fortune in documents to move to Thailand.

He proudly told us that before the coup, he worked for the Yangon-based Mizzima News agency as an expert on conflicts in the Arakan State. After the coup, he resigned and moved back home to establish a local news agency called “Arakan Sagawar,” which reported local news in two languages: Rohingya and Arakanese. One day, Myanmar military officers visited his house when he was not home. That was when he decided to move to Thailand.

Kay Zue and his partner crossed the Myanmar-Thai border illegally together. He now works as a freelancer hosting a radio program for Mizzima News, which is also broadcast on Lay Waddy FM. His partner is in the process of applying for a job in a factory.

In the beginning … we were worried about our families back home because the internet in Arakan State had been cut. All I could do was to keep sending reports. We wanted people in the Arakan State to have access to information, so Mizzima let me host a radio news program.

Apart from work, settling down in Thailand means a lot for the couple as they feel that Thai society is more accepting of LGBTQ+ people. Back home, their families do not accept their relationship.

Kay Zue dreams that after the documents have been sorted out, he can organise a small wedding and marry his partner here. He still has to conceal his occupation, however.

A woman journalist’s life in the jungle

After the coup, a number of women journalists chose to embed themselves as field reporters in areas under the control of ethnic armed groups and resistance fighters. As women, they faced a number of constraints, including the hardship of jungle life and safety concerns working in a male-dominated environment.

After graduating from the university, Ja (pseudonym) worked in the media. But after the coup, the junta ordered many news outlets, including hers, to close down. Months later, she got her new job in the Karen State, where she lived together with 20 colleagues at a house in a refugee village. There is no privacy and the electricity is self-generated. Cooking is done with charcoal. Clean water is scarce. Everyone gets water from the same well. It is a 15-minute walk to take a bath. In the heat of the summer, it is difficult to sleep without fans. The rainy season brings so much rain that the village generator often breaks down, cutting off internet and telephone communications. The sound of rain also interferes with broadcasting.

The areas Ja covers are frequently targeted with air raids. Between February and May of 2023, when she travelled with an armed group in another part of the Karen State, fighter aircraft frequently appeared overhead.

“I did not get a single good night of sleep,” she said.

Every time an airplane roared overhead, she rushed to the bunker. Having heard bombs dropped nearby and witnessed houses destroyed by explosions, the sound terrified her.

Tin Zar Aung, the founder of Myanmar Women in Media, notes that the coup has given many female journalists mental health problems. Crossing the border did have some immediate positive impacts. While in Myanmar, most suffered sleep deprivation. In Thailand, they were no longer in fear of night raids and slept better.

Residence permit issues

According to the Migrant Working Group, to legally reside and work in Thailand, a person must possess a valid temporary residence permit, personal identification documents, a passport and visa, or an identification card for non-Thai nationals and a work permit.

Of the displaced journalists interviewed by Prachatai, Mee is on an educational visa, Ja has an identity card as a permit to work as a migrant worker, and Kay Zue is also applying to remain as a migrant worker.

Dahlia, a Karen journalist, was born in the Karen State but moved to Thailand when she was ten because of the armed conflict at home. She holds an identification card issued for a person without a registration status which allows her to reside in Thailand and move around in the province. To leave the province, she must obtain permission from the district office.

In contrast to journalists who arrive from other countries, they are not recognised as members of the press by the Thai state.

Ja recalls that it took her a long time to get all the paperwork done. She also remembers that she was harassed and treated rudely at the police station by the officers and the male interpreter there. She was forced to unlock her phone so that the police could look at her personal data, including pictures, videos, and texts. The interpreter asked her whether she was married, tried to ask her out on a date, and also used her phone to call himself so that he would have her number.

“I was afraid and angry, but I did not react because I worried that he would find a reason to arrest me. I was at a police station after all,” Ja said.

Ja moved to Chiang Mai in 2023. She found the atmosphere of this tourist city different from the border town she used to live in. She has been arrested twice there. Like other Myanmar people, she is subject to strict control and gets targeted for extortion by authorities. After moving to Chiang Mai, she obtained documents which allow her to reside in Thailand and travel to other provinces. The whole process took a year. She feels safer now but is unable to register or work in Thailand as a journalist.

I am still registered as a general worker. Working as a Myanmar journalist in Thailand is still not legal. I still have concerns that police will raid our office and arrest us because we have no permit to operate a news agency.

Written by Prachatai