Producing the News: Reporting on Myanmar’s Rohingya Crisis

ABSTRACT

Since communal violence erupted in Myanmar’s Rakhine State in 2012 between Buddhist and Muslim communities, the plight of the Rohingya Muslims has received much media attention both inside and outside of the country. Rarely, however, do we get critical analyses of how such reporting is constructed. Research on communal conflict and journalism tends to focus on the how-to of conflict-sensitive reporting and the dangers of employing local fixers and interpreters whose influence is seen to reduce the objectivity of news, rather than on the actual news gathering strategies used in specific conflicts. Based on personal observations of a freelance reporter in Myanmar, and interviews with journalists and “fixers” working in the country, this article analyses the news production processes in reporting on the conflict. The article maps out the various actors involved in the production of news, such as foreign and local journalists, local producers (the “fixers”) and interpreters, and the various challenges and limitations they face. These challenges function to perpetuate a familiar set of reporting routines and “us vs them” or binary narratives, with consequences for the de-escalation or perpetuation of the conflict.

KEYWORDS:

• Burma
• journalism
• foreign correspondents
• interpreters
• Rohingya
• communal conflict

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

List of Interviewees

Of the 21 interviewees for this article, 15 were Myanmar nationals, 11 of them living in Yangon at time of interview. The ethnicities of the Myanmar journalists and local producers include five Rakhine, two Rohingya, one Karen, two Kachin and five Burman. Three of the Myanmar interviewees were Muslim, three Christian and all others were Buddhists. In cases where the ethnic background of the Myanmar producers could reveal their identities, this information is not included in the list and their ethnicity is stated simply as “Myanmar.” The journalists from outside of the country came from Australia, UK, USA and Southeast Asia. Some were living in Myanmar at the time of the interviews, while others were not. To guarantee anonymity, interviewees requested not to be identified by their base or home country and thus this information is not included in the list below. For this same reason, age spans by decade are used.

The list below states each interviewee’s role in the news production process, whether they are Myanmar or not, their age, gender and place and date of the interview.

I1 Local producer, Myanmar, 20–29, female. Yangon, June 23, 2015.

I2 Local producer, Myanmar, 30–39, male. Yangon, June 1, 2016.

I3 Local producer, Myanmar, 20–29, male. Yangon, September 18, 2015.

I4 Journalist, Myanmar, 20–29, female. Phone conversation, June 22, 2015.

I5 Journalist, Myanmar, 30–39, female. Yangon, June 24, 2015.

I6 Journalist, foreign correspondent, 20–29, female. Yangon, May 26, 2016.

I7 Journalist, foreign correspondent, 30–39, male. Phone conversation, June 21, 2016.

I8 Journalist, foreign correspondent, 30–39, male. Yangon, June 7, 2016.

I9 Local producer, Myanmar, 30–39, female. Yangon, June 16, 2016.

I10 Local producer, Myanmar, 30–39, male. Yangon, June 7, 2016.

I11 Journalist, Myanmar, 30–39, male. Yangon, June 22, 2016.

I12 Journalist, foreign correspondent, 30–39, female. Yangon, June 23, 2015.

I13 Local producer and journalist, Myanmar, 30–39, male. Yangon, June 8, 2016.

I14 Local producer and journalist, Myanmar, 20–29, male. Yangon, July 8, 2015.

I15 Journalist, foreign correspondent, 20–29, female. Yangon, June 8, 2016.

I16 Journalist, foreign correspondent, 20–29, male. Phone conversation, July 28, 2015.

I17 Local producer and journalist, Myanmar, 20–29, male. Yangon, July 29, 2015.

I18 Journalist, Rakhine, 20–29, male. Sittwe, June 29, 2016.

I19 Local producer, Rohingya, 30–39, male. Sittwe, November 10, 2014.

I20 Local producer, Rohingya, 20–29, male. Sittwe, November 10, 2014.

I21 Interpreter, Rakhine, 20–29, male. Sittwe, June 29, 2016.

Notes

1. The journalists and local producers interviewed about their experiences reporting from Rakhine State will all remain unidentified and are referred to in the text in the manner each requested. A list of the interviewees can be found at the end of this article, along with more general details about them.

2. As this article goes to press in early 2017, violence has broken out again several times in Rakhine State, and more lives have been lost (see Cheesman 2017). Rules regarding access for journalists to sensitive areas are likely to have changed again as security concerns have mounted.

3. A more in-depth discussion of the complex issues involved in translation and interpretation, and for that matter the meaning of the terms themselves, is beyond the scope of this article.

4. Rohingya producers and interpreters working inside the camps are predominantly men and only one of the interviewees knew about a woman doing the same job. As a result, stories about how the lives of women are affected in the camps are barely reported. In the Muslim communities living in the camps, women often feel uncomfortable talking about their problems, especially to men. Rohingya men mostly take the lead during interviews and answer on behalf of the women.