The brief about Mizzima News Agency
Mizzima News completed its 10th Anniversary in August 2008. From humble beginnings in 1998 with a laptop without even a telephone line and founded by three Burmese exiles in India,
Mizzima has matured into a far-reaching and reliable source of news, information and analysis for people inside and outside Burma. It has become a rare window into events affecting the lives of the Burmese people.
Mizzima now has a strong team of 50 paid employees including Burmese and foreign journalists reporting from five countries: Burma/Myanmar, India, Bangladesh, Thailand and China. Mizzima’s Head Office in New Delhi (India) with Liaison Office in Bangkok and News Bureau in Chiang Mai (Thailand) and office in Kolkata (India).
Mizzima also has Units (underground) in Burma.
Mizzima works closely with the journalists and freedom of expression organizations such as Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), International Media Support (IMS), and Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) etc.
Mizzima provides news ---daily email services ---to various individuals and organizations including diplomats, government servants, human rights groups, lobby and campaign groups, and activists groups living in several countries including Burma.
Mizzima is a founding member of the Burma News International (BNI) that is a network of Burma’s independent media organizations that are formed outside the country.
In May 2007, the International Press Institute (IPI) has honored
Mizzima as “Free Media Pioneer 2007”.
Mizzima is a member of International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX).
New Delhi, India, nearly 1,500 miles removed from the streets of Rangoon and an unlikely destination for most Burmese refugees and exiles, may seem an odd location from which to initiate a campaign for freedom of the press and democracy against Burma’s military establishment, but it was off the congested and boisterous streets of the Indian capital that
Mizzima was born. Ten years after the fateful 8-8-88 uprising in Burma, three veterans of the Burmese struggle for democracy came together to found
Mizzima News Agency in New Delhi in August of 1998.
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Though in possession of a laptop from the outset, it was not until 2002 that
Mizzima moved online. In the initial years, at a time when it was known as
Mizzima News Group, the primary function of
Mizzima was the collection and dissemination of news and information on Burma and Burma-related issues via Internet and fax. This task was supplemented with the organization of seminars and events on media and democracy, focusing on Burma. Located in New Delhi, the founders took advantage of their geographic locale to also deal with India-Burma relations, focusing on the role of India in the Burmese democracy movement.
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Before leaving Mizzima’s Chiang Mai office, a 28-year old female employee furtively conceals a copy of the
Mizzima Monthly Journal inside a Thai newspaper in preparation for her five minute walk home – without any legal documentation, she is scared of what may happen to her if a Thai policeman notices she is Burmese. Yet, asked as to whether she faces difficulties in her adopted home of Chiang Mai, she responds, “I have not had any difficulties so far, as I only spend my time and go between my room and the office.” To an unknowing outside observer such a mentality may be cause for bemusement, but in reality it is but one more indication of the daily obstacles, and sense of fear and unbelonging, that
Mizzima staff must struggle to overcome as they work to bring the stories of Burma to a global audience from their forced homes in exile.
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Insufficient resources, lack of proper identification and a need for further professional training are just a few of the deficiencies that
Mizzima and its staff are forced to confront on a regular basis. It is a situation only worsened by the fact that the few dozen exile employees of
Mizzima, short in resources, routinely come up against entrenched state mechanisms, both in the form of the Burmese military junta and from neighboring countries for whom
Mizzima staff often fail to fulfill national law concerning travel and work permits. The following two brief case studies of recent events shed light on the technological and human obstacles that
Mizzima confronts while working to fulfill its responsibility of delivering accurate and up to date news and information on the continuing plight of Burma and its over 50 million citizens.
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