Objective News for Burmese Youth
[Children's and Young People's Participation]

by Ole Chavannes, Program Manager, Kids News Network

Burmese children responded enthusiastically to the first broadcasts of their new and uncensored youth news program. The TV and online program 'Youth Voice' was launched during the DVB Launch Party in Thailand in October, 2008.

The Burmese TV station in exile broadcasts the program once a week; beginning at the start of 2009 it will air twice a week. The editors work from Thailand, where an estimated 1.5 million Burmese refugees live. In Burma, underground camera journalists interview children. To ensure the safety of the children and the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) journalists, the children wear a mask in front of the camera. Thus, all children can truly say what they want.

Media in Burma

There is no freedom of speech or press in Burma. The single state channel broadcasts a daily 'good news show', in which the Burmese people are portrayed as being happy with all the good work the generals do. There are no specific children's programs, but the state channel broadcasts sports like child boxing.

Media in exile, broadcasting mostly from Thailand, are very popular among the suppressed Burmese: They constitute the only source of real information on what is going on in their country. Satellite dishes are not (yet) forbidden, and thus an estimated 10 million Burmese watch weekly news from broadcasters like the DVB. Satellite dishes are relatively cheap today, but are still too expensive for many Burmese. Often, the owners of satellite dishes copy the news on DVDs, which are then sold at the market. Last week (November 2008), the first copies of Youth Voice were seen at a market in Rangoon, Burma's capital.

Kids News Program Launched

Youth Voice is the seventh member of the Kids News Network (KNN), a project initiated by the Dutch media NGO Free Voice, which since 2004 has started up kids’ news programs in Indonesia, Afghanistan, Zambia, South Africa, Suriname and Peru.

"We have a new quality program being developed thanks to Free Voice. This show is the new standard for our news programs", says Khin Mau Win in his opening speech. The deputy director of the DVB has come over from Norway (where the headquarters of the DVB is located) to congratulate his Youth Voice news team on their launch party.

The 30 children present at the launch party who have fled Burma are very satisfied with their new youth news program, after seeing several clips. The broadcast of the coming week includes a topic on child labour and Chinese milk products in Burma, but there are also fun topics such as a pig that nurses tiger cubs and news about Formula 1 races. The interviews with the children during the launch party can be seen in next week’s episode of Youth Voice, on TV in Burma via satellite and worldwide via the Internet.

The launch party has been organized to congratulate the new team, but also to draw attention to the new program from the audience, other media and international donors. The 150 guests make for a mixed crowd: Burmese children (refugees in Thailand), several Burmese human rights and women's organizations, other Burmese media in exile and potential international donors, including the American consulate.

"I am sure that Youth Voice is very popular among Burmese children", says Peter Keulers in his opening speech. Keulers has come from Bangkok on behalf of the Dutch embassy in Thailand (and Burma) to officially launch the program. "I hope that one day in the future Youth Voice will be broadcast on the public channel of Burma and children can give their free opinion, without a mask" he says. With a remote control he 'opens' the youth news program by starting a video clip of Youth Voice on a large screen.

Keulers hands out ‘KNN certificates’ to the new journalists, together with DVB deputy director Khin Mau Win and Kids News Network (KNN) program manager Ole Chavannes. After two months of workshops conducted by experienced editors from the Indonesian, South African and Dutch youth news programs, the eight Burmese journalists can now officially call themselves Youth News Journalists.

The ten-minute program can be watched via satellite in Burma and worldwide via the new website dvbyouth.com as well as their YouTube channel

Youth Voice is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Eurodonation Fund and several international DVB donors. For more information, see www.freevoice.nl

The KNN is initiator and general coordinator of the network, encompassing seven kids’ news programs and reaching about 20 million viewers in Burma, Indonesia, Zambia, South Africa, Suriname, Dutch Caribbean, Mozambique and Peru. The KNN aims to establish new kids’ programs in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.For the kick off of 'Youth Voice', the new kids news for Burmese youth by DVB, today we went to practice interview techniques.

For the safety of the children in Burma, they'll wear masks when giving their opinion.

These children are refugees and have an incredible hard live. But today we had so much fun with them!

News for Burmese children on the Democratic Voice of Burma - in the Dutch quality paper NRC Handelsblad

Yes, it is in Dutch but you can try this Googlelation to English. Also try this link to jeugdjournaal.nl, the Dutch kids news.
April 29th: videolink of ' Desmet live', a radio 5 program by Llink.
www.dvbyouth.com