With support from Russia, just over a year ago the military junta in Myanmar seized power. Independent news was cut off immediately and journalists were hunted down. Within weeks Myanmar, or Burma, slipped back into a war state, with soldiers on every corner, thousands of political prisoners being tortured and pure propaganda on all official media.

Still, the majority of the people know what is really going on, thanks to a couple of independent news organisations that operate underground and broadcast / publish from across the borders. One of them is the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), the main independent TV broadcaster. I’m proud to work as a media developer for DVB since 2008; at first, creating new TV formats, but since the coup mainly coordinating support to keep all staff safe and the news flowing.

This is a classified operation and this public article is not revealing how it is done in detail. But it is no secret we manage to collect and verify dozens of original news videos from all across Burma every day, as we broadcast hourly news by TV satellite and online as it happens. DVB’s two main social media - Facebook and Youtube - generated in 2021 over 3 billion interactions (views, clicks, comments etc.), twice as much as in the previous year.

While since February 2021 free media is forbidden, internet traffic is frequently blocked and power cuts keep happening more often. A recent BBC Media Action audience reach survey (conducted by phone interviews), revealed even a surprising uptick of 5% TV consumption since August last year, with DVB still reaching 12% of the TV viewers (it was 20% in 2020). This is kind of amazing, taking into account DVB switched to another satellite dish, which has been declared illegal to possess - any Burmese can get up to 1 year of jail time, when caught watching DVB on TV.

What is there to learn for journalists from Ukraine? Although nobody knows how this war will develop, it is likely independent news will be increasingly difficult to make. Especially in occupied territories it is extremely dangerous and difficult to cover events objectively. But even more than in poorer Burma, common people have mobile phones. We call them Citizen Journalists, or CJ’s. If CJ’s learn how to take photos and film what happens in secret and find ways to share safely with independent media, others in Ukraine and the rest of the world will know the truth. There are already CJ’s active in Ukraine, but Burmese CJ’s are a year ahead with hard lessons learned.

A few tips: a single photo or video from a citizen reporter will not be sufficient for a professional media organisation to run the story, but as soon as the second and third CJ, independently from each other, reports about the same event - from another angle - it may be evidence enough to broadcast. Creating, training and funding networks of CJ’s is crucial to keep covering the news. The bigger the network, the safer it is for each individual making part of it.

More lessons to share: use several false names, contact only 1-2 people in the network, clear all phone data daily, switch SIM cards as much as possible, film horizontally and preferably don’t film from your hiding location (to avoid tracing your place back from your potential CNN footage). The same techniques and networks need to be developed in Russia, to circumvent censorship and avoid arrest, while keeping Russians and the rest of the world informed with independent content.

For the people in Myanmar, Ukraine and Russia as for so many other people that happen to be born in an unfree country, it is crucial democratic societies donate, to make this dangerous but pivotal news production in exile possible. To keep the truth, although hidden in the shadows, alive.