Burma media alliance: seven plus two makes one

General

Burma media alliance: seven plus two makes one

A three-day bi-annual meeting of the Burma News International, 23-25 August, in Chiangmai ended with the one-year old media coalition gaining two more member groups making it nine in all, S.H.A.N. correspondent reports.

The BNI, formed in January 2003 in India, increased its member news groups from seven to nine with the inclusion of Thai border-based Kao Wao News and Shan Herald Agency News at its 4th gathering in Thailand's northern capital. Its seven original members are Independent Mon News Agency, Karennin Information Network Group and Network Media Group that are based on the Thai border; Kaladan Press and Narinjara News that are based on the Bangladeshi border; and Mizzima and Khonumthung News, based in India.

Its networking partners are Kachin News Group, based on the Chinese border, and Shan Youth Power Media, based on the Thai border.

The BNI publishes a weekly news package on Burma. Its long term goal is to become a multi-media and subscription-based news network for the regional and international media.

Its other not-too-long aspiration is to become a fellow of Southeast Asian Press Alliance, founded in November 1998, by independent press advocacy organizations from Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, with the aim to unite independent journalist's organizations in the region into a force for advocacy and mutual protection.

At the same time, Soe Myint, Mizzima's editor-in-chief and co-founder of BNI was quoted as saying, "Although BNI is vital for common security, it doesn't mean that it should be instituted at the expense of its individual member groups. They are the BNI's building blocks and if they weaken and collapse, BNI will be no more."

The media groups in exile are also in the process of restoring the defunct Burma Journalists Association, whose members will be independent individual journalists rather than groups.

Other than the BNI and BJA, the exiles have Burma Media Association, formed in 2002, whose membership, apart from journalists, embrace poets, writers and film-makers.