Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Wednesday 06 October
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Location
wheelercentre.com
In February 2021, a military coup took place in Myanmar. In the months since, media freedoms have been increasingly eroded by the regime. Independent media outlets have had their licenses revoked, and journalists and citizens seen to be conducting any sort of news gathering activity are at risk of arrest and imprisonment. Mobile data and wifi services have been suspended, making it increasingly difficult for citizen journalists to utilise social media. As international media attention recedes, state violence, repression and coercion are no longer being reported on with the urgency they demand.
To shed light on the media blackout’s impact, both in Myanmar and abroad, we’ll hear from author Michelle Aung Thin, editor-in-exile of Myanmar Now Swe Win, and award-winning foreign correspondent Peter Greste. Together with host Zoe Daniel, they’ll discuss the importance of a free press in resistance to oppressive regimes.
What role does independent media play in keeping the world updated on the political situation in Myanmar? How can we best support suppressed media organisations and individuals? And what is required to refocus international attention on the violence inflicted by Myanmar’s military junta?
Presented in partnership with Amnesty International and Free Media Myanmar
Featuring
Swe Win
Swe Win is the editor-in-chief at Myanmar Now, an independent news agency that produces features and investigations in both Burmese and English. As a former seven-year political prisoner during the military regime, Swe Win has a deep understanding of the country’s troubled past and the need for democratic change. Prior to joining Myanmar Now, he set up an independent newspaper, The Yangon Globe, after junta-era media censorship was lifted in 2012. Before that, he worked for the exile-based Irrawaddy magazine.
Swe Win currently supervises the editorial and financial management of a 40-member editorial team based in Myanmar. He holds a master degree in journalism from the University of Hong Kong and is a recipient of a presidential certificate of honour for social service through journalism (2016), European Union’s Schuman Award for human rights in 2017, Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership in 2019, and the Shorenstein Journalism Award from the Standford University in 2021.
Peter Greste
Professor Peter Greste is an Australian-born journalist, author, media freedom activist and academic. He is a founding member of the advocacy group, the Alliance for Journalists Freedom, and the UNESCO Chair in Journalism and Communication at the University of Queensland. He is also a regular contributor to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Conversation and The Guardian.
Before joining the university in January 2018, he spent 25 years as a foreign correspondent, starting with the civil war in Yugoslavia and elections in South Africa as a freelance reporter in the early '90’s, before joining the BBC as its Afghanistan correspondent in 1995. He went on to cover Latin America, the Middle East and Africa for the BBC.
In 2011 he won a Peabody Award for a BBC documentary on Somalia before joining Al Jazeera as its East Africa correspondent later that year. In December 2013 he was covering Egypt on a short three-week assignment when he was arrested on terrorism charges. After a trial widely dismissed as a sham, he was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison.
In February the following year, after 400 days behind bars and an intense international campaign, he was deported under a presidential decree. As a result of the letters he wrote from prison in the defense of freedom of the press, he won a Walkley Award in Australia in 2014, and Royal Television Society and Tribeca Disruptive Innovator’s Awards in 2015.
He has also been awarded the International Association of Press Clubs’ Freedom of Speech Award; Liberty Victoria’s 'Voltaire Award', the Australian Human Rights Commission Medal (all in 2015), the RSL’s 2016 ANZAC Peace Prize, and the Australian Press Council’s 2018 Press Freedom award.
Peter has co-authored his family’s account of their struggle to get him out of Egypt, Freeing Peter, and written his own book on journalism and the War on Terror, The First Casualty published in 2017. He remains an avid advocate of media freedom and journalist safety.
Michelle Aung Thin
Dr Michelle Aung Thin was born in Rangoon, Burma (now known as Yangon and Myanmar respectively) and grew up in Ottawa, Canada. A novelist and essayist, she is the author of The Monsoon Bride, (Text 2011) and ...
Zoe Daniel
Zoe Daniel is a three-time foreign correspondent, former ABC U.S. Bureau chief, Southeast Asia and Africa correspondent. Her book Greetings from Trumpland was released in March 2021.
Zoe Daniel is an ABC journalist and presenter. She was the ABC’s South East Asia correspondent from 2009 to 2013 providing on-the-ground coverage of stories ranging from major political events to natural disasters. These included the Bangkok protests, the reform process in Myanmar and the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
In 2005 and 2006, Zoe was the ABC’s Africa correspondent. Prior to that in 2004, she covered the Olympic Games in Athens. Zoe has reported on conflict, famine, natural disasters, repression and poverty across the world in countries as diverse as Sudan, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Burma, Vietnam and Thailand.
Zoe began her career in journalism as a radio producer in South Australia. She then reported on rural issues in New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria before becoming a business reporter and then a general reporter working on flagship ABC programs such as 7.30 and Lateline.
Zoe is the author of Storyteller, which provides a personal insight into her life as a foreign correspondent while juggling a family.