Media groups based along the Thai-Burmese border claim that threats against them have hindered their ability to cover news about conflicts among leaders of the Karen National Union.
Reporters with the Mae Sot-based Karen Information Center and an international broadcaster with the BBC Burmese Service say they have received threats after publishing news reports on the growing strife within the ethnic political opposition group.
One international BBC broadcaster who requested anonymity said that Pastor Timothy, the leader of a break-away faction of the KNU conducting talks with the Burmese junta, threatened his life over the telephone after a news report in June 2005. The BBC has since filed its coverage of the Burmese border from London instead of from local staffers.
A reporter with the KIC, who wished to remain unnamed for security reasons, said that the group’s office in Mae Sot received threatening letters following its coverage of the KNU in recent months.
According to the reporter, the group has received two threats since August of last year after the KIC published a letter that criticized KNU leaders such as Col Ner Dah Mya, the son of the late Gen Bo Mya, Pastor Timothy and others.
The threats were conveyed first through a letter left at a shop near the KIC office and later in person by an unknown individual. The reporter declined to provide details of the person’s identity.
The KIC was accused by anonymous individuals of encouraging disunity within the KNU and threatened that, as they were soldiers, they could easily shoot the reporters.
“We know that we always have to be careful about our reporting of the news (about the KNU conflicts) and have to be careful when we go out, as we don’t know when or where we could face problems,” the reporter said.
Who is responsible for the threats and the extent of intimidation of local journalists remains unconfirmed, but some speculate that the threats may have come from within KNU, its military wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, or a new break-away faction called the KNU/KNLA Peace Council.
Sources in Bangkok and Mae Sot say that reporters in the area are now handling recent news about the KNU cautiously. They cite the absence of stories on the BBC and the Democratic Voice of Burma about Bo Mya’s wife denying the KNU vice chairperson a role on the newly created break-away Peace Council as an indication of how the threats have led to self-censorship among border-based media groups
