Revolution and tea leaf salad: The story of Mizzima Media
Schedule
Mon, 10 Mar, 2025 at 07:00 pm
UTC+07:00Location
Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand - FCCT | Bangkok, BM
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In 1990, Myanmar dissident Soe Myint and another student hijacked a Thai Airways flight to Yangon, forcing the plane to divert to Kolkata to highlight their demands for an end to military rule in Burma. Thus began a long court case and more than two decades of exile during which the dissidents set up independent media house Mizzima in 1998.Today, Mizzima has more than 80 journalists and support staff working inside and outside Myanmar on television and radio broadcasts and text in Burmese and also English, Thai and Chinese. With scant budgets they manage to beam satellite and online TV and information services from jungle broadcasting stations and clandestine offices, as well as their exile offices in Thailand and India.
Like nearly all Burmese independent media, Mizzima Media was hard hit first by the fallout from Myanmar’s Feb. 1, 2021 military coup, which saw Mizzima’s headquarters in Yangon raided and closed, key staff arrested including co-founder Thin Thin Aung and Soe Myint and his team forced to flee Yangon. Having painstakingly rebuilt operations in exile and in parts of the country beyond the junta’s reach, Mizzima slowly regained momentum during 2023-24 as one of the largest media houses. But a fresh blow hit Burmese media in late 2024 as the US government and other key donors slashed funding to Myanmar media. The situation, in Soe Myint’s words, is “life and death” for the future of free media and independent reporting in Myanmar.
On this rare benefit evening at the FCCT, Mizzima Media would like to thank its friends for their support and invite all to the club for discussion and a light snack of Myanmar’s signature laphet thoke, or pickled tea leaf salad. Soe Myint will present his story and the saga of Mizzima in a new book “Resisting Military Rule in Burma (1988-2024),” co-authored with human rights lawyer Nandita Haksar. All welcome.
This is not an FCCT-organized event.
Free and open. Donations will be gratefully received.
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Where is it happening?
Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand - FCCT, มาย ออฟฟิศ เอ-เพย์ ประเทศไทย, ถนน เพลินจิต, ปทุมวัน, กรุงเทพมหานคร, กรุงเทพมหานคร 10330, ประเทศไทย,Bangkok, ThailandEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
