By: Judith Boren in cooperation with Heloise Le Guellec and Lila Bernard. *
On Friday the 8th of March, International Women’s Day, an HDFF team attended the discussion ‘’International Women’s Day: Challenges and triumphs of Myanmar’s women in media’’. A panel was present which consisted of seven women, mainly journalists from Myanmar, and was moderated by Gwen Robinson. The conference was hosted at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. The main themes of the discussion were the intersections between gender, safety, and professional opportunities for women journalists from Myanmar. Personal stories, expert insights, and research findings were shared, and there was an emphasis on highlighting the importance of gender-sensitive approaches in media and promoting equitable working conditions.
Nan Paw Gay, the editor-in-chief of the Karen Information Center, and Chairman of the Independent Press Council in Myanmar, started with the opening remarks. She began by stating that women in the media are often put under a lot of stress and do not receive enough support. These women need strong commitments and a lot of self-confidence. She emphasized that women’s voices need to be promoted in the media, preferably by female journalists and editors. Additionally, women have to be represented in every media house, and media and editorial policies need to include leadership roles for women. Nan Paw Gay shared her personal story as well. She has been working in the Thai-Myanmar border since 2000, living alone. She had to leave home and her family, and works mainly with Karen Ethnic media.
Then, Annie Zaman, managing director of Exile Hub, talked about her personal experiences as a woman journalist. She speaks about oppressive regimes from Pakistan to Thailand, and the limited freedom of press journalists face in these regions. She also discussed the structural challenges women face in the workplace, more than men. She had to face constant harassment, discrimination, structural gender pay gaps, and oppression. She shares an example to illustrate this; she was able to arrange an important interview with the Prime Minister of Pakistan, which was instead assigned to her male colleague by her editor, without consulting her. She talks about the fight women have to continue each day to break the glass ceiling.
After this, Yucca Wai, research director of Exile Hub, presented the research ‘’Voices from Exile: The Safety Needs of Myanmar Women Journalists in Thailand’’. In this comprehensive research report, the importance of protecting women journalists’ rights to practice their profession safely is emphasized.
Since the beginning of the coup, there has been an exodus of women journalists from Myanmar. The additional crisis in Myanmar media houses leads to a neglect of gender issues. This research aims to make a difference and be used as a stepping stone for Myanmar media houses. With qualitative research including surveys, group discussions, and interviews with women journalists in exile, the report aims to illustrate what women are going through while in exile. A practical solution to the problem according to the research is the implementation of harassment, and gender discrimination policies in the workplace. And there is a need for more funding for the media houses, enabling fair wages.
Some examples of safety concerns, presented by Yucca Wai, Myanmar journalists face while living in exile in Thailand, are uncertain legal status and poor mental well-being. 62 out of 79 women who participated in the study claimed they had poor mental health. Another big stress factor for women in journalism is financial insecurity. Often, their wages are the sole source of income for their family. Roughly half of the women have a monthly income of less than 10.000 baht per month. With this, they often have to support their families back home as well. Furthermore, a significant part of this group spends over 30% of their monthly income on police extortion, to avoid arrest or deportation. Another notable safety risk is that harassment is a big part of the women’s experience. 50% reported to have been verbally or physically harassed within the media organizations. These numbers, and more, show the dire situations some of these women are in.
Next, Su Myat Wai, a journalist since 2004 and a media trainer for the Myanmar Journalism Institute, talked about the development that the industry has already gone through since the start of her career. When she began working as a journalist, media houses refused to hire women and they had to prove themselves and their reporting skills, in a way that men did not have to. To this day in Myanmar, women still do not hold decision-making roles, this is a privilege reserved for men in the industry. She also shares her experience with harassment in the workplace.
This is a recurring issue for the women from the panel; Shoon Naing, a senior correspondent with Reuters, also talks about the issue of harassment and the gender pay gap between men and women journalists. She also shares her experience of being treated as an inferior journalist, as she did not get responsibilities or good articles assigned because she is a woman.
Then Khin Thandar, Southeast Asia director of WAN-IFRA Women in News, talked about her organization, which promotes journalists’ rights, freedom, and sustainability. She had to flee from Myanmar after the coup in 2021 because she was on a list of people who had to be arrested. WIN-SEA aims to empower young journalist women and try to fight gender imbalance in the industry. They have programs that aim to develop women’s voices in leadership, management, security, and mental health. She talked about some challenges the participants faced, and one example was that women struggled when it came to leading an organization and combining it with taking care of their family. Some women had to be shown that they can lead, for some of them lacked the belief in their abilities to do so. The training also helped them deal with harassment and empowered them to fight back.
Lastly, Tin Zar Aung, a media trainer and executive committee member of the Myanmar Women Journalists Society (MWJS), also talks about the challenges women journalists face in the media industry in Myanmar. She talks about the pay gap, sexual harassment, and having to care for the family while also working full-time.
These recurring challenges women face during their work in exile are a big problem for the sector. The Myanmar media sector is in crisis, which is illustrated by the stories of the women above. The most effective next steps to improve this are as follows; The media organizations need support from donors. These donors should make conditions for financial aid, such as a minimum number of women working in the organization, and a good HR and anti-gender discrimination, sexual harassment policy, and gender balance guidelines. There needs to be investment in more young people, and young women in particular. And lastly, there should be protective mechanisms, for example, community-based, to support women with sexual harassment experiences. Women who have come forward with stories of harassment have sometimes been blamed, shut down, or have worries about losing their jobs.
The women from the panel end the discussion with a call for solidarity with the exiled women journalists from Myanmar. The resilience of the women in the sector is praised, and the importance of their work concerning the situation in Myanmar is emphasized. In a country with no freedom of the press, where it is dangerous to be a journalist, these women have taken up the responsibility to tell the Burmese and the world what is happening. In the light of International Women’s Day, the panelists call for support and change. The HDFF team leaves the discussion inspired by the work the strong women from the panel are doing to fight for their rights and those of their colleagues.
*Judith Boren, Heloise Le Guellec, and Lila Bernard are Research Fellows at HDFF.