Livestreaming arrests

For a few weeks, the protests continued, and quickly grew from a few hundred to hundreds of thousands. They were joined by government officers, bank employees and even medical staff. By the coup’s third week, Myanmar was at a near-standstill, with shopping malls closed, demonstrations throughout the day and curfews imposed at night.

In turn, the security forces became more aggressive, with reports of many night-time arrests, and the use of stun grenades and live ammunition on demonstrators and during house-to-house searches. Large demonstrations turned into local neighbourhood protests; human rights organisations say security forces have been using extreme violence in cracking down on these gatherings. By the beginning of May, a monitoring group reported more than 760 people had been killed and nearly 4,000 remain in detention.

Over the last three months, the military has shut down internet access at night and has periodically blocked mobile data communication. Access to information is curtailed and access to social media platforms regularly blocked. Some journalists have been using social media to livestream arrests and harassment by the military, but intermittent shutdowns make it harder to share and access that information.

Local journalists threatened

The safety of journalists is under threat, both in the larger cities such as Yangon and Mandalay, and in ethnic areas where there are few national or international journalists. I have worked closely with local journalists from my work filming in these areas for our BBC Media Action TV series Khan Sar Kyi (Feel It), which brought leaders to meet and discuss major issues with local communities. Many of my journalist friends are now in hiding for fear of arrest.

They have spent years reporting from the front lines of ethnic conflict, and have skills and experience in negotiating and reporting on conflict in a high-risk media environment. However, most of these agencies are small, local operations that are an easy target for search, raid and arrest procedures from local authorities and security forces.

This month, while the world marked World Press Freedom Day, I counted the number of my Myanmar journalist friends who are detained, or fleeing. Over 70 have been arrested; 30 of those have been released, and more than 40 have been prosecuted. At least 20 more still face arrest warrants for doing their job. Some journalists now face charges under the Penal Code that carry a maximum sentence of up to three years in prison. Six media outlets’ licenses have been revoked, including two popular TV channels which were broadcasting Khan Sar Kyi.

Yet amidst the current crisis, the Myanmar public has adapted swiftly to the changing media landscape. They are using a range of virtual private networks (VPNs) that allow them to circumvent blocks on Internet and social media, and they switch between encrypted messaging apps to share information safely and discreetly. With trusted independent TV and radio channels now largely blocked and struggling to reach their audiences, people are turning to social media for news, to watch events unfold in real-time, and to organise protests. These young, often first-time voters are still ready to risk their lives for democracy.

The echo of bullets

I write this now from Kathmandu; I returned to Nepal after my application for a visa renewal was refused in March. I feel safer here. But when I hear a loud noise, I can’t forget the echo of bullets. And I still feel alarmed when I see a police officer.

I haven’t slept well since the coup began. Thoughts of my Burmese friends haunt me still. They cannot sleep from the sound of gunfire and fear of arrest. They stay awake all night to keep watch and protect their community. How can I sleep peacefully?

BBC Media Action has been working in Myanmar since 2013, and at the time of the coup was producing Khan Sar Kyi (Feel It) and Tea Cup Diaries, a popular radio drama that tackled social, religious and ethnic divides, as well as projects on COVID-19 prevention and on sexual and reproductive health and rights. While some of BBC Media Action's work in the country has been able to adapt and continue, Tea Cup Diaries and Khan Sar Kyi are currently on hold.

A young inter-faith couple falling in love and marrying despite their parents’ concerns, an adopted daughter on a mission to discover her biological family, a journalist and filmmaker tackling fake news, and a family-run tea shop that has faced fires, economic meltdowns and now the COVID-19 pandemic – and through many other twists, turns, trials and tribulations, The Tea Cup Diaries has it all.

Since its launch in 2015, the show has reached millions of listeners across Myanmar – promoting understanding, openness, and respect for people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. Now in its eighth series, the show continues to touch the hearts of audiences with relatable characters who reflect the country’s rich ethnic and cultural diversity, and entertaining storylines that provide a window into the different lives, experiences and beliefs of its communities. In the process, it’s garnered a following of dedicated fans – like this group of weavers from remote Kachin state, who we featured back in 2016.

The Tea Cup Diaries is unique in its timely reflection of real-life events woven into the drama’s plotlines, and the impact of COVID-19 is no exception. Our team behind the show was quick to adapt to the upheaval – from setting up home recording studios, to introducing new storylines reflecting how different characters are dealing with the pandemic.

With the tea shop in the drama shut due to COVID-19, the characters are struggling to adapt and missing each other. Listeners follow them as they learn ways to keep themselves safe, asking each other: What are the rules? How do we keep our families safe? Are we allowed to go outside? Is there a vaccine and can local herbs cure us?

We’ve been following up each recent episode with a magazine-style programme in which we interview doctors, religious and community leaders, actors, celebrities and members of the public who have been quarantined or diagnosed with COVID-19. We talk about how their lives have changed during the pandemic – sharing diverse perspectives and fostering a sense of ‘we’re all in this together,’ regardless of ethnic or religious differences.

Since the beginning, we’ve used in-depth research to understand our audiences, explore their engagement with key communication objectives, and adjust content accordingly. The most recent findings from a panel study found that audiences were delighted to hear The Tea Cup Diaries continue to broadcast despite movement restrictions. Listeners reported learning about the ‘dos and don’ts’ of managing risks related to COVID-19 and enjoyed hearing how their favourite characters were dealing with these challenges:

 “Everything is included – such as washing hands, avoiding crowds and gatherings and talking from at least six feet away” – Female, 29, Ayeyarwady

“We should respect and follow [COVID-19 advice], as it is happening all over the world. We should not be neglectful and forget. [The show] is presenting according to what is practically happening outside – it is more complete and meaningful as they warn us with storylines and drama” – Male, 58, Bago

As access to the internet expands rapidly in Myanmar, and brings with it a burgeoning population of young Facebook users, we’ve also cultivated our own digital Tea Cup Diaries community. Almost 1 million people now follow the show’s Facebook page – where we bring the themes of the show and the country’s diverse culture to life even more vividly through engaging daily video and social content. At the same time, we’ve worked to improve our followers’ digital literacy to help them navigate fake news and mis- and dis-information – all of which threaten to sow further division in the country.

Five years of The Tea Cup Diaries is a truly wonderful milestone and reflects an amazing creative journey with so many talented people who have produced and supported the show over the years. We are grateful for our loyal audience who have laughed, loved, learned new things, and travelled with us to understand more about Myanmar and, of course, each other.

We are all hugely proud of what the show has achieved and look forward to what the next 5 years (hopefully!) have in store. But, for now, it’s time to celebrate and raise a glass of – you guessed it – tea!

--

The Tea Cup Diaries is broadcast nationally on MRTV and Myanmar Radio, and is currently funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). Previous funders are USAID, DFID and DAI.

At BBC Media Action, audiences are at the heart of everything we do. To understand our audiences and our impact, our work begins and ends with research – and this remains true even in a time of crisis.

As we respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, research helps us to understand our audiences’ perceptions and concerns relating to the disease, as well as what information they need to make decisions and keep their families safe. This in turn enables our production teams to produce trusted, clear and actionable media and communication content that reaches people – including vulnerable communities – at scale, stands out in a sea of competing information (not all of which is true or helpful), and ultimately saves lives.

But how can research teams continue their vital work when they’re working at a distance from production colleagues, when the pace of production is so fast, and when face-to-face field work is out of the question?

Adapting our pre-testing methods

It can be difficult to keep pace with the need for rapid programme development when it comes to producing COVID-19 communications content. But it’s not good enough to say ‘we don’t have time to test’. You might get a piece of content on air or online more quickly – but the impact may be lost if the tone isn’t culturally appropriate, language about physical distancing too confusing, or your call to action is not clear enough for audiences.

So our message is simple: wherever possible, ‘pre-test, pre-test, pre-test’.

There are ways of gaining quick feedback under lockdown. Whilst working from home, our research team in Myanmar recently conducted some pre-testing of one of our new COVID-19 public service announcements (PSA) with their friends and families. They found that respondents could recall the key information points from the PSA – about washing your hands and covering your face when coughing – and felt it was particularly engaging because of the traditional music and lively delivery, making it unique from more serious PSAs they had seen on other media platforms. They recommended that the production team continue with this positive, encouraging tone to engage audiences.

Inspired by this example, our research team in Indonesia are also testing content with friends and family via telephone and social media, as well as getting back in touch with a group of young people who recently took part in qualitative research about climate change. They’re setting up closed Facebook groups through which they can pre-test content, such as short new radio dramas tackling COVID-19 misinformation and rumours, to receive rapid feedback. It’s a similar story in Afghanistan, where we’re using social media to recruit volunteers for online focus group discussions. We’re currently exploring new ways to pre-test, such as contacting respondents and playing content via mobile.

Utilising local networks and contacts

With field work limited by local restrictions on movement, we’re relying on our wide-reaching networks and contacts nurtured over the years to help us access respondents and continue our vital research – to ensure programming reflects people’s changing needs.

For example, in Zambia, we’re working closely with our national network of community journalists – developed through years of work strengthening community radio in the country – to help us understand the needs and concerns of hard-to-reach audiences. We’re looking to set up simple, safe and physically distant mobile surveys for them to run in their communities to help us understand how perceptions of, and concerns about, the pandemic differ across rural and urban areas.

Similarly, in Bangladesh, where access to Cox’s Bazar refugee camp is now restricted, our researchers are making regular phone calls to our network of Rohingya volunteers to continue taking the pulse of the community. We’re sharing the insights gained – including persistent, widely circulating COVID-19 rumours and how to counter them – through our longstanding ‘What Matters?’ bulletin in partnership with Translators Without Borders.

And in Cambodia, where our researchers had been in the midst of a panel evaluation for our popular youth project Klahan9 (Brave 9), we’re pivoting the focus of our research to include perceptions on COVID-19. The team is also exploring how to draw upon our network of Klahan9 youth ambassadors to tell us more about how they and their communities are experiencing the pandemic.

Revisiting our existing data and building partnerships

To respect our audiences, it’s important that we use our existing insights relevant to COVID-19 and not conduct research for the sake of it.

Many of our teams around the world have been looking carefully at our wealth of existing audience research (much of which is open source and available on our website and Data Portal), re-analysing the data to draw out new insights around media access and usage among vulnerable audiences such as older people or people with disabilities. We’re also pulling out useful data from previous projects around health and hygiene – for instance, barriers to, and enablers of, good water, sanitation and hygiene practices in Nepal, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Externally, we are building relationships with organisations across key sectors (including market research, academic and humanitarian) which are producing surveys and collecting useful insights on COVID-19 – such as ACAPs, Innovations for Poverty Action, Kantar and the International Survey on Coronavirus, for information relevant to our projects.

Cross-country collaboration

Despite restrictions around freedom of movement, researchers at our London headquarters and across our network of country offices are working more closely than ever before – sharing expertise, exchanging COVID-19 research tips and tricks, and comparing cultural insights through regular calls and online forums. And we’re supporting our country offices virtually from London to better analyse their digital performance and monitor online chatter about the pandemic – using tools such as Crowdtangle’s COVID-19 tracking to help production teams fine-tune their outputs.

Encouragingly, there are early signs that our work is paying off. Some of the COVID-19 PSAs produced by our Myanmar team, for instance, are achieving record levels of online engagement. The Ministry of Health has even asked to make this PSA (watched nearly 3 million times and shared by 46,000+ people) official, for broadcast through national TV partners.

The situation is changing rapidly. But we will continue to innovate and review research methodologies to ensure we’re providing essential insights to production colleagues, and best serving our audiences.

This is also the first September under a new government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, whose book Freedom from Fear greatly inspired me when I first found it in the reference section of the British Council library in Yangon in 2007. In the quiet of that library I discovered the concepts of freedom and democracy.

Almost 10 years later, new hope is in the air under a new government in Kayin state, one of Myanmar’s most ethnically diverse areas, wracked by religious tension, poverty and one of the world’s longest civil wars. With a ceasefire agreed between the Kayin National Union (KNU) and the Myanmar government in late 2015, and the first ever national peace dialogue being held in the country’s capital this month, questions remain for the young people of Kayin state. Will they be able to find jobs? Will they be able to express their opinions and ask questions of their leaders? Will they be free from fear in this new Myanmar? Will this peace be sustainable?

Facing our own questions

Nervous and quiet, I’m now on my way, with the LLKS lead producer Su Myat Mon, after being summoned to the Kayin state government office. Having lived in fear for most of our lives, like many ordinary citizens in this country, we know that when dealing with authority anything can happen.

Before I’m done preparing my mind to be calm, our car reaches the government office. The officials are nervous of the media and want to know more about our event. In the ensuing discussion we are relieved as their intentions seem benign and in the end, we are only left to worry about whether all the panellists will turn up tomorrow.

The next day, under a banner asking “How can we create jobs for youth in Kayin state?” the panel and audience arrive. The 56-strong-audience of young people ask politely-worded, yet strong and impassioned questions on a wide range of issues, from jobs and education, to the need for a decent living wage and an end to gender discrimination in the workforce.

For me one question stands out: “The KNU and government armies have been fighting in the past in Kayin state. People take refuge in our neighboring country Thailand” said 20-year-old, Kaung Min Thant.

“They want to come back to work in Kayin state. They want to apply for a job in government departments. But they’re asked whether they have passed high school or university. As they are not a high school or university graduate, will they have to live all their life in a refugee camp? Will they have to work as low-level labourers in another country? Will they not have a chance to come back to this state?”

The panellists of course do not have all the answers but respond with their own hopes, ideas and commitments for future change. At the end of the debate there were many questions left in the minds of the audience members, who are keen to keep asking, discussing and debating.

We have now left behind the Zwekapin mountain ranges and are passing through green fields of rice hoping for a light of hope from the new government and a brighter future for this land which has suffered much from darkness in the past. The questions from the debate still echo in my mind. I personally hope this unique event will help to create a culture where all youth who participated in the show and listened to it throughout Myanmar will be able to pursue their dreams and enjoy freedom from fear.

Related links
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Why we chose “real people” instead of actors to feature in our Public Service Announcements (PSAs), TV adverts sharing simple solutions to prepare for cyclones, flooding and drought.

When her husband ran away with another woman, 35 year old Thin Thin Aye was left alone in her small palm-leaf house with eight children to feed.

Standing in a dark room flanked by rickety floorboards and broken walls, she tells us what she fears most is the unpredictable weather in the delta region of Myanmar.

“What I’m worried about is not only wind and rain. We live near by the sea and we don’t have protection when the water level rises,” she said.

As a daily worker earning $3 to $4 a day, she can’t afford to strengthen her delicate bamboo house or to stockpile food in advance of Myanmar’s cyclone season from May to September, where violent storms rip across the country.

Her limited resources haven’t stopped her from preparing for disaster though. In the flickering candlelight, next to a small statue of Buddha, visitors may spot a plastic bag with some documents inside. The bag, containing her family’s identification papers, is tucked away discreetly by the altar, a safe, memorable place. In times of disaster, she can grab the precious package and take it along with her family to the village’s emergency muster-point by the local school.

Simple, do-able solutions

We visited Thin Thin Aye’s village, in Myanmar’s cyclone-prone Irrawaddy Division to collect real-life stories for a new series of radio and TV public service announcements (PSAs) on preparing for extreme weather and climate related issues. After exploring different TV formats – including drama and factual reconstruction – our research revealed that people preferred to hear solutions about preparing for extreme weather from people like them, rather than actors.

As a result, Thin Thin Aye’s simple ‘plastic bag’ solution is featured along with a number of real-life stories including a 64 year old woman who converts a clay pot into a portable fire-pit in case of flood; a mother and child who use a school building for shelter as it is one of the few brick buildings in their area able to withstand cyclone-force winds; and a mother who keeps an emergency bag full of the things her 14 year old disabled son might need in preparation for seasonal floods.

The PSAs are being broadcast nationally, but we’re seeing the impact at community level too. We recently travelled back to visit Thin Thin to find that her filing system had expanded since our initial filming. She’s now the trusted keeper for the land, registration and birth documents for most of her village!

If she can do it…

Through the use of mass media, we’re making sure that ‘do-able’ solutions from people like Thin Thin Aye, are been shared with as many others as possible. We hope that when people hear and watch her story, they’ll think ‘if she can do it, then so can I.’

BBC Media Action’s PSAs are part of ongoing efforts to strengthen the resilience of people in Myanmar to extreme weather since 2008s devastating Cyclone Nargis.

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More on our work in Myanmar
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Slender fingers rhythmically work at the brilliantly-coloured threads; legs undulate like a dancer’s as foot pedals are pushed down - the cloth on the loom growing a little larger each time. The faces of the weavers, covered in pale thanaka paste, scrutinise the next set of motifs in the pattern. Weaving is the craft where colour beats the rhythm. And this is the weaving shed of The Manaw Star Weaving Company.

Come Friday evening at 18:45, the weavers turn on their cheap Chinese radios, hanging from the crossbars of their looms, and tune into Myanmar Radio, the government broadcaster. They are searching for the shrill, sweet sound of a flute, which, after a few phrases, yields to a rich and busy instrumental – this is the signature tune of BBC Media Action’s radio drama, The Teacup Diaries, a sound that touches hearts and silences the chatter of the weaving shed.

The drama – which aims to increase peace and understanding between different ethnic and religious communities in Myanmar – really resonates with the weavers, as my colleagues and I were about to find out.

We were visiting after the weavers had contacted us on Facebook.

We knew they were fans, but nothing could prepare us for their warm greeting as the young weavers surged forward, armed with android phones ready to take selfies with their favourite actors. They were wearing their best clothes and touchingly offered us a feast of snacks and soft drinks.

The Tea Cup Diaries provides a welcome break for these weavers who, for a monthly salary of around $100, work a ten hour day, with only two days off a month.

The weavers travel to Myitkyina in Kachin State in the north of Myanmar, all the way from Shwe Bo in the Dry Zone, where water and jobs are scarce. They send money back to their family every month, together with letters, often describing stories from The Tea Cup Diaries. This is how much they love the drama. Some of the weavers confessed to me that the characters in The Tea Cup Diaries appear in their dreams.

They compete to tell us their favourite stories and people in the drama, but above all, they follow every twist and turn of the story of the teashop owner, U Chit Maung and his wife, Daw Khin Thit.

Soon the weavers were calling for the actors to perform a scene in front of them.

Even though they are tired from travelling, Daw Khet Su Myat (who plays Daw Khin Thit), U Rupa (who plays U Chit Maung) and the other actors, rally round. They perform a scene from the first series, where Daw Khin Thit gets fed up with doing all the work in the teashop. She shouts at U Chit Maung and the young weavers roar in sympathy, but when U Chit Maung produces, with a flourish, a rose for his wife, the audience is equally enthusiastic.

Once the performance is over the questions and comments start. We all tried our best to answer their questions, all the time amazed and happy at their level of engagement, knowledge and understanding of the drama.

In the modern day, technology allows us to have more options than ever for entertainment. We choose what we want and leave what we don’t, but for a group of weavers in Myitkyina the choice is simple: they listen to a radio drama – every bit as colourful as the cloth they weave – and it’s called The Tea Cup Diaries.

Related links:

Find out more about the Tea Cup Diaries
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      “In our state, the children in grade two [age 7] cannot even read Burmese. Why is that?"

On Saturday 12 September, an 18-year-old woman from Kachin in northern Myanmar asked this question of four parliamentary candidates sitting in front of her as part of an LLKS Election Special.

LLKS (Lin Lat Kyair Sin or Bright Young Stars) is BBC Media Action’s youth empowerment radio programme, made by young people for young people across Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. In the past year, it has reached 8.9 million people across the country.

This young Kachin woman was one of 78 young people who came from across Myanmar to question the politicians who will run for parliamentary seats in the general election on 8 November.

Historic poll

The election is only the second in Myanmar since the 1988 uprising (the military regime did not honour the results of the 1990 poll). And for decades, the people of Myanmar have been living in fear and have tended to stay away from politics.

It's therefore not surprising that many people don’t know the importance of the election or the role of the MPs they are electing to represent them.

After our Election Special, one young man from Kayah, in eastern Myanmar, told us that this was the first time in his life that he’d seen young people question older people, let alone question politicians!

Many others like him who live in rural areas of Myanmar don’t know much about elections, or voting procedures and political parties.

But when given the chance to take part in the election special, our young audience was thrilled to be asked questions about the issues that matter to them, such as education and job opportunities.

We hope that through hearing young people asking questions about issues that directly affect their own lives, LLKS's audience will be themselves inspired to participate in the elections and feel more able to question those in power who represent them.

Election reporting training

BBC Media Action's training team has also been helping inform people about the elections through training journalists.

It's estimated that there are about 4000 journalists in Myanmar, most of whom are young. Almost all of these young reporters grew up under military rule in an education system which discourages critical thinking or asking questions. And like their peers, most young journalists haven’t had enough opportunities to learn about political history, different political systems, MPs' roles and the election process.

To tackle this, we delivered eight rounds of a four-day course which we call MOELJO (mobile phone skills and election reporting for journalists), to 170 journalists in six different locations around the country.

The training covered such topics as what research journalists could do to prepare, the role of the media in elections, international election standards, as well as the basic journalistic principles of accuracy, impartiality and fairness. Its focus on practical skills using cheap available mobile technology was particularly popular with the trainees. One trainee told us, “In most training I’ve done, we only learned from lectures but in this training we had a chance to practice the skills. We had to go out to film by ourselves and edit it ourselves. We reporters really enjoyed it - we don’t want to sit in one place all the time, we are curious and want to go around."

The training also provided expert panels for discussions. We invited officials from the Election Commission to explain election-related laws, rules and regulations; experienced journalists who could share their insights from previous elections; and representatives from local civil society groups who were involved in voter education or election monitoring.

Since the start of the election campaign, it has been a joy to see the MOELJO trainees reporting on different issues that are important to people in their area and to national audiences.

We can’t predict what the elections will bring but what’s certain is that journalists are better trained and young people across Myanmar more informed. We hope that these are two steps toward a brighter future for Myanmar.

Related links

BBC Media Action’s work in Myanmar

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In the light of recent floods in Myanmar, also known as Burma, Becky Palmstrom reflects on how the country has strengthened its preparations and response to natural disasters since 2008’s Cyclone Nargis.

Back in 2008, Cyclone Nargis struck the Myanmar coast late one afternoon tearing across the low lying Ayeryarwaddy delta with winds of 215 kilometres an hour.

Later, as the winds and rains reached Yangon, also known as Rangoon, our house was plunged into darkness. When the sounds of breaking glass and screeching winds became too ominous, I retreated beneath my bed. Many people lost their roofs around midnight and then sat out the storm in stairwells or among the debris of their roofless homes.

Meanwhile, it was worse in the delta. Much worse. A combination of hurricane force winds and a storm surge, reaching almost four metres killed almost a hundred and forty thousand people.

Limited warning

In the days preceding the storm, India’s Meteorological Department had warned the Myanmar government that if the cyclone reached the shore, it was going to be bad but the government and media issued very limited information. The New Light of Myanmar newspaper published a short article on its back page asking people to be prepared for rainstorms: wind speeds over 50 kilometres an hour, it said. State radio and TV followed suit. There was little information about how people could prepare and no evacuation or warnings about the possibility of a tidal surge.

When the storm exhausted itself I visited the devastated delta region. Every public building was battered and packed with suvivors from nearby villages: a woman from a village that had lost all its children, a man scarred from holding onto a mangrove tree all night. One man was forced to abandon his six-year-old son when he could no longer swim with the boy grasping round his neck.

Lifeline radio

We searched for practical information on local radio but little came. The BBC Burmese service with support from BBC Media Action began broadcasting its ‘Lifeline’ radio show a month after Nargis hit. “Kyanmarye ne Naung ye” (Living Today, Stronger Tomorrow) continued for nine months.

Since that time, so much has changed. The government has made political reforms, formal censorship of the media is over, more humanitarian and development organisations have access to work here, and vitally, the government is now better prepared to respond.

What has not changed is Myanmar’s risk of cyclones and storms.

A shift in emergency communication

We’ve continued to work with key government, media and humanitarian organisations to improve the way they cooperate to get practical information to people affected. Together, we’ve prepared a series of messages prioritised for 24 hours and 7 days after a disaster - covering topics such as health and safety, keeping family members together and advice on minimising stress and anxiety. The messages, specifically for people hit by either an earthquake or a cyclone were tested in advance across the country to make sure they were easy to understand.

Linking Hands to Keep Living

Last week, when the government declared a state of emergency in places hit by some of the worst flooding Myanmar has seen for years, we began sharing prepared messages, reminding media organisations that they could broadcast them too. Within 48 hours, BBC Media Action began working with Myanma Radio’s journalists to produce a twice daily radio show for people. The Lifeline radio programme, called Shin Than Chin Kan Lan Mya (Linking Hands to Keep Living) follows the weather report on every news broadcast. Before the floods 8.2 million people in the affected areas listened to Myanma Radio.

We’ve used the broadcasts to answer questions about whether a local berry is enough to purify water (it isn’t), and how to prepare for evacuation (stick together, ensure children know their village and parents’ names, and bring identification, water and food). The programme is also translated into other languages for non-Burmese speakers.

I still have the New Light of Myanmar news clipping from 2008. It now serves as a reminder of how far Myanmar has come since that difficult time.

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One good thing that came from an unsuccessful grant application last year was the seed of an idea for what became our MOELJO course (mobile phone skills and election reporting for journalists).

It was prompted by three big developments in Myanmar’s (also known as Burma) reform process: the opening up of the telecoms market, which seemed set to improve mobile and internet access across the country (in early 2014, mobile phone ownership was estimated to be around 9%); the promise of free and fair elections in 2015; and the loosening of restrictions on the media. This meant that information could be more widely and easily available to voters around the country during the build-up to the polls.

The MOELJO seed grew in my mind in July after I ran a video skills course. I realised that very few of the trainees could afford to buy either the video cameras or (legal) editing software to practice these skills.

Most of them, however, had smartphones.

Using smartphones

So in September, with the welcome arrival of another trainer, the tech-savvy Jack Aung, the team began to investigate what we could do with android smartphones and apps commonly available in Myanmar. We also researched what election training journalists most needed. The country has limited experience of how elections are run and the rules and circumstances of the 2015 poll will be different from those in 2010 or the 2012 by-election.

The seed grew into a shoot, and by January 2015, it was a healthy sapling. We launched our first course in Mawlamyine, teaching 25 journalists from Mon, Tanintharyi and Kayin states. Since then, with the addition of another great trainer, Phyo Wai Lin, MOELJO has branched out with four more sessions, taking in trainees from Bago, Sagaing and Mandalay regions and Chin and Kachin states.

Election training

On the course, trainees learn how to take better photos, audio and video with their smartphones and share their material. Election training includes discussions with Election Commission officials, senior journalists and CSOs (Civil Society Organisations) and representatives involved in voter education or election monitoring. The final day sees trainees reporting on fictional election scenarios using their smartphones. This involves a cast of up to 15 extras and is like directing live theatre. Exhausting but fun!

Some struggle with the technical skills. One trainee told us: "Mobile skills are difficult for older people like me. But now, I know those skills. In addition, I learned how to produce a TV news story with mobile phone”.

Editing on the go

Another trainee showed us a report on a protest which he had filmed and edited alone on his smartphone after our course - and sent it to the newsroom while the demonstration was still going on. To put this into context, with communications and infrastructure in Myanmar still poor in many areas, TV news from the regions can be days old by the time it gets broadcast. Sometimes footage is even sent by bus!

It’s too early to know what impact the training will have on the media’s coverage of the elections, scheduled for November. But the feedback from trainees has been positive and we have had offers of funding to run more such courses.

There’s more to a cup of tea than meets the eye - it’s not just wet, hot and thirst quenching, it’s also a media vehicle for promoting tolerance and social inclusion.

This week, BBC Media Action Burma proudly launched its new weekly radio drama, The Tea Cup Diaries (in Burmese La Pa Ye Ta Kwe Ye Diari), to an audience of 120 people including the media, our donors, USAID’s Office of Transitional Initiatives (OTI) and broadcast partner, Myanmar TV Channel (MRTV).

Launches are never easy - I’ve done a few. They involve an incredible amount of work, however you cut it: branding, logos, publicity materials, guests, finding a location and deciding how much audio and video to include. There’s also diplomacy and etiquette to consider: who should speak and in what order?

All in all, the run-up to a launch is defined by simmering anxiety and last minute panics. But there’s no doubt that a launch event is an efficient way of announcing to the world a new media project.

House of Memories

The launch of The Tea Cup Diaries took place at the beautiful and ancient House of Memories, where around 70 years ago, Aung San Suu Kyi’s father secretly met fellow nationalists to plot the overthrow of British colonial rule. It’s now a restaurant but retains the patina of old age in its wooden structure and captures the past in a gallery of old photos.

By contrast, our drama is set in a hum drum tea shop, decked out with the usual small plastic tables and chairs. It’s run by a dreamy but eloquent man and his sharp tongued but industrious wife. Their children have reached the age where anything seems possible and the practical demands of being in the catering industry holds little charm.

The teashop staff have their own problems. The Tea Master, an unfit, former martial arts regional champion, detests the weight-lifting cook and the waiters tease each other endlessly.

Why a teashop?

But why a drama set in a teashop? Well, teashops are one of the few institutions in Myanmar (also known as Burma) patronised by all, irrespective of religion and ethnic identity. Everyone likes a cup of tea.

The drama is funded to support peace and inclusion. These concepts cannot remain hovering above the project as glorious abstractions; they have to be rooted in the reality of people’s lives. If our characters sound a bit quarrelsome, bear in mind peace has no meaning without exploring the conflict and resolution that precedes it. So, the teashop is where inclusion, conflict and peace all get played out in an entertaining and realistic way.

As the deadline for guests drew near, we were challenged alternately by sound without pictures, then pictures without sound. But in the end everything fell into place with minutes to spare. The guests came, they talked, they laughed, they drank and ate, and they went, each taking away a branded cup and diary, along with a CD of the drama. The donor and broadcast partner were happy.

Just as important, the Media was interested in our programme and Lead Producer, Maung Maung Swe, was interviewed by Kamayut Media and MRTV 4, scriptwriter, L.Lay Min Pyae Mon was interviewed by MITV, while fellow scriptwriter, Yu Ya was interviewed by MRTV. The Myanmar Times wrote a generously illustrated article.

The launch is over; the fun is finished. Now the real work begins. We’re on the production treadmill, which will only stop in October, writing, recording and editing one episode a week. But at least we’ve spread the word and put The Teacup Diaries firmly on the media map in Myanmar.

Episode one broadcast 15 May 2015 on Myanma Athein/MRTV. The drama will run for 26 episodes between now and November 2015.

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See The Teacup Diaries promotional film

The 18-35 age range of the production crew matches its audience. Project Coordinator Yan Htaik Seng is passionate about the way the programme works: “We are challenging social norms and discussing issues that were unheard of [before]: women's rights, gay rights, talking about what democracy means, encouraging people to get active and involved."

"In one programme on disability we profiled a 13-year old girl from the Delta region. She managed to get medical treatment for her paralysed legs [through one of our non-governmental organisation partners Actionaid] and gained enough mobility to attend school."

"She got so much out of her new-found education and her love of books that she organised a mobile library that could fit on a small boat. She would row to neighbouring villages taking the books with her."

Uncertain future

The new-found opportunity to share information and participate in community life is tempered by concerns about how deep and sustainable this new period of openness really can be. With elections set for 2015, will it last? 

The heavily censorial and prohibitive past is a recent memory. "When I was a boy I lived in fear," Yan says. "Talk of democracy didn’t mean freedom, it meant jail. In my family we didn’t have electricity nor access to information. I didn't know what was happening in another part of the country, let alone the world. My parents told not to be curious, and that life would be easier if I didn’t ask questions."

A new generation

But Yan was curious. He got hold of books and would watch TV at a neighbour's house. When high school beckoned, he persuaded his father to allow him to leave his childhood home in the remote Sian state on the border of Thailand and China, which he describes as "a dark world, much cut off".

He moved in with an uncle in the capital Yangon and his life started to open up. When the devastating Cyclone Nargis hit in 2008, he volunteered for relief work in the flattened Delta region.

"It really changed me. I’m not a medic but I was able to provide basic food and support. There was no access to healthcare and people just didn't know what to do or how to take care of themselves, they were too poor to go to hospital."

"Two things especially struck me: there was a child in a broken hut. The structure was very weak. Until I saw this I hadn’t realised people were that poor – that they couldn’t even afford basic food or shelter. I realised at that moment that I had had no awareness of life as it was being lived for so many."

"The other lasting image was of dead bodies and of people in shock. I thought people would be crying but they were actually numb. It led me to explore how I might help. First I joined a youth group and we started to try and educate people about basic but important things. And then it brought me to BBC Media Action."

Hope for change

It's stories like these, illustrating a new sense of agency and action on the part of a young and more optimistic generation, that makes LLKS so powerful.

Ahead of the elections set for 2015 the programme is showing people change is possible. 

Both the girl in the boat of books and Yan in his relief work in the Delta embody the spirit of Bright Young Stars and help sustain hopes that a new era has begun.

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A professor of mine used to say that storytelling is like getting a child to eat something they don’t like, such as spinach. In order to get an audience to learn something, you must cook the most delicious dishes. This is how good journalists make us care about places we’ve never been to and people we’ve never met. The analogy is never truer than with BBC Media Action’s work where the ‘spinach’ we serve up is measured to see if we’re reaching our donor’s often ambitious and difficult goals.

Our recent creativity and innovation workshop Ignite Asia was all about sharing the tastiest recipes from BBC Media Action teams in India, Afghanistan, Burma, Cambodia, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Deep Gauchan from our Phnom Penh office in Cambodia told us one of his simplest recipes. “It is to put an ordinary person into extraordinary circumstances.” He said. “Or, to take someone extraordinary and put them somewhere ordinary.” Along the way, he argued, your audience is taken out of their own experience and problems to learn something new.

Surprising storytelling

We also had a fantastic line-up of guest speakers to inspire us. The Times of India blew us away with their campaign films: A Day in the Life of India, India vs. India to ILead India. When asked how they nurture such creativity in an organisation with 175 years of heritage and tradition, their answer was “You must be willing to fail. You must reward people for trying and only punish people if they don’t try.”

Abhijit Chauhuri and Arindam Mitra from QED Films are certainly trying. By subverting convention and searching for a unique tone of voice, they told us, you can find drama, suspense, a beginning, middle and end and along the way surprises, twists, the delight of new settings, new journeys and universal themes.

Bollywood song-writer, journalist and radio host Neelesh Misra also came to share his tips. He described the difference between sharing experiences and sharing information. “Be as visual as possible,” he explained. “Take me on a journey.” In other words, people learn not from being told something, but by being shown it, by emotionally connecting to an experience, a character or a moment.

From idea to reality?

It was then the turn of my colleague Yan Htaik Seng and I to flex our collective creative muscles and build on what we’d learned. Our challenge was to come up with a way to promote economic development in Burma. (I told you our goals were ambitious.)

And after a lot of brainstorming, what took shape was a reality TV show called Myanma Bandai (Myanmar’s Goal), .

Our idea was that it could be a nationwide competition to find three young wannabe teams of entrepreneurs from Burma’s countryside and help them bring their product to market. Each episode would begin with a team challenge that would teach audiences about new business regulations, how to write business plans and most importantly inspire confidence.

Tasty new recipe

Just as I was getting excited about how rural audiences would vote for their favourite team, Yan interrupted. He said couldn’t visualise it. He said he’d only ever seen reality shows in the form of singing competitions. “Big Brother? The Apprentice? The Amazing Race?” I asked. He shook his head.

It reminded me of something Yvonne McPherson, who heads up BBC Media Action’s New York office, said in her discussion about how innovation happens.

“If you had asked people what they wanted,” said Henry Ford on the invention of the car, “they would have said faster horses." Our audiences are at the heart of everything we do, so research to understand them and to test our product works is vital and is always part of our work. But, this has to work alongside truly innovative thinking.

After an initiation into the ‘reality TV’ format, Yan agreed that this show might work in Burma.

We are currently pitching it to donors and after much sharing of experiences, ideas and lessons from each of our respective countries, my colleagues and I have returned with some tasty new recipes.

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But for the majority of Burma’s population – who live in rural areas, did not finish secondary education and have more limited access to media – day-to-day life has not changed in any radical way.

Research challenge

As a researcher working to inform media projects to support improved governance in Burma, understanding the extent to which the public feels they are informed and able to speak, question and take action is crucial.

But the irony in conducting research of this kind is that the restrictions people perceive to remain around freedom of expression and association influence how they react when posed with questions on these themes.

Our research and learning team realised the extent of this challenge in Burma, while conducting our research earlier this year.

From May to July, we took a multi-methods approach to a study that sought to understand the issues of concern to the public; their expectations of leaders; perceptions of accountability and opportunities and barriers to engage in dialogue and take action on issues of local importance.

The study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods, conducting a nationally representative household survey of 1224 people, as well as focus group discussions and key informant interviews in communities across five of Burma’s 14 states and regions. The Yangon resident quoted above was one of more than 220 people who actively participated in such discussions.

Conflicting findings

While participants in focus groups engaged in lively discussions about the shortcomings of health, education and water and sanitation services in their communities, 32% of the survey participants said that they ‘did not know’ about any matter of concern to people in their local area.

Focus groups revealed that in some rural areas people were confused about whether the government or an INGO should be responsible for public service provision, and that most villages had no interaction with their local authorities beyond requests sent down through village administrators to “raise funds”.  In contrast, 70% of rural survey participants told us that their local government did indeed respond to the needs of citizens.

So what do these conflicting sources of data tell us about the realities of a Burma in transition - and how best to research the public’s experience? 

The cautious answer: ‘I don’t know’

The first takeaway is a sense check on where and when large-scale survey research can have value in Burma right now.

Do 32% of people in Burma really not have an opinion on what’s causing concern for people in their own communities? We are not convinced and feedback from the field provides several reasons why responses like this are more likely to be avoidance than lack of awareness.

Field interviewers describe participants’ cautious reactions to the survey experience, and to particular questions. Some participants showed caution in expressing an opinion on social or political themes, some caution in expressing an opinion to a stranger, and others caution in expressing an opinion at all.

In a country where people have been actively discouraged from expressing opinions for decades, ‘I don’t know’ is a very easy way to avoid making statements that might draw unwanted attention - despite assurances that the process is confidential and anonymous.

Willingness to respond

Tracking shifts in people’s willingness and ability to respond to questions like these in the future will reveal a lot about the public sense of confidence and capacity to play a role in the political landscape.

Freedom metrics included in the survey provide an internal benchmark too. Ask the public how free they think they are to say what they think and 68% will tell you that they are ‘somewhat’ or ‘very free’.

But qualify that statement to freedom to express ‘views about the government in public’, and the figure drops to 43%, with 25% saying they do not know. The caution exercised for some but not other survey questions suddenly makes more sense.

As a means to understand media consumption and the most effective ways to reach marginalised groups however, the survey is a useful tool. Ask people how often they watch television and response rates jump back to 99%.

Multi-method is the way to go

The data demonstrates also the value of a multi-method approach. Where the quantitative survey required data collectors to ask questions in households where they were strangers, our qualitative study took a more participatory approach.

Through a continuing partnership with ActionAid Myanmar, we trained young community mobilisers to facilitate in-depth discussions in villages where they are known and trusted by the inhabitants.

Facilitators were able to create a safe space where respondents were at their ease, probe gradually to draw out explanations beyond surface respondents, and break down unfamiliar concepts - such as who is ‘accountable’ for community development - into hyper-local terms.

The resulting data provides rich insights into people’s engagement with and expectations of governance processes, and aids interpretation of the big numbers coming from the survey.

For example, where a survey statistic alone would suggest that people are quite satisfied with their local government’s level of responsiveness (69%), the focus groups revealed that people had very low expectations of local government to provide anything in the first place. When expectations are low, criticism will be too.

We do need to recognise that young mobilisers may already have influenced political awareness and attitudes in communities like these, and so may set those people apart from the wider population in some way. However the insights that can be gained from people confident enough to exercise voice in a research setting are invaluable in a country where so little data on the individual experience of governance exists.

Value of participatory approaches

Our elderly Yangon resident went on to say: "We have started to have the right to speak freely. In the past, we didn't tell each other as we didn't trust each other. We just suffered alone. But now we have started to discuss bravely whether what we feel or think is right or wrong."

If his view rings true for how people in Burma will adapt to their changing political context, it may be that large-scale surveys will become powerful tools to inform governance work in the future.

In the meantime, however, researchers should be looking to partner with communities themselves to draw on the strengths that qualitative, in-depth, personal approaches can offer.

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Since April last year, we've reached out directly to Burma's next generation with LLKS, our youth civic education programme broadcast on the BBC Burmese service.

This year, we've been working with MRTV, the state broadcaster, to improve the quality of information they provide to Burmese audiences. And we will continue to build the capacity of working journalists across the country to ensure that as the media opens up, they are prepared to report on issues accurately and ethically.

Watershed moment

It was MRTV journalists, trained by BBC Media Action, who were responsible for yet another of last week's ground-breaking events.

After Thursday's WEF sessions, Aung San Suu Kyi held a press conference in English where she repeated her desire to run for president – a declaration that she had made that day on the BBC World Debate programme.

BBC Media Action's trainer in Burma, Bill Hayton, requested that she repeat her statement in Burmese. She did so and the clip made it into that evening's Lively News, a new news and current affairs show on Myanmar Radio, and was part of the next day's news bulletins on MRTV.

It was a watershed moment for the state broadcaster MRTV to broadcast not only a political statement from Aung San Suu Kyi but her declaration, in Burmese, of her desire to run for the presidency.

But then in today's Burma, it seems, watershed moments are a daily occurrence.

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"We would never have dreamed of doing this a year ago."

That's what one young Burmese journalist told me after spending the day recording a BBC radio programme in a popular park in Rangoon. The recording saw 12 journalists and more than 20 guests and audience members come together in Kandawgyi Park.  The show, Lin Lat Kyair Sin (Bright Young Stars), is aimed at young adults and tackled the pressing issue of getting information to ethnic minorities and hard-to-reach communities across the whole of Burma.

In Burma, known by its own government as Myanmar, such a public display of media freedom would have been unheard until very recently. It could in the past have led to the arrest of those involved. Even as late as January of this year, Burma was ranked 169th out of 179 nations in terms of press freedom by the media watchdog group Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF).

Headlines around the world have heralded the remarkable political and economic changes happening in Burma.  The reforms to the media are striking. For nearly 50 years all media in the country was kept under tight control. Every word broadcast or printed was closely monitored and censored, even song lyrics and fairy tales.  Most foreign media, including the BBC, was banned. Over the past two years the Government has been taking a slow march towards media freedom. In August this year they abolished pre-publication censorship of the country's media.

Journalists in Burma have welcomed the reforms unanimously but remain cautiously optimistic. Many repressive laws still exist under which journalists can be punished for writing material which angers or offends the government. When I visited in June this year there was a palpable fear that a reversal of reforms was possible.

However now, in November, there are no suggestions of reversals. "The changes have been too big, we've gone too far now to turn back," they say.  Instead, the journalists are looking to the future of media in Burma and examining what needs to be achieved in media regulation.

BBC Media Action is working with young journalists in the country on a range of skills, focusing on building their capacity as radio journalists. As a media trainer with the Burma Horizons project I have spent these past few weeks working with local journalists on their broadcast skills.

Many of the trainees come from a print background so reporting for radio is a new concept. The journalists have worked extensively on how to record and edit a sound-rich radio feature. There was lots of laughter when I introduced Burmese tongue-twisters and the humming of local songs as part of the training to aid their presentation skills.

They are an inspirational group who, despite having had little or no training in journalism, are determined to lead the spread of information in this emerging democracy.

Burma is changing but there is still a long way to go. It's hard to overstate just how many challenges Burma is facing. One-third of the nation lives below the poverty line. The basic infrastructure is massively lacking.  The vast majority of the population don’t have access to adequate healthcare.

However despite the obstacles my time here with these brilliant young journalists makes me optimistic about Burma's future. This generation of journalist will undoubtedly be influential not only reporting on, but also in shaping the new Burma.

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