"Myanmar Government Cuts Internet Link""Myanmar's internet activists blog to save nation"
Myanmar's internet activists blog to save nation
Phil Black / CNN
London: Ko Htike is a man with a laptop, sitting in London, a long way from his home in Myanmar.
He has become a key middleman in the effort to expose events in his country.
Ko Htike is emailed a photo, apparent visual evidence that police raided a monastery that Buddhist monks inside were beaten and arrested.
He logs on from 3 am every day to receive the latest digitally smuggled photos, video and information.
"It's too dangerous for them. If they get caught you will never know their future. Maybe they’ll just disappear or be in prison for life or die,” says Htike.
Around 20,000 people are visiting the site every day. But maintaining it is taking its toll.
"I even feel like crying because I can't bear it,” says Htike.
But Htike isn't alone. There is a global force of individual online activists and from Norway's Capital to provide regular broadcasts from the Democratic Voice of Burma.
"We have people on the ground. We have been running us a radio station for the past 15 years. We have our trained journalists. And also we do have a lot contacts through of the country who give us information as it's happening,” says Aye Chan Naing from Democratic Voice of Burma.
When the government used brutal force to put down the democratic uprising of 1988, few people saw it.
Technology and courage means that can't happen again. Htike says he longs to be protesting on the streets with his countrymen but believes he can make a bigger difference at his computer.
"I just trying to support inside the protest and just trying to stop killing our people inside Burma. So if I can publish these kind of photos and this kind of news to the world they may stop a little bit,” says Htike.
It’s one man and a laptop fighting to change a nation.
"It's too dangerous for them. If they get caught you will never know their future. Maybe they’ll just disappear or be in prison for life or die,” says Htike.
Around 20,000 people are visiting the site every day. But maintaining it is taking its toll.
"I even feel like crying because I can't bear it,” says Htike.
But Htike isn't alone. There is a global force of individual online activists and from Norway's Capital to provide regular broadcasts from the Democratic Voice of Burma.
"We have people on the ground. We have been running us a radio station for the past 15 years. We have our trained journalists. And also we do have a lot contacts through of the country who give us information as it's happening,” says Aye Chan Naing from Democratic Voice of Burma.
When the government used brutal force to put down the democratic uprising of 1988, few people saw it.
Technology and courage means that can't happen again. Htike says he longs to be protesting on the streets with his countrymen but believes he can make a bigger difference at his computer.
"I just trying to support inside the protest and just trying to stop killing our people inside Burma. So if I can publish these kind of photos and this kind of news to the world they may stop a little bit,” says Htike.
It’s one man and a laptop fighting to change a nation.
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