Patrick Winn May 1, 2013 16:22

When the quarry guards show up, you run like hell. You drop your sacks of pilfered dirt and scramble down the steep rim of the copper mine. When you reach the base, you keep running, bounding over pools awash in sulfuric acid. Be careful: Plenty of boys before you have tumbled in and snapped limbs. Do not look back. Do not stop sprinting until you slip unseen into the village.

Testing Myanmar’s reforms: At Letpadaung mine, villagers stand up to generals

Patrick WinnMay 2, 2013 06:01

As Aung San Suu Kyi arrived to mediate a mine controversy, police fired phosphorus grenades at monks, testing the Nobel Laureate’s power.

Charles M. SennottMarch 5, 2013 17:24

Burma Telling Its Own Story: A reporting fellowship for young journalists

Open Hands Initiative, The GroundTruth Project and GlobalPost "Special Reports" announce a reporting fellowship for 20 top, young journalists.

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A Myanmar man reads a local journal in Yangon on August 20, 2012. Myanmar said it had abolished media censorship on August 20 in the latest in a series of rapid democratic reforms, delighting journalists who lived for decades under the shadow of the censors' marker pen. (Soe Than Win/AFP/Getty Images)

As Myanmar implements democratic reforms and begins to encourage a free press, the country finds itself in a moment of historic change.

As part of the still unfolding story of Myanmar, Open Hands Initiative and The GroundTruth Project are pleased to announce a reporting fellowship in Burma.

Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD accepts money from junta cronies

Priyanka BoghaniJanuary 15, 2013 12:21

"Those who are considered cronies have supported the social activities of the NLD and others. What is wrong with that?" said Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar to allow daily private newspapers

Priyanka BoghaniDecember 28, 2012 11:47

Currently, only state-controlled newspapers are allowed to publish on a daily basis, most of which are considered propaganda-filled mouthpieces for the government.

Charles M. SennottOctober 29, 2012 16:45

The story behind the story: Jeff Howe on a changing climate for reporting in Burma

Correspondent Jeff Howe takes us behind the scenes of his reporting for "Burma Road."

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Young women dock workers unload firewood from ferries on the Irrawaddy river in Mandalay. (Gary Knight/VII/GlobalPost)

BOSTON—Empires have practiced the concept of ‘soft power’ since the beginning of history, but how do you see ‘soft power’ as a photographer, and how do you reveal it as a reporter working in the field?

That was the question that drove award-winning photographer Gary Knight and veteran correspondent Jeff Howe as they set out on a journey through the Golden Triangle and onto the Burma Road. Their goal was to take GlobalPost readers into the story of how China exerts ‘soft power’ in a new Myanmar.
In our continuing video series titled “The Story Behind the Story,” GroundTruth interviews Howe about the GlobalPost Special Report, “Burma Road,” and how he and Knight navigated their way this summer over some difficult terrain in pursuit of understanding ‘soft power.’

Emily JudemOctober 30, 2012 14:26

In Search of GroundTruth: Myanmar Times captures the horror of ethnic clashes

Ethnic clashes between the Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya broke out in Burma's Rakhine state last week.

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A Muslim woman collects pieces of metal from the rubble of Muslim quarter of Pa Rein village in Myauk Oo township, which was burned in recent violence between Buddhist Rakhines and Muslim Rohingyas on October 29, 2012 in Rakhine state, Myanmar. (Kaung Htet/Getty Images)

Every week we will be on the lookout for the best examples of GroundTruth in the media. This week we turn to Burma.

In our new Special Report, Burma Road, we analyze China’s soft power in Burma as reforms that seem to be opening up a country long repressed by harsh military rule. And from far away, it’s easy to focus on the country’s successes. But photographs from the ground, like this October 29 slideshow in The Myanmar Times, make the recent sectarian clash in Burma’s Rakhine State impossible to ignore.

GroundTruth: A changing climate for reporting in Burma (VIDEO)

Emily JudemOctober 29, 2012 06:15

For his first trip to Burma, correspondent Jeff Howe had prepared to visit a country that watched a journalist's every move. As it turned out, he didn't need to be worried about the government. The government, he said, didn't seem to care who Jeff was or why he was in Burma. But the people he interviewed had long lived in an environment where it was dangerous to speak to journalists. And just as the country is in the midst of opening up, its people are too.

GroundTruth: Jeff Howe on the changing reporting climate in Burma

Emily JudemOctober 29, 2012 13:28

In this video interview, Jeff Howe takes us behind the scenes of his stories for GlobalPost's Special Report, "Burma Road," and shares some insights from his reporting trip with photographer Gary Knight earlier this fall.

Aung San Suu Kyi delivers historic first speech in Myanmar parliament

Faine GreenwoodJuly 25, 2012 13:56

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi gave her first parliamentary speech today, reports Voice of America, in a major milestone for the Nobel Prize winning politician