Burma's military rulers have disconnected the country from the world wide web following the pro-democracy demonstrations in the country. Internet access both into and out of Burma has been curtailed, meaning that it's now not possible to watch Burmese state-controlled English-language TV, MRTV3. The breaking of Internet links comes soon after Burma gained its first home-grown and home-hosted blogs: MySuboo was launched in September and attracted press attention in Burma and around the world. It appears that the company's servers are outside Burma as, when checked on 3 October, the site was still running.
The pro-democracy rallies brought with them immediate condemnation of international broadcasters who have Burmese-language services. The BBC, Democratic Voice of Burma, Radio Free Asia and Voice of America were all slated in the local press and on state-controlled television with commentators saying that each of these broadcasters was fomenting unrest and were "killers of the airwaves". Each of these broadcasters has been attracting increased audiences in recent months, according to anecdotal
evidence from the country. A survey by the BBC World Service Trust survey found that more than two thirds of radio listeners listen to BBC World Service at least once a week, with 38 per cent listening to VoA.
Broadcasts have been increased to Burma to provide people with news from outside the closed country - both VoA and RFA have doubled their transmissions (read more here) and the BBC has increased its broadcasts by 45 minutes. The only major TV news organisation that was able to report directly from the country during the rallies was Al Jazeera English, who managed to smuggle a correspondent into the country and film the rallies.
It is clear that the widespread use of mobile phones in Burma enabled the pro-democracy demonstrators to spread word of the rallies and encourage people to participate. However, realising that the mobile network was being used by the demonstrators, the military regime quickly cut off some connections. The exact number of mobile subscribers in Burma is not known.
(Source: AIB Media Briefing via Rachel Baughn)
