MFN Legal Briefing: 900+ Days of Human Insecurity for Myanmar’s Media Workers Post-Coup

The Media Freedom Network (MFN) is a solidarity network for freedom of expression movements in Southeast Asia. 

Since Myanmar’s unsettling military takeover on 1 February 2021, a distressing narrative has unfolded:

• Widespread violence against civilians and ethnic minorities throughout the nation.
• Renewed clashes between the Myanmar Military (Tatmadaw) and ethnic armed groups in border regions.
• Escaping the horrors of violence, airstrikes, and destruction, people from Myanmar’s northwest have sought refuge in northeast Indian states. Meanwhile, those from the southeast have fled to Myanmar-Thai border areas.

What legal safeguards exist?

How have media workers navigated perilous conditions post-coup?

How can Southeast Asian media workers and organisations support their Burmese counterparts?

Join us with Sanjay Valentine Gathia, Founder and Director of Borders and Broader Conversations (BBC), for the “MFN Legal Briefing: 900+ Days of Human Insecurity for Myanmar’s Media Workers Post-Coup”, as we delve into the multifaceted aspects of human insecurity in Myanmar on Wednesday, 6 September at 7pm ICT/8pm MYT. This online event will be conducted in English.

Introducing our speaker!

Sanjay Valentine Gathia is a rights activist from India, based in Thailand since 2000. Over the last 20 years, he has worked with NGOs, corporations, inter-governmental organisations, government institutions, election commissions, and media in senior positions. He has contributed to organisational development, advocacy and capacity-building, strategy development, operational management, and fundraising.

He has an academic background in B.A. English (Hons), a post-graduate diploma in Management with specialisations in Human Resources Management and Information Technology from Amity University, and an M.A. in Human Rights from Mahidol University, Thailand.

He spent 7 years in Myanmar from 2015 to 2021, working with a highly reputable Burmese independent media. Following the coup in Myanmar, he found the lack of information and quality analysis about Myanmar in India and its foreign policy towards Myanmar, prompting him to start his own small initiative: “Borders & Broader Conversations (BBC)”, as the Founder and Director. He is currently working on projects that build people-to-people (P2P) connectivity between India, Myanmar, and Thailand.

This event is supported by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and is by invitation only.

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