The cameraman known only as T was told last week he faced a minimum jail sentence of 10 years for filming without government permission.
This week he won an award from the Rory Peck Trust.
T is one of 13 other cameramen working for the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) jailed by Burma’s military junta since the Saffron Revolution in 2007.
The Oslo-based group maintains an underground network of video journalists which smuggles footage to the outside world which DVB broadcasts back into the country through its radio and TV news service. The DVB, a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy, provided most of the footage broadcast by international media of the 2007 ’saffron revolution’ protests as detailed in the award-winning documentary, Burma VJ.
Khin Maung Win, deputy head of DVB, said:
We had 30 journalists active during the Saffron Revolution, half of whom are now inactive – either in jail, in hiding or in Thailand. But now we have about 100 more, spread all over the country, even in Burma’s new capital, Naypyidaw.
We don’t normally publicise the arrest of our cameramen, but we decided to do so this time because of the awards. This award is very important for us – if we win it will be the first success by Burmese journalists. The Rory Peck award is all about taking risks, which certainly applies to us. And we are proud that we can do something to inform the international audience.
The trust was established in 1995 in honor of freelance cameraman Rory Peck who was killed while filming in Russia.
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