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India serves as 'natural base' for exiled reporters
Their risky journey there echoes that of media group's chief three decades ago
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Mr Soe Myint (centre), editor-in-chief of Mizzima, at the signing of a deal with Indian public broadcasting agency Prasar Bharati in 2018. In 1990, he and a friend hijacked a flight from Bangkok to Yangon, diverting it to Kolkata to draw global attention to a military crackdown that had followed a major uprising in 1988 in Myanmar.
PHOTO: PRASAR BHARATI
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Debarshi Dasgupta India Correspondent In New Delhi, Debarshi Dasgupta
A bus packed with around 50 passengers left Yangon on March 19, headed for Tamu, a town in north-western Myanmar on the border with India. Among them was Mr Win Maung (not his real name), a 44-year-old reporter and video journalist who was leaving his wife and parents behind. He was fleeing his homeland for safety.
The journey was fraught with risk. What should have taken around 24 hours took more than two nights and three days. "There were many military checkpoints and highway blocks along the way. I was really scared," he said.
