August 8, 2008, marks 20 years since Burmese students began a pro-democracy uprising against the military regime led by General U Ne Win. The “8888 uprising” ultimately was crushed and military rule re-imposed at the cost of about 3,000 civilian lives.

But the yearning for a free press made the summer of 1988 one of the country’s richest in journalistic and literary activity.

Between August 25 and 27, the staffs of Burma’s official newspapers joined in calls for the government’s resignation, formation of an interim government and multiparty elections. State journalists also demanded the right to report accurately on the demonstrations.

For three days, no newspapers appeared; on the fourth day, readers saw photos of peaceful marches and articles that recounted their demands.

Even more remarkable were the nearly 100 unofficial publications that sprang up between August 27 and September 21. Along with reports and photos of the demonstrations, they carried long interviews with opposition leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi and articles from the Western press on how to conduct democratic elections. They also provided a platform for personal statements and editorials by leading journalists who had been blacklisted or driven into silence.

In her 1993 report Inked Over, Ripped Out, Professor Anna Allott described the period as “the Burmese version of glasnost,” and wrote “Journalistic activity continued to increase in intensity and effectiveness, almost as if the free, unofficial publications were spurring the official press to give more accurate information.”

The military forcefully re-imposed its rule with a September 16 massacre of civilians and a September 18 coup. The official newspapers disappeared September 19 and 20, and resurfaced in their old forms – with little real news or objective comment. The unofficial newspapers all but disappeared and the state censorship bureau became even more restrictive than it had been before 1988.

Want to find out more? Read Professor Allot’s report and my recent article about how Burmese writers have been coping with the state censors.

<img src=”http://static.technorati.com/pix/fave/tech-fav-1.png” alt=”Add to
Technorati Favorites” />