…it’s really important to realize that this isn’t new, it’s been happening for a long time, but it’s now happening across the board, to almost everyone, to all these ordinary citizens and no one is safe…
Ali Fowle (Al Jazeera, 101 East)
Constraints of Time and Place
Al Jazeera’s 101 East team produced the first long-form report about the protests in Myanmar after the military took control in February 2021. The reporting culminated in two pieces of longform television journalism that brought in divergent voices from across Myanmar’s political landscape.
The team, many of whom were long-time residents of Myanmar, faced the challenges of reporting on events in a timely way while also incorporating the voices of a broad spectrum of the population. Developments rapidly unfolded in a culturally and politically diverse locale, pushing the crew to engage with differing, and often opposed, sources while working under a time crunch.
Ali Fowle on Her Reporting in Myanmar
Questions
Q1: How does a journalist balance the time constraints of a 24 hour news cycle with the ethical obligations of their work?
Q2: Does a journalist need to be embedded in a local culture and society to meaningfully represent that region?
Q3: Is it justifiable to include sources whose involvement in a story could endanger them?