…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
Ali Fowle, a freelancer for Al Jazeera, was a 2022 finalist for the Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics, along with team members Drew Ambrose, Aun Qi Koh, Andy Mees, David Boyle, Jenni Henderson, Nick Olle, Liz Gooch and Sharon Roobol.
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.