On April 1st, Burmese citizens will vote in parliamentary by-elections, and YouTube will be there to document the process.
The Burma Elections 2012 channel is a coordinated effort by Google Ideas, Google’s “technology-oriented think/do tank” and J-School News Lab, “a real-time reporting training program for Burmese journalists,” as described by YouTube in an official blog post.
The channel will broadcast “original reporting from J-School journalists on the ground, Burmese media outlets, and international broadcasters,” wrote Oliva Ma, YouTube’s News and Politics manager, in the official blog post announcing the channel.
The Burma Elections 2012 channel has 28 videos already, which range from recent news segments in Burmese to interviews of people who never voted before because they didn’t believe in the process—until now.
Movie actor Ye Deight, for example, said he will vote in this year’s election because “the system is changing for the better.”
As CNN noted about the upcoming elections, “[t]his by-election … will be the first real test of the government’s commitment to removing the fear and paranoia of citizens silenced by nearly five decades of military rule.”
Burma, also known as the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, was under military rule until 2011, and had its first democratic elections in 2010. This year, reported CNN, is the first time “credible alternatives to the ruling party will appear on the ballot.”
This puts the YouTube channel, Burma Elections 2012, in an interesting position, as it will be observing the elections in real time, and documenting what many are saying is the beginning of the democratic process in Burma.
“Until recently, Burma has been more or less closed to the outside world, making it difficult to find news and information about what was happening inside the country,” wrote Ma.
Photo by Jan van Raay