In 2018, when I was unemployed after I quit my former job, I found a job posting on Facebook which was calling for fresh reporters with no experience. So, I applied for a youth program organized by Burma News International (BNI).

At that time, I just didn’t want to give up my photography career. I chose to be a journalist only because photography is also a part of it. I have worked in the Photography field before so I thought about only working in that same industry.

I didn’t write articles at first because we focused on Broadcast News and because I did not know how to write articles either. When the BNI Youth Media Program finished after a year, I became jobless again. Then, due to my mentors’ suggestion, I went to journalism school and wrote my very first article there.

My first article was about the increasing number of suicides in Myanmar. I interviewed a psychiatrist and wrote that article based on these questions: Why the increase in suicide cases? Is suicide contagious? Are mental issues an illness?

There is no article that I can say it’s my favorite so far because I haven’t written much yet. But there is one article that benefited someone. It’s about a grandfather who is taking care of his three grandchildren who were abandoned by their parents. Because of my article, people showed their support and made donations to that grandfather. I was delighted to see my article could bring benefits to some people.

So far, there is no article that was difficult to write or that I had to work on it really hard, but there was a challenging one. It was about the water scarcity in Bago and Magway Divisions. For that article, I had to travel to many villages together with the volunteers who were distributing water there. I interviewed the locals, made videos, and also volunteered to distribute water. Plus, it was when Covid-19 cases were high so I had to work carefully under many limitations and take a lot of precautions. The title of that article is “Which will come: Rain or Donors?”

At the beginning of our journalism course, our mentors mentioned that a journalism career is not easy and could even end up in prison and that there is no way to become a millionaire working as a journalist. However, it couldn’t change our minds. I got into the field while aware of those risks and hardships so I will never give up Journalism. I currently need to hide out and am in a difficult situation but I have never thought to stop being a journalist. I must work on Journalism no matter what. I must share the right information and news with the people. These are the only thoughts in my mind every time.
I have wondered what other job would be better for me but I always end up choosing Journalism. So, I learn more and try harder so I can thrive in this field in the long run.

Currently, I mostly use my phone to work on my articles. For video editing, there is a common office computer shared with others but it does not work well with big-sized files. It would be great if I had a decent laptop with a good graphic card because I sometimes need to draw designs.

A good photograph does not need many words. It can express what you want to say within a frame. I think that is the power of Photography. In the case of newspapers, I think journalists, through their articles, can raise issues which are to be solved in the city, villages, government offices, and national level. I think Monitoring, the main part of Journalism, is the power to balance the inequalities and guide the pillars of government playing their roles through the media.

I will definitely keep on working as a journalist.