Links for 01-10-2007

• Guardian: Bolton calls for bombing of Iran
  If we were to strike Iran it should be accompanied by an effort at regime change ... The US once had the capability to engineer the clandestine overthrow of governments. I wish we could get it back
• BBC Editor's: Information from Burma
  Steve Herrman talks about BBC's coverage of Burma - and how they're getting content from there. interesting.
• Guardian: Sex changes and a draconian legal code: gay life in Iran
  I've heard this sometime back, the government actually pays for sex change ... this is really strange. But apparently it has to do with the Shia ruling on the issue.

Getting content out of Burma

It's difficult getting content out from Burma, most people in the country don't have access to internet, and even then, the government strictly censors everything (including hotmail, gmail, ... etc).

Burmese activists have been getting out photos, video and eyewitness accounts using mobile phones, blogs, and the good old mailing lists. Also, news organizations like Aljazeera, BBC and Guardian have been using eyewitness accounts and blogs to find content. Here's some of the best sources I came across, it would be useful to use them altogether:

Here is a list of useful Burmese blogs (not all in English):

• http://www.irrawaddy.org/protests/BurmaProtests.php
• http://mizzima.com/Foto-2007/Sep/Index.html
• http://ko-htike.blogspot.com/
• http://moemaka.blogspot.com/

From MSM:

• Guardian's newsblog is well updated - minute by minute - onthe
  
• Aljazeera has a reporter on the ground - filming but can't show his face - brown their youtube channel.
  
• BBC is pulling together eyewitness accounts in text, audio and video. Very informative
  
• Global Voices Burma is aggregating Burmese blogs.
  

In cases like Burma, when the government heavily censors local media and doesn't allow in journalist from outside, newsrooms increasingly rely on the internet - that's good.