The video and YouTube age makes if more difficult for cover stories. One of the images literally flashing around the world is of Cameraman Nagai Kenji being shot dead from the back. It’s there for everyone to see - a graphic document of repression:

Once upon a time if outrages occurred, they could be contained. Governments, organizations, celebrities or security forces could put out tidy cover stories and most people wouldn’t notice.

But then came the video camera revolution which spread the word throughout the county and often beyond. Then came the 24-news cycle with cable news networks craving more new info and images to fill hours naysayers once scornfully said pioneer CNN could NEVER fill and keep audiences.

And now we’re into the YouTube era, where anyone official or otherwise can post an image on the Internet that will be carried throughout the world — not just influencing those (particularly young people) who increasingly get news online, but television programs, print news editors and television news directors who find interesting tidbits that spark program or story ideas.

Myanmar is now being pitchforked into the headlines with more and more stories each day. For instances, as you read this:

Former U.S. UN Ambassador John Bolton says China is the key to Myanmar, not the UN:

China is the key to political change in Myanmar, not UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari who has met the military junta, the former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said here.

But there was no sign that Beijing would change tack and pressure the junta, Bolton told BBC television while attending Britain’s opposition Conservative party conference in Blackpool, England.

‘I think it’s very unclear that (Gambari) will be able to achieve anything. I have a lot of respect for Ibrahim Gambari personally but he’s in a very difficult position because the Security Council is divided,’ he said.

Gambari was dispatched to Myanmar at the weekend by UN chief Ban Ki-moon to intervene after the junta unleashed a military campaign to shut down mass protests several days ago, leaving at least 13 dead and hundreds arrested.

And Gambari has met with an opposition lead. Meanwhile, the Pope has spoken out:

A worried Pope Benedict XVI added his voice Sunday to calls from abroad for Myanmar’s military leaders to peacefully end their crackdown on protesters demanding democracy.

Benedict made his first public comments on the deadly crackdown a few hours after a U.N. envoy met with some Myanmar government leaders and detained opposition leader Aung San Sui Kyi, whose steadfast, peaceful challenge to the regime earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She has spent years under house arrest.

“I am following with great trepidation the very serious events” in Myanmar, the pope told pilgrims at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo outside Rome.

He expressed his spiritual closeness to the “dear” people of Myanmar during their “painful trial” and he asked the entire Catholic Church to follow his lead in praying intensely for them.

He said he “strongly hoped that a peaceful solution can be found for the good of the country.”

And he should worry: according to Al-Jazeera, the military’s control is tighter than ever:

AAl Jazeera’s correspondent in Myanmar says the military is now firmly back in control of the country’s streets.

He sent this report from Yangon. He has not been named in order to protect his identity.

The massive stranglehold by the military continues, and it has been building up considerably.

There are a lot of troops on the streets and while this has not choked the life out of the protests it has certainly left it unconscious at the moment.

There are probably several thousand troops now round the city.

Because the military leaders are expecting some kind of demonstration due to the visit by the UN envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, they have positioned their troops on all the main intersections and all the main flashpoints of the past few days.

Al Jazeera also reports that the military seem as if they’re preparing for a big confrontation. They have a list of names they’re going through and some people have fled. And there are also reports of disappearances:

We are now getting some reports of disappearances of people.

We know at least one journalist who worked for a weekly newspaper has gone missing but do not know exactly how many others have disappeared.

ABC News offers an insider’s view of the protests which includes this:

The government has severed paths to the outside world, blocking the Internet, the only way the people of Myanmar, formerly Burma, can show their uprising to the outside world. Newly laid barbed wire lines the streets, and it seems the soldiers have complete control.

Yesterday, a Japanese photographer was shot at point-blank range. He died from his injuries. He was armed with only a camera.

This brutal regime has once again shown its capabilities.

The defiance, for now, has been muted. Small pockets of people continue to gather. But most are uncertain of how to push on with these protests. They say they will settle for nothing less than an end to military rule.

At this moment, it seems the government is winning the standoff.

Now the hope is pinned on the imminent arrival of United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari.

Maybe he will be able to stop the bloodshed.

UPI notes that the UN envoy has meet with some military leaders…but it’s unclear if he’s met with the man calling the shots (literally) Gen. Than Shwe.

Meanwhile editorial opinion around the world is lambasting the military regime….but as always the question is: how much (if any) impact do editorial (or blog) proclamations have on influencing actual governmental behaviors? But here’s a cross section of editorial opinion:. These are small excerpts, so click on the link to read it all:

–Arab News writes of “the deadly profession”:

The shooting death on Friday of a Japanese video-journalist on the streets of Yangon was almost certainly the work of Myanmar police. None of the demonstrators had weapons. There is also strong circumstantial evidence that Kenji Nagai was deliberately targeted. Only the day before, he had been among the handful of foreign journalists who were threatened when paramilitary units raided their hotels.

The killings of journalists and reporters have been increasing alarmingly. A record seemed set in 2004 when 129 reporters, cameramen and other media people were killed, many of them by police, soldiers or terrorists who singled them out specifically. The following year the death toll had fallen to just 41 but in 2006 a new bloody record was established. No fewer than 155 media people died — in some cases simply disappearing — while doing their job. Around 64 of these victims were in Iraq, including many Iraqi journalists, bringing the death toll since the March 2003 US invasion to at least 139.

This is a reprehensible record for countries across the world from Israel to the Philippines, from Russia to South America. Journalists are easy targets. In order to do their jobs properly they need to put themselves in harm’s way. Far too often, they pay a heavy price for their commitment. We viewers want to see the action — but from the safety of our armchairs. More and more we are forced to see what price the media pays for providing these pictures — the camera picture slumping to the ground as the operator is hit, or the flak-jacketed reporter collapsing as he clutches a microphone.

–The Taipei Times sees an agenda behind suggestions of getting China involved:

With world leaders waxing with stolid determination at the UN, threatening wordy resolutions and toothless sanctions against the Myanmar junta, the argument is once again being made that only Beijing — the closest thing Myanmar has to an ally — could bring enough pressure to bear on the regime to make it halt its repression.

While this option provides a convenient cop-out for states intent on shirking their responsibilities, it also comes with an old caveat, one that was heard before when Beijing’s diplomatic arm twisting was focused on North Korea: In order for Beijing to do what it must, concessions will have to be made.

And that concession, of course, is Taiwan, which the nation’s representative in Washington, Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), could not — at the risk of appearing misanthropic — refrain from pointing out last week.

–The

New Zealand Herald sees the end for the regime:
In Myanmar, as with most repressive regimes, this is how it ends. A popular uprising, fuelled by years of pent-up anger, proves an irresistible force. It may not succeed in the first instance, or even the second, but, eventually, it will triumph.

Myanmar’s ruling military junta has but two alternatives: cling to power in the meantime by brutally stamping out this uprising, or acknowledge that its time is up and accede to negotiations that will lead to the restoration of democracy.

A virtually powerless world has, unfortunately, less and less reason to believe the latter course is viewed as an option.

The plight of Myanmar’s people demands a vigorous response. But hobbled by Chinese and Russian intransigence at the United Nations, the international community cannot speak with one voice.

—A columnist in Malyasia’s Star titles his piece “They shoot monks, don’t they?”:

It took a while but the government that shot monks in Vietnam was eventually toppled. We hope the same happens in Myanmar.

IT’S the wrath of the people – that best describes the uprising of the people of Myanmar who have had enough of the dictatorship in their country, who has turned the mineral-rich country into an exporter of cheap labour.

The military generals have ruled the country for 42 years with an iron fist and it is unlikely that they will let go of their grip. They have retaliated with guns and bullets, the only language the junta knows.

But now, the generals have been tested as never before. The unprecedented protest march by the monks, in a devoutly Buddhist nation, must have caught the junta by surprise.

–South Korea’s The Hankyoreh:

Support for Burmese democracy is of course not something only for civil society. The Korean government must also take action. In the view of the world, and indeed as we have often liked to say ourselves, Korea is one of the few countries that became independent after World War II and then achieved both democratization and industrialization. It is said that the Burmese are envious and seek to imitate Korean democratization. Should then Korea really let itself be criticized for being silent about Burmese democracy because of its interest in the natural resources of that country and the interests of Korean companies doing business there? Right now the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, ASEAN, and even China, which has major economic interests involved, are pressuring the military regime. It is shameful that the Korean government is taking an evasive position for obsessing over its economic interests.

–The Times of India has a piece that reads, in part:

The marching monks of Mandalay signify a new milestone in the history of the struggle for freedom in Myanmar. A new generation of youngsters, who have discovered cyberspace, is getting restless. Government monitors cyber cafes and many websites are blocked. But cyber cafes are full of young people, subverting government controls, learning about and linking with a world outside. There is a sense of suppressed anger among most of them, beneath their courteous smiles.

“I no longer have a dream. I want to somehow get out of this place”, says a young tourist guide who offered his services for $3 for three hours. He has completed an MBA, speaks impeccable English with a tinge of British accent and earns $80 in a month. His family of three survives on his income. He also has three blogs under three different names. He explains that Buddhism is supposed to be peaceful. “But our patience is running out”, he says. He is the representative of a new generation. He does not belong to the older democracy movement; he also does not think that anything will change because of Aung San Suu Kyi or the other politicians.

I met a group of young women who exuded a sense of confidence and a resolve that situation will change. None of them seem to be organised by any one leader or party. There is indeed a subterranean current of discontent and seething anger in Yangon, Mandalay and other smaller towns.

–The Sun Star in the Philippines:

The next few days are crucial. Will there be a reprise of bloody 1988? Foreign governments have been asking the military rulers of Burma to go easy on the demonstrators and to start democratic reforms as the key to a peaceful return to normalcy.

The other members of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) who have been handling the Burmese problem with kid gloves so as not to antagonize the regime, may have reached the point of forcing the issue.

Hopefully, there will not be another 1998, otherwise the other nine members, the Philippines among them, may be forced to take drastic steps towards a final solution to the problem. What has been holding them back all this time is the common policy of non-interference in each other’s internal problems.

The future of Asean is at the crossroads as a result of the development in Burma. No one is talking about military action, of course, as the solution. The next best thing is to expel Burma from Asean and let the United Nations handle the situation as best it can.

–Winnippeg Free Press in Canada:

THERE comes a point when the strength of a dictatorship is tested by the desire of its subject population for freedom. It is a kind of tipping point, and the situation can tip either way, depending on the willingness of the dictators to openly use their power and the strength of the population’s desire for democracy.

Burma, or Myanmar, as its military dictators officially call it, appears to be approaching such a point. Thousands of Buddhist monks on Monday led hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets of Myanmar’s cities in open but peaceful confrontation with the country’s military government, one of Asia’s most relentless and brutal regimes.

The last time this happened, in 1988, the government responded ferociously, killing at least 3,000 people. In 2003, when the Burmese demonstrated in support of the immensely popular opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest ever since, gangs of government thugs violently attacked her supporters.

This eruption of popular will could end the same way. On Monday, Myanmar’s religious affairs minister threatened senior Buddhists with unspecified action unless they called the monks back to their monasteries. But there is at least some scant reason for more optimism about reform now than there was during previous public protests.

Read TMV’s many posts on Burma HERE.