• The Irrawaddy, Vol. 14, No. 2, March 2006, Chiang Mai

Democracy in the fledgling republic of Burma was brought to a halt 44 years ago, when the military took control of the country in a coup. Since then, the political situation in the Southeast Asian nation has played like an endless video loop of oppressive stagnation. Tyrannical generals use violence and intimidation to cling to power; pro-democracy opponents languish in Gulag-style prisons; like-minded regimes in Beijing and Pyongyang keep the country afloat with military and financial flows; and Western and Asian governments are at odds on what to do. Inside Burma, officially known as Myanmar, the domestic press is censored and controlled by the state. And for the international media who occasionally take notice, the story is sadly the same as five or even 10 years ago. Recent political events only confirm the status quo. The military junta has rejected new international calls to release pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, ignored a push by the Bush administration to bring it before the U.N. Security Council, and rebuffed diplomatic pressure from its neighbors to move toward democracy.

So how do you cover a story that doesn’t change? The monthly news magazine The Irrawaddy has found a way to penetrate the hermetically sealed country by relying on an underground network of contacts and informers. “They cover everything from politics to music to social life,” says Roby Alampay, executive director of the Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance. “It’s a slice of what life is like in Burma.”

It’s not easy to find that slice. Burma rarely grants visas to Western journalists, and foreign media within the country can only hire local journalists (who are targets of...