Emily Fishbein
Independent journalist using a collaborative approach with local journalists, photographers and artists to cover human rights, social justice, armed conflict, forced displacement and environmental issues in Myanmar. I especially seek to write in-depth reports which highlight underrepresented voices and underreported stories.
Explore my site
Myanmar military coup
Reporting about the impacts of the February 1, 2021 military coup
A ‘new chapter’? The future of rare earth mining under KIO rule
‘The negotiation failed’: Hpakant’s deadly standoff
How to Build an Inclusive Myanmar Post-Junta
Conflict, uncertainty hang over Mogok’s gemstone industry
‘Like we are trapped’: Minorities suffer amid conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine
‘A global monster’: Myanmar-based cyber scams widen the net
‘Potential for new Myanmar’ as anti-coup forces push new northern offensive
Under siege in Myanmar’s cyber-scam capital
Trapped in Myanmar’s cyber-scam mills
Women flee conscription threat, economic hardship in Myanmar | Context
Young men trapped between war and conscription in Myanmar’s Rakhine
Scarred by war, Myanmar children ‘cannot have the life they used to have’
How do you escape the war? Three young men’s stories from Sagaing, Myanmar
‘Blood and sweat’: Myanmar resistance fights to overturn military coup
How to Survive a Coup — The Dial
“We always feel unsafe in our homeland”: Dispatches from Kachin IDP youth
‘Fighting is all around’: Myanmar faces deepening humanitarian crisis
Northern offensive brings ‘new energy’ to Myanmar’s anti-coup resistance
Military attack leaves Myanmar’s displaced civilians with ‘no safe place’
‘Still my people’: Myanmar diaspora supports democracy struggle back home
Myanmar’s striking civil servants: Displaced, forgotten, but holding on
Coup, cyclone and a new bond between Myanmar’s Rohingya and Rakhine
A “leap of faith:” exams under resistance
Reporting projects
Article series produced in collaboration with local reporting partners
Myanmar: Epicenter of a Global Cyber-Scamming Crisis
Reporting Myanmar
Impacts of the Myanmar Military Coup on Natural Resource Economies in Kachin State
A Distant Peace: Voices From Rakhine State, Myanmar
Buried Hopes: Stories from Kachin's Jade Mines
The Intersection of Indigenous Communities and Conservation Groups in Myanmar's Hkakabo Razi National Park
Refugees and Displaced Persons from Myanmar Critically Vulnerable Amidst COVID-19
Edited Articles
Articles I edited in collaboration with local journalists and activists from Myanmar
“I don’t want others to face what I faced”: Stories of forced military conscription
Newly-displaced civilians struggle to survive in Momauk township, Kachin State
Myanmar: airstrike on school killed four children, witnesses say
The victims, all boys aged 12 to 14, were students at the school in Daw Si Ei village, which served about 200 students and was run by local community members and former government teachers. Two additional children remain in critical condition after being wounded in the head and abdomen.
The mother of one of the victims reported seeing an plane, fol
As war dynamics change, localisation is now vital for effective aid in Myanmar’s Rakhine
An informal ceasefire officially came to an end in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State on 13 November, when the Arakan Army, one of the nation’s most powerful ethnic armed groups, launc
Coup, cyclone and a new bond between Myanmar’s Rohingya and Rakhine
Mocha should be a clarion call for international humanitarian actors working in Rakhine
In Myanmar, a monk takes on the junta
‘Is the world listening?’: the poets challenging Myanmar’s military
As Rohingya refugees, we are all too familiar with the militar
Ready for war: my journey from peaceful poet to revolutionary soldier
On the frontlines of protests in Yangon in February and early March, I witnessed soldiers and police firing live rounds into crowds, and on 8 March, I was one of hundreds of protesters who were barricaded overnight on Kyun Taw Road in Yangon’s Sanchaung township, where soldiers and p
‘My first time holding a gun’: from Myanmar student to revolutionary soldier – a cartoon
‘I can’t go home’: families hide in Myanmar’s forests as fighting rages
A tribute to a human rights defender killed by Myanmar’s junta
‘We’ll keep reporting, whatever the risk from the junta,’ say Myanmar’s journalists
Reporting Myanmar | Global development | The Guardian
Teachers on the run: striking public sector workers hunted by Myanmar’s military
The coup united the people of Myanmar against oppression
Interviews and awards
What's Happening in Myanmar: Kachin Rare Earths & The House of Trump
Runner-up, 2023 Pulitzer Center Breakthrough Journalism Award
Myanmar: the reporters risking everything to cover a forgotten conflict – podcast
Podcast interview: A ‘campaign of terror’ in Myanmar
By the Book: The Long and Short of Longform
Behind the Story: Fishbein on the Power of Local Reporting Partners in Myanmar
Kachin
Reporting on Kachin State, Myanmar
Treading carefully: KIO navigates rocky ethnic terrain in new territory
A ‘new chapter’? The future of rare earth mining under KIO rule
‘The negotiation failed’: Hpakant’s deadly standoff
Newly-displaced civilians struggle to survive in Momauk township, Kachin State
How to Survive a Coup — The Dial
“We always feel unsafe in our homeland”: Dispatches from Kachin IDP youth
Military attack leaves Myanmar’s displaced civilians with ‘no safe place’
Q&A: Kachin activist Sut Seng Htoi says ‘no issue should be censored or avoided’
How the Kachin public overturned a rare earth mining project in KIO territory
Celebrating Manau in Northeast India
In Kachin’s icy mountains, the search for a coveted fungus heats up
‘Afraid of the gun’: Military coup fuels Myanmar resource grab
We need to defeat our enemy, but we also need to look within
'Our hearts are on fire': Hpakant airstrikes fuel Kachin revolutionary spirit
Kachin’s illegal wildlife trade booms in post-coup free-for-all
Kachin public calls on KIO to address gold mining crisis
Kachin tycoon draws controversy over gold mining at Myitsone
Poverty, impunity and profits: Experts warn coup could lead to opium surge
Global demand for rare earth elements fuels environmental destruction in Kachin State
‘Weapons, power and money’: How rare earth mining in Kachin enriches a Tatmadaw ally
Divide and rule in Kachin State
Ethnic groups step in as Myanmar’s COVID response falls apart
‘From complex to chaotic’: Myanmar coup shrinks frontline aid
Military coup clouds control over jade, gems in Myanmar
Environmental reporting
Reporting on environmental issues and natural resource economies in Myanmar
Treading carefully: KIO navigates rocky ethnic terrain in new territory
A ‘new chapter’? The future of rare earth mining under KIO rule
‘The negotiation failed’: Hpakant’s deadly standoff
Conflict, uncertainty hang over Mogok’s gemstone industry
How the Kachin public overturned a rare earth mining project in KIO territory
In Kachin’s icy mountains, the search for a coveted fungus heats up
‘Afraid of the gun’: Military coup fuels Myanmar resource grab
Htu Seng has spent the past decade defending the land and environment of her native Kachin State but it was only after the military seized power in a coup in February 2021 that she began fearing for her life.
Forcibly relocated from her village near the river confluence known as Myitsone in 2011, to make way for a China-backed hydropower project that was suspended
Kachin’s illegal wildlife trade booms in post-coup free-for-all
Kachin public calls on KIO to address gold mining crisis
Bawk Nu* has spent the last 11 years dreaming of the day she could safely return to her village of Nam San Yang. She is one of more than 100,000 people who fled their homes following a resumption in fighting between the military and the armed wi
In the Wake of Coup, Gold Mining Boom Is Ravaging Myanmar
He traveled 60 miles west, passing through verdant forests, rice paddies, and small villages of bamboo houses. Reaching Bhamo, a town on the banks of the Irrawaddy, Myanmar’s longest river, he began mining gold and earning $4 per day
Kachin tycoon draws controversy over gold mining at Myitsone
Sut Mai* started mining gold from the bank of Kachin State’s Mali River in 2013, when he was 18. He uses a shovel, generator-powered suction pipes, a sluice pan and a tray. “Local people have been mining gold for a long time, but it’s difficult and there’s not much profit,” he said.
He hails from Tang
Poverty, impunity and profits: Experts warn coup could lead to opium surge
Global demand for rare earth elements fuels environmental destruction in Kachin State
‘Weapons, power and money’: How rare earth mining in Kachin enriches a Tatmadaw ally
Military coup clouds control over jade, gems in Myanmar
How A Beloved Gemstone Became A Symbol Of Environmental Tragedy In Myanmar
Kachin State’s yemase jade miners and dealers demand a more equitable industry
This article was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
It was the deadliest landslide in Myanmar’s recent history – about 200 jade miners buried in rainwater and mud when a dam of mining waste collapsed in Kachin State’s Hpakant Township on July 2.
Haunting images of strewn bodies and grievin
Behind the Dream: A Family Broken by a Jade Mining Disaster
After Another Mining Disaster, Ethnic Minorities Lose Patience With Myanmar’s Leadership
Each one brings renewed calls from rights groups and transparency advocates to reform Myanmar’s jade industry, which is dominated by powerful mili
In Myanmar, China’s prized jade costs more than money
The many-sided fight over northern Kachin’s forests
This story was produced with support from the Rainforest Journalism Fund, an initiative of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
In late 2018, ethnic Rawang in Kachin State’s northern Hkakabo Razi region turned against the Forest Department and its international partner, t
‘All the fish died’: Kachin communities alarmed at impact of banana plantations
ON THE afternoon of February 6, fish started dying in two streams near a banana plantation in Kachin State’s Waingmaw Township.
Residents of two nearby villages, Aung Myay One and Aung Myay Two, collected and ate the fish, which were taken from the Nam Myin Hka and Nan Lone Hka streams.
On February 15, the Kachin State Environmental Conservation Department
‘It would destroy everything’: Thousands protest against Myitsone Dam
The two-hour march began at 9am at the Kachin National Manau Park and progressed through the commercial heart of the city. The crowd, estimated by participants at around 7,000, held handwritten posters and vinyl banners with slogans including “Dams on the Irrawaddy will cut off Burma’s Lifebloo
Women-focused reporting
How to Survive a Coup — The Dial
Q&A: Kachin activist Sut Seng Htoi says ‘no issue should be censored or avoided’
Meet the women fighting Myanmar’s junta
Period pain: Women in Myanmar struggle with menstrual hygiene
Mothers of the Myanmar revolution: ‘I worry about whether he has warm clothes’
‘We are warriors’: Women join fight against military in Myanmar
‘Whenever we hear soldiers coming, we run’
Myanmar women give birth in jungle as military lies in wait
In Malaysia, Undocumented Women Fear Arrest During Pregnancy
In photos: Coronavirus adds new pressure on displaced Kachin women
Uprooted for nearly a decade, women in displacement camps in Myanmar’s Kachin State are finding new ways to support their families as coronavirus restrictions squeeze livelihoods and aid.
The New Humanitar
Rakhine
Reporting on armed conflict between the Arakan Army and Myanmar military as well as the impacts of Cyclone Mocha on Rakhine communities
‘Like we are trapped’: Minorities suffer amid conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine
Young men trapped between war and conscription in Myanmar’s Rakhine
Coup, cyclone and a new bond between Myanmar’s Rohingya and Rakhine
Mocha should be a clarion call for international humanitarian actors working in Rakhine
Survivors wait ‘in hell’ after Cyclone Mocha pummels Myanmar
The Military Coup Destroyed Independent Media in Myanmar, but in Rakhine State, It Wasn’t There to Begin With
In Myanmar, one blackout ends, another begins
In Myanmar’s Rakhine, families of the disappeared seek answers
“Like Ants Fighting Elephants”: Student Activists in Myanmar Speak Out
My Family and Friends Are Living Under the World's Longest Internet Shutdown in Myanmar
‘Our voice has been killed’ - Rakhine’s smaller ethnic groups shut out of political process by vote cancellations
Why trust in armed groups is growing in Myanmar’s Rakhine State
Vote cancellations trigger outrage among Myanmar minority voters
Rakhine: Where the military is more feared than the coronavirus
For Those Displaced in Myanmar's Rakhine State, COVID Adds Another Layer of Fear
To Fight the Coronavirus, Myanmar Needs a Cease-Fire in Rakhine
Myanmar/ Mizoram border
Reporting on armed conflict between the Myanmar military and resistance groups in Myanmar's northwest and the humanitarian impacts including displacement to Mizoram, India
Myanmar’s striking civil servants: Displaced, forgotten, but holding on
“Even though the salary was low, I really valued that work,” she said. “I stayed in the office more than my own home, and I felt closer to it.”
But when the military seized power in a coup in February 2021, she could not bring herself to
‘We all feel the music together’: Singers bridge differences across borders
In India’s Mizoram, ethnic ties drive response to Chin conflict
In mountains close to Aizawl, the capital of India’s northeastern Mizoram state, 27 families have spent the past year sheltering in bamboo longhouses 800 kilometres from their homes.
The families fled Matupi Township in Myanmar’s Chin State because junta
In Myanmar, Resistance Forces Pursue Home Rule
Fears of escalation after Myanmar air raids near India border
On the afternoon of January 10, Van Bawi Mang, a member of an armed resistance group fighting against the Myanmar military, was resting in his barracks at a camp on the country’s northwestern border with India when a loud explosion jolted him back to the reality of war.
He scrambled into a nearby ditch as jet fighters flew overhead, glass shattering with the reverberation
Meet the women fighting Myanmar’s junta
Chin nationalism ‘blossoms’ on northwestern front against junta
How Myanmar’s Thantlang Township Became a Symbol of Resistance
Myanmar’s anti-coup fighters say injuries harden resolve
Internet blackouts are hiding an ongoing human rights catastrophe
The Myanmar military shut down the internet hours before it seized power in a military coup in February 2021. Since then, it has routinely disrupted access across the country. In September, the junta blocked access in 25 townships in northwestern and central Myanmar’s Manda
‘A humanitarian disaster in the making’ in Myanmar’s Chin State
Refugees in Malaysia
Reporting on the experiences of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants in Malaysia
Fear of arrest among undocumented risks Malaysia vaccine push
Across Southeast Asia, Human Rights Defenders Unite Against Myanmar Coup
In Malaysia, Undocumented Women Fear Arrest During Pregnancy
“I Lost My Education”: Refugees in Malaysia Face Widening School Gap
Lone children among hundreds in Malaysia immigration detention
"The Fear Is Always With Me": Refugees in Malaysia Recount Recent Lockdowns and Raids
Immigration detention centres become Malaysia coronavirus hotspot
Fear and uncertainty for refugees in Malaysia as xenophobia escalates
Fear keeps refugees in Malaysia at home amid coronavirus lockdown
‘Stuck’: Hope fades for refugees in Malaysia as US closes door
Ethnicity, politics and human rights
Reporting on ethnic persecution, ethnic armed and political revolutions, divide and rule politics in Myanmar, and cross-border ethnic ties
Treading carefully: KIO navigates rocky ethnic terrain in new territory
How to Build an Inclusive Myanmar Post-Junta
‘Like we are trapped’: Minorities suffer amid conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine
Coup, cyclone and a new bond between Myanmar’s Rohingya and Rakhine
‘We all feel the music together’: Singers bridge differences across borders
Celebrating Manau in Northeast India
In India’s Mizoram, ethnic ties drive response to Chin conflict
In mountains close to Aizawl, the capital of India’s northeastern Mizoram state, 27 families have spent the past year sheltering in bamboo longhouses 800 kilometres from their homes.
The families fled Matupi Township in Myanmar’s Chin State because junta
Chin nationalism ‘blossoms’ on northwestern front against junta
Myanmar’s ethnic Bamar majority seeks amends with Rohingya after they, too, face military violence
Protests Unite Myanmar’s Ethnic Groups Against Common Foe
Myanmar politics must be re-made, not restored
On the morning of February 1, my hopes disappeared when I learned that the civilian government had been overthrown in a military coup. Growing up under army rule, I did not have access to quality education or healthcare, and couldn’t use the internet until 2014. Terrified of the military, my parents always warned me to stay away from politics or activism. Now, I don’t want the
Myanmar military tries ‘divide and rule’ in bid to cement power
In Myanmar’s protests, diverse ethnic people stand united against a military coup, but some are pushing for bigger change
Myanmar minorities fear renewed violence after military coup
Why trust in armed groups is growing in Myanmar’s Rakhine State
Beyond the bang-bang: Reporting from the front lines of peace.
Many Arakanese in Myanmar’s Rakhine State were optimistic in the lead-up to the country's first openly contested elections in a quarter of a century, in 2015. There’s a stark difference five years on, as 8 November polls are clouded by an escalating civi
Myanmar's ethnic conflicts obstruct COVID-19 aid to minorities
Until this week, the government had little or no contact with over a dozen armed groups, many of which are ranged along the borders with China and Thailand. Dissident minorities have so far been largely left to develop their own responses to the pandemic.
Along Myanmar's northern border with China, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) -- the arm
Students in Kachin-controlled territory face education barriers
WHEN CONFLICT erupted in Kachin State in 2011, San Bu Ra, now 23, was a grade nine student at a Myanmar government school. The fighting between the Kachin Independence Organisation’s armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army, and the Tatmadaw reached her village of Daw Hpung Yang, in Momauk Township, later that year, and San Bu Ra and her family fled to the Je
‘The blood spoke’: Lisu deaths stir unrest in Kachin
DANIEL, A 22-year-old Bible college student, had little interest in politics before June 3. That morning, at the encouragement of his parents, he joined a demonstration in the Kachin State capital, Myitkyina, against alleged killings and abuses of Lisu civilians by the Kachin Independence Army, the armed wing of the Kachin I
Other reporting
My other reporting while based in Myanmar