‘We’ll keep reporting, whatever the risk from the junta,’ say Myanmar’s journalists

To avoid arrest, the staff of the 74 Media left their home city, only to face shellfire in their border refuge. The editor describes the risks faced by his media outlet

• Read more in our Reporting Myanmar series

Shweeeee ... Boooom. The noise of the exploding artillery shell startled me awake in the middle of a July night. Dazed, I stumbled out of bed and tried to check on the other journalists with whom I share a dormitory. As we ran outside, another shell flew overhead.

It was five months after the military takeover in Myanmar and three months since we had been forced to relocate from the Kachin state capital, Myitkyina, to territory held by a group known in Myanmar as an ethnic armed organisation (EAO), fighting for self-determination for an ethnic minority state near Myanmar's border with China. Now this territory was being bombed. We were all terrified; some of my staff were crying as they looked to me for guidance and comfort.