This is what dissent looked like to the Rangoon user. At least it did until Burma’s ruling generals decided that ham fisted expurgation simply wasn’t doing the job. They finally found the internet’s off-switch on Friday.

“Burma is blacked out now!” writes ablogger Nyein Chan Yar, whose nom de guerre is Ancient Ghost.  S/he links to a fellow blogger who has posted recent images of blood on a monastery floor. Online reporting may not be correctly named the New Journalism. It is, however, the country’s only form of journalism.

Burmese reporters disabused themselves of hope long ago. In fact, many privately held media outlets simply ceased production rather than reprint officially sanctioned twaddle. The profit margins of propaganda were just too slight.

As an inert press down tools, so-called “citizen journalists” stepped in to fill the void. The work of Burmese bloggers has been widely reported and reprinted. From internet cafes and mobile telephones, users have emerged as the world’s principal source for news from Burma. Monks have facebook pages. Wikipedia, needless to impart, is constantly amended.

Flickr and Blogger feature scores of images, ruminations and eye witness accounts. Here, between spectral images of popstars and puppies, you can view Buddhist protest.

Here, if you’ve the stomach for it, you can see something I can’t elicit words to describe. And, even though the web has been cordoned by the Junta, there are youtube instants that demand your attention. This peculiarly chilling item shows the wedding of General Than Shwe’s daughter. Complete with low pop soundtrack and extravagant flounces, this coarse display of wealth leaves Imelda looking rather wan by contrast.

“Say cheese,” writes a youtube user. Come the Saffron Revolution, we’ll know which meringue bride to intern.

I’ve discussed the unstuck amateurism of citizen journalism until I’m quite blue in the face. Obviously, such reflection has no place here. Without the geeky valour of these bloggers, “legitimate” press would have nothing beyond junta feint to report.

Named the “third pillar” of the revolution by the Times of London these firewall dodging reporters risk a lot more than ISP access as they upload.

What we have is an amateur patchwork. What we have is a democratised journalism. And, until history allows “neutrality” to emerge, thank goodness for that.