The work of undercover reporters in Burma is the object of a new documentary.

From the BBC:

Images sent out of Burma brought the uprising to the world's attention

A monk looks into a camera at a monastery in Rangoon. His face is bruised and swollen.

Troops came during the night, he says. They beat the monks and took dozens of them away. He doesn't know where they are.

Outside, the camera records pools of blood on the floor, shards of glass and rubble.

The date was 27 September 2007 and the man behind the camera was Aung Htun.

He was one of a network of people working as undercover reporters for an Oslo-based NGO and opposition broadcaster, the Democratic Voice of Burma, when a fuel price hike triggered anti-government protests.

The protests spread from activists to monks and students, and became an uprising - the most significant challenge to Burma's generals in almost two decades.

Most foreign journalists are banned from Burma and the military government censors all media.

But the undercover reporters used small hand-held cameras to record what was happening. Even as troops brutally suppressed the unrest, they took enormous risks to send the pictures out of the country.

Media organisations used them to report on the unfolding crisis and the footage was broadcast around the world, defying government efforts to hide events from international eyes.

Hope and fear

The camcorder material - and the story of the journalists' efforts to obtain it - has now been turned into film by Danish director Anders Ostergaard.

Called "Burma VJ", the docu-drama gives a powerful visual record of how the uprising unfolded.