Evan Williams writes for the Dateline blog about the difficulties of covering stories in countries like Burma where foreign journalists aren't allowed...

Filming inside a country that doesn't want you there presents challenges. But they can be overcome with the right persistence, creativity and most importantly - the right local contacts - and it doesn't always go according to plan.

Burma's ruling generals are about to hold that country's first election in twenty years. They are completely controlling the process and will win. It is to many a window-dressing exercise to prolong the military's grip on power.

But there are some small parties that are trying to run and do what they can and there are many issues that remain unresolved. Also there is no guarantee about what might happen in the months after what many pro-democracy activists call a military-rigged poll.

Two months ago I started working with the Democratic Voice of Burma, an exiled Burmese media group that runs a team of covert camera teams throughout the country who brave the chance of ten years in prison for their work, who smuggle the material out where it is edited and fed back into Burma via satellite.

Together we drew up a list of characters, questions and filming guidelines for their teams to follow and for teams who have to operate completely covertly - they achieved remarkable results, reaching many candidates, who want to run in the election to capitalise on what they see as a small chance for some change, to pro-democracy supporters, who have boycotted the poll because they say no part of it is in any way democratic.

Among the interviews and shots I received, there was the odd surprise - like the  tapes that were out of focus due to a technical problem with one of the cameras, the people filmed against the bright light of a window or the very rushed moments of set up that would allow me to introduce the characters.

All of these are due to the extremely difficult and dangerous circumstances in which they work. In between them is the remarkable access and vision they managed to achieve.

Each country is different but many places I have worked on, such as Zimbabwe, parts of southern Russia, Iraq and North Korea, could learn many lessons from the covert structure of this remarkable organisation.

Some new organisations question using a group such as this, they question whether it is appropriate to use a group that some may consider an "opposition" group rather than a media organisation. DVB is doing everything it can to try and operate as a professional media group.

And my question is also this - in a military dictatorship where all information is state controlled, is the attempt at independent news an act of opposition or simply the search for truth?

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