These photographs from the Telegraph show a wounded Japanese photographer lying in the street in Rangoon amid the protests in Burma, attempting to take more pictures of the violence, while a soldier stands over him with a gun. In the next photograph, the soldier is gone, and the photographer, Kenji Nagai, is dead, having been shot at point blank range. Here, James Mawdsley recounts his terrifying year in a Burmese prison in 2000 after taking part in protests.

For a glimpse into the repression, fear, and truly Orwellian censorship that is part of everyday life in totalitarian Burma, read Emma Larkin’s excellent book, Finding George Orwell in Burma. Listen to Larkin’s “All Things Considered” interview on NPR. (Larkin is a pseudonym for a British journalist).