The Frontier story
Since launching in 2015, Frontier Myanmar has provided its readers balanced, in-depth reporting and insights from the ground to help them make sense of what’s happening in Myanmar.
With a focus on long-form and investigative articles, insights and analysis, we’ve built up a reputation for quality journalism in an increasingly difficult operating environment – one in which media organisations are regularly banned, and journalists face the threat of arrest or worse just for doing their job.
Myanmar’s political crisis following the February 2021 military coup means our reporting has become more important than ever.
Like many media organisations, Frontier shifted its newsroom outside Myanmar to protect its staff and editorial freedom. Despite the military regime’s repeated efforts to crush independent journalism, we continue to deliver in-depth reports from all corners of Myanmar, making space for overlooked voices and issues, and reporting the uncensored truth.
The regime’s brutal repression of dissent, the opposition’s shift to armed struggle, rising poverty and economic stagnation, the failure of the international response – we are striving to cover all of the important stories in post-coup Myanmar. In such a polarised political environment, though, we believe our commitment to impartiality sets us apart from other news sources.
We believe access to high-quality journalism is important for the country’s future and we make all our content available online for free in English through a metered paywall. All of our Myanmar-language content remains freely accessible. Our staff is overwhelmingly national and we are an important training ground for young Myanmar journalists.
To learn more from CEO and publisher Sonny Swe about why he founded Frontier, check out this Q&A.
International awards
Don’t just take our word for it – our reporting has been recognised each year since 2017 by the Society of Publishers in Asia, the region’s most prestigious media awards, in everything from photography and audio reporting to business and feature writing.
The Human Rights Press Awards has also awarded us numerous prizes for editorials, investigative reporting, podcasts and photojournalism.
Our former senior reporter, Mratt Kyaw Thu, was also awarded the 2017 Agence France-Presse Kate Webb Prize for his “compelling and rigorous” coverage of ethnic conflict.
Ownership and funding
Frontier is published by Boomerang Media Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-registered company.
Our reporting is funded through a range of sources. Initially Frontier adopted an ad-based revenue model, but declining advertising revenues in the media industry prompted us to soon begin exploring alternative sources.
We have since shifted to a membership model, in which users fund the majority of our operating expenses. You can read more about our membership programme here.
Our ambition is to fund all of our journalism through reader revenue, but in the meantime we also receive support from a number of donors.
In 2017 we received a grant from the Embassy of the Netherlands in Myanmar to produce a human rights-themed podcast, Doh Athan, in partnership with a Swiss NGO, Fondation Hirondelle.
Two additional grants, from Google News Initiative and International Media Support, supported the development of our membership programme. We have also received assistance from the International Center for Journalists, Luminate and other organisations that support independent media.
Contacts
Letters to the editor, op-eds and freelance submissions
Please send all submissions to editorial@frontiermm.serioustec.com
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