Native name | မြန်မာနောင်း |
|---|---|
| Industry | News agency |
| Founded | August 2015; 10 years ago (August 2015) |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Myanmar |
Key people | Swe Win, Editor-in-Chief |
Number of employees | 30 (2019) |
| Website | www |
Myanmar Now (Burmese:မြန်မာနောင်း) is anews agency based inMyanmar (Burma).Myanmar Now journalists publish bilingualBurmese andEnglish articles on an eponymous online news portal. The agency provides free syndication throughout the country, with a distribution network of over 50 national and local media outlets that regularly republish its stories.[1] As of September 2019[update],Myanmar Now had a readership of over 350,000, and a team of 30 journalists.[2] The news service is noted for its in-depth reporting on high-impact issues, includingcorruption,child labor,human rights, andsocial justice.[3][4]
Myanmar Now was established by theThomson Reuters Foundation in 2015 to support in-depth independent journalism, in the lead-up to the2015 Myanmar general election.[1] The news service officially launched in August of that year.[5] The agency is led bySwe Win, its chief correspondent andeditor-in-chief.[1] Its founding chief correspondent was Thin Lei Win, aReuters journalist.[6] Since the inception of the news service, severalMyanmar Now journalists, including Swe Win, have been threatened and assaulted by military and legal authorities for their work.[7][8][9]
After the2021 Myanmar coup d'état, the military junta cracked down on independent journalism in the country.[10] Authorities detainedMyanmar Now journalists, including Kay Zone Nwe.[11][10] On 8 March 2021, soldiers raided theMyanmar Now headquarters, before the military junta revoked operating licenses ofMyanmar Now and four other media outlets, namelyMizzima,Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB),Khit Thit Media, and7Day News, amidst theongoing protests.[12]
In 2016, Htet Khaung Lin, aMyanmar Now journalist, was awarded the European Commission'sLorenzo Natali Media Prize, for a piece on underage sex workers in Myanmar.[1][13]
That same year, it received an honorable mention in the Society of Publishers in Asia Awards for investigative reporting, namely a piece on the969 Movement.[14][1]
In 2019, Swe Win won theRamon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, for his leadership in fostering journalistic integrity and quality in Myanmar asMyanmar Now's editor-in-chief.[3][15]
In a group with other collaborating news organizations,Myanmar Now was awarded anOnline Journalism Award for "2020 Excellence in Collaboration and Partnerships", specifically for reporting onpangolins.[16]
In June 2022,Frontier Myanmar won the SOPA Award for Excellence in Human Rights Reporting for "Human responses to the junta's cruelty."[17]
Myanmar Now has been widely cited by international media outlets such as theBBC,Reuters, andThe Guardian for its independent investigations into human rights abuses and corruption in Myanmar. The news agency and its journalists have received several prestigious international awards recognizing their courage and commitment to press freedom and investigative reporting.
In 2016, Myanmar Now reporter Htet Khaung Lin won theLorenzo Natali Media Prize awarded by the European Commission for a report on underage sex workers in Myanmar.[18]
In 2020, Myanmar Now, in collaboration with international partners, won anOnline Journalism Award in the category of "Excellence in Collaboration and Partnerships" for cross-border reporting on wildlife trafficking involving pangolins.[19]
In 2021, Myanmar Now’s editor-in-chief, Swe Win, received theShorenstein Journalism Award from Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) for his leadership in advancing press freedom and accountability journalism in Myanmar.[20]
In 2022, Myanmar Now won theSOPA Award for Excellence in Human Rights Reporting (regional level) for its coverage of human rights abuses following the 2021 military coup.[21]
In 2023, Myanmar Now received theFree Media Pioneer Award jointly presented by theInternational Press Institute (IPI) andInternational Media Support (IMS), recognizing its “courageous commitment to independent investigative journalism” despite severe repression under Myanmar’s military regime.[22]
