''Frontier Myanmar'' ( my, ဖရန်တီးယားမြန်မာ) is a news and business magazine published in

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

, owned by Black Knight Media Co. Ltd which also runs a content marketing agency called Black Knight Media Group. It operates an English language magazine, an English language website, and a Burmese language website. Frontier Myanmar mainly focuses on local politics and business.

Background

''Frontier'' was established by Sonny Swe, a cofounder of ''

The Myanmar Times ''The Myanmar Times'' ( ), founded in 2000, is the oldest privately owned and operated English-language newspaper in Myanmar. A division of Myanmar Consolidated Media Co., Ltd. (MCM), ''The Myanmar Times'' published weekly English and Burmese-lan ...

'' and the son of a former

Military Intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from ...

officer, who was jailed for his work at the newspaper from 2004 to 2013 after the purge of junta-era Prime Minister

Khin Nyunt General Khin Nyunt (; ; born 23 October 1939) is a Burmese military officer and politician. He held the office of Chief of Intelligence and was Prime Minister of Myanmar from 25 August 2003 until 18 October 2004. Early life and education Kh ...

. Prior to ''Frontier'', Sonny Swe was an investor in Mizzima Media Group alongside business magnate

Serge Pun Serge Pun ( my, သိမ်းဝေ, Theim Wai; ; born 1953 in Rangoon, Burma) is a Burmese businessman of Burmese-Chinese descent. He is the founder of Serge Pun & Associates (Myanmar) Ltd., Serge Pun & Associates (Hong Kong) Ltd., First Myan ...

, but both men withdrew from the board in January 2015 citing financial pressures and management conflict with managing director Soe Myint. Launched in July 2015, ''Frontier'' is one of the first privately funded English language news publications to open in Myanmar since the government of

Thein Sein Thein Sein ( my, သိန်းစိန်; IPA: ; born 20 April 1944) is a Burmese politician and retired general in the Myanmar Army who served as the eighth President of Myanmar from 2011 to 2016. He previously served as Prime Minister ...

abolished the country's repressive censorship regime in 2012. Along with Mizzima, it is one of only two English language news weeklies in Myanmar. Many of ''Frontier’s'' staff have been drawn from other prominent news organisations in Myanmar, including ''The Myanmar Times'', ''

The Irrawaddy ''The Irrawaddy'' () is a news website by the Irrawaddy Publishing Group (IPG), founded in 1990 by Burmese exiles living in Thailand. From its inception, ''The Irrawaddy'' has taken an independent stance on Burmese politics. As a publication p ...

'', Mizzima and

7Day News ''7 Days News'' ( my, ၇ ရက် နေ့စဉ်သတင်းစာ) is a private weekly newspaper published in Burma. it was one of the best selling journals in Myanmar. It was suspended for one week for publishing front-page news on Aung ...

. Thomas Kean, the magazine's editor-in-chief, was previously editor of ''The Myanmar Times'' from 2010–2016. The publication has received numerous regional awards, including a Human Rights Press Award and a Society of Publishers in Asia Award.

Myitsone Dam

In July 2016, ''Frontier'' ran an editorial by Joern Kristensen, a development consultant and former member of the

Mekong River Commission The Mekong River Commission (MRC) is an "...inter-governmental organisation that works directly with the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam to jointly manage the shared water resources and the sustainable development of the Meko ...

, suggesting that the government of

Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Myanm ...

cancel the controversial and widely unpopular China-backed

Myitsone Dam The Myitsone Dam ( my, မြစ်ဆုံ တာတမံ ; 'Confluence Dam') is a large dam and hydroelectric power development project which was planned to be built in northern Myanmar (also known as Burma). The proposed construction site i ...

project in Myanmar's north. Later that month, the government-run

Kyemon ''Kyemon'' ( my, ကြေးမုံ; also known as Kyaymon) (''The Mirror'') is a state-owned Burmese language daily newspaper based in Yangon, Myanmar. Along with ''Myanmar Alin'', Kyemon is one of two Burmese language national newspapers in t ...

newspaper endorsed Kristensen's proposal and called for a "permanent suspension" of the project, in the first clear indication that the government was considering a cancellation of the $800 million dam since it took office that March.

Danny Fenster

Danny Fenster is an American reporter who joined ''Frontier Myanmar'' in August 2020. After the

2021 Myanmar coup d'état A coup d'état in Myanmar began on the morning of 1 February 2021, when democratically elected members of the country's ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were deposed by the Tatmadaw—Myanmar's military—which then ve ...

Fenster was detained by authorities on 24 May 2021. Fenster was charged with two crimes, was convicted, and was sentenced to 11 years in jail in November 2021, before he was released to return to the U.S.

References

External links

''Frontier Myanmar'' (English edition)

''Frontier Myanmar'' (Burmese edition)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frontier Burmese magazines Burmese news websites

Background

Myitsone Dam

Danny Fenster

See also

References

External links