Former editor-in-chief defends Frontier’s independence within the face of baseless accusations that the outlet is a part of a nefarious pro-military propaganda operation.
By THOMAS KEAN
Through the years Frontier has put many individuals and organisations underneath the microscope, from politicians and diplomats to companies and organisations. United Nations envoy Christine Schraner Burgener. The Kayin State Border Guard Power. Former parliament speaker Shwe Mann. An arms supplier dwelling in Dubai. I might go on; these are simply a number of the items that instantly spring to thoughts.
We haven’t all the time bought issues proper, however we’ve strived to be truthful and clear in our reporting course of, and open to constructive criticism and complaints. Once we’ve made errors, we’ve owned as much as them. Now we have been – and proceed to be – guided by the general public curiosity, slightly than settling scores.
Over the previous 15 months, we discovered ourselves the topic of an exhaustive – and exhausting – media investigation. In November 2024, Myanmar Now editor-in-chief Swe Win started interviewing present and former workers at Frontier about our possession, operations and editorial processes. Then-CEO Sonny Swe spoke to him off the document, after which supplied prolonged, on-the-record responses to nearly two dozen questions.
The set off for Myanmar Now to look extra intently at Frontier appears to have been the go to of Sonny’s father, former Navy Intelligence official Thein Swe, to China in October 2024. That journey occurred forward of junta chief Senior Common Min Aung Hlaing’s go to to Kunming the next month, and Thein Swe met officers from two Chinese language thinktanks in late October.
We had no prior information of this journey; we first discovered about it from stories in Myanmar-language media shops, and had been as shocked as everybody else. We recognised although that it will most likely increase some considerations about Frontier, given Thein Swe’s historic affiliation with us. So after the go to we printed an announcement explaining our editorial processes and Thein Swe’s previous involvement as a director of its former guardian firm. A number of weeks later, Sonny determined to deliver ahead plans to go away Frontier, out of concern that his presence was harming perceptions of Frontier’s independence.
After Sonny’s resignation and response to Myanmar Now, we heard little concerning the article and thought that maybe it had been shelved. From our standpoint, this could have made sense, as most details about Frontier was already within the public area resulting from our personal disclosures, company information and the reporting of others.
The investigation was apparently nonetheless effervescent away within the background, although. In August 2025, Sonny obtained extra questions, digging primarily into operations at The Myanmar Instances, which Sonny co-founded again in 2000. He was pressured to relinquish his stake when he was arrested in 2004 amid a purge of MI, and sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment for censorship offences.
The Myanmar Now investigation solid a particularly large internet, interviewing many extra present and former workers, together with myself. I’m heartened that so many former colleagues tell us they tried to set the document straight of their interviews.
We don’t have an issue with criticism, a lot much less scrutiny – that will be hypocritical, to say the least. What I discovered regarding although was the lengths to which Myanmar Now gave the impression to be going to attempt to substantiate a selected thesis: that Frontier was arrange with financing from former Navy Intelligence members and/or their associates; that this connection to MI has influenced our work; and that this supposed MI involvement in Frontier is a part of a longer-term propaganda effort in assist of the army regime.
Furthermore, I used to be particularly involved that the publication of Myanmar Now’s piece might doubtlessly put our reporters and freelance contributors at critical threat of reprisals.
We’ve by no means shied away from who our house owners are. Sonny and Sylvia Noticed McKaige began Frontier in 2015. Thein Swe – who was launched from jail in 2014, a yr after Sonny – turned a director of Frontier’s then-parent firm, Black Knight Media Co Ltd, in 2016. He resigned as a director in late 2018 and transferred his shares in early 2019. This data was out there in Myanmar’s company database, and we disclosed it once more the place related, akin to this piece on The Myanmar Instances, which additionally defined Sonny and Thein Swe’s function in that organisation.
Simply as importantly, this possession had no bearing on our reporting. I ought to know: I served as editor-in-chief from Might 2016 – lower than a yr after Frontier launched – to September 2022. When Thein Swe was a director and shareholder, we by no means mentioned editorial issues (or a lot in any respect, for that matter). In truth, it was throughout the interval that Thein Swe was a director and shareholder that Frontier did a number of the work I’m most happy with. We had been, for instance, nearly alone amongst Myanmar media shops in masking the Rohingya disaster in a balanced method – most refused to even use the phrase Rohingya, as an alternative calling them “Bengalis”.
Sonny left newsroom administration as much as the editors; any shortcomings in our protection are subsequently our accountability, not his. Sonny’s important focus was primarily on maintaining Frontier afloat and attempting to offer us the assets we wanted to do our job. There have been occasions once we had been on the verge of closing; a far cry from dwelling off army or crony largesse.
Conversely, I’ve seen what it’s like when house owners do become involved within the newsroom. I joined Frontier from The Myanmar Instances, the place its new proprietor, distinguished businessman U Thein Tun, was more and more intervening in editorial issues, together with firing workers who refused to comply with his diktats. It got here as little shock to me when the newsroom imploded.
In September 2022, I handed over to Ben Dunant however have since remained concerned as a director and minor shareholder. Below Ben’s management, and now that of Thu Thu Aung, I imagine Frontier’s protection has gone from power to power, whilst reporting has turn into tougher and budgets have grown tighter.
The concept that Frontier has been some form of propaganda organ for the army is clearly misplaced. Our document speaks for itself. Through the years we’ve received dozens of awards and honourable mentions from the Society of Publishers in Asia – an unimaginable achievement for a media organisation of our measurement. It was presumably why Swe Win himself got here to satisfy Sonny and I in 2018 to debate a potential partnership with Myanmar Now.
I personally discover it laborious to know how a 15-month investigation into Frontier could possibly be justified given the more and more restricted assets within the sector, with donors pulling out left, proper and centre. Myanmar’s impartial media group is fragile, and once we flip our restricted power on one another – as an alternative of those that jail and silence journalists – all of us lose.
Critics would possibly say that we’ve not been shy about investigating different media shops. Now we have certainly printed options not solely on The Myanmar Instances but in addition Eleven Media and, extra not too long ago, alleged office abuses at Myanmar information organisations in exile. The latter particularly was a narrative that we lined very reluctantly and with nice warning, making an attempt to not single out any organisation or particular person, as we had been aware of how the piece would inevitably be perceived. Most significantly, it was pushed by grassroots considerations from journalists throughout the sector slightly than an editorial agenda – reporters who felt that nobody else would communicate up for them.
We all know that Frontier has all the time been resented by some within the media trade – tolerated however by no means actually accepted. This was primarily due to Sonny’s background, however some had been additionally uncomfortable that lots of its senior editors had been foreigners. Our reporting of the Rohingya disaster and a few of our extra crucial protection of the Nationwide League for Democracy authorities didn’t all the time sit properly with our trade colleagues.
Over the previous yr, we supplied Swe Win with the knowledge that he requested on our house owners and administrators, previous and current, in addition to a lot about our editorial operations. Given Myanmar Now’s personal proud monitor document of impartial reporting, I remained optimistic that if an article finally emerged, it will replicate the truth of what Frontier is and what it does, and never give oxygen to conspiracies that finally undermine not solely Frontier however the trade as a complete, and doubtlessly put our crew in danger.
Sadly, Myanmar Now’s article has contributed to perpetuating an inaccurate picture of what Frontier is and does. However, we imagine that our document speaks for itself – and I’m assured that the crew, underneath the management of present editor-in-chief Thu Thu Aung, will proceed reporting in the identical impartial, clear method we all the time have.
