About Us

Myanmar NOW is an independent news service dedicated to providing accurate and unbiased news about Myanmar in Burmese and English. 

With a mission to expose injustice in society and to hold the powerful to account, Myanmar Now prioritises news that matters most to those who care about the vulnerable and voiceless in society.

Founded in Yangon in 2015 during a period of relative openness in Myanmar, we quickly became known for bold investigative reporting, covering issues such as prison labour camps, ultranationalist monks, and sweetheart deals for businesses with ties to the military.

Following the 2021 military coup, the junta revoked Myanmar Now’s media licence and raided our office, forcing many of our journalists into hiding and later into exile. Despite these challenges, we have continued to operate from Melbourne, Australia, providing essential news to our millions-strong audience daily.

Since the coup and the emergence of the resistance movement, Myanmar has been shrouded in a fog of propaganda and disinformation. Quality reporting is therefore more essential now than ever before. 

For Myanmar to have any prospect of becoming an open, democratic society, both its own people and the international community must have some way of penetrating this fog to understand the current complex and ever-changing situation in the country. 

Our reporting has been cited by leading global news organisations and used by governments, policymakers, and human rights groups. We are proud to be a trusted source of information for the people of Myanmar and others around the world who care about the country.

Please support us to continue our work by subscribing or donating. Your contribution helps us continue our vital work.

Awards and impact

Myanmar Now’s reporting has won several regional and global awards, including the One World Media Award in 2021 and the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award for Excellence in Human Rights Reporting in 2022, 2023, and 2024. 

We also won the 2023 Free Media Pioneer Award from the International Press Institute-International Media Support for our “courageous commitment to independent investigative journalism.”

Myanmar Now’s editor-in-chief, Ko Swe Win, has also been the recipient of a number of major awards. In 2019, he received the Ramon Magsaysay Award — often called the “Nobel Prize of Asia” — for his “undaunted commitment to practice independent, ethical, and socially engaged journalism in Myanmar.”

Ko Swe Win’s work demonstrates the moral force of independent, investigative journalism to speak truth to power

Two years later, he received the 2021 Shorenstein Journalism Award from Stanford University. “His work demonstrates the moral force of independent, investigative journalism to speak truth to power,” Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center director Gi-Wook Shin said in announcing the award.

Myanmar Now’s impact can also be measured in terms of its output and reach, which have grown steadily since its inception. In 2018, we produced an average of 30 stories a month and had a 100,000-strong readership; by 2023, this had increased to 500 stories a month, reaching an audience of more than six million.