Fondation Hirondelle and Frontier Myanmar have been collaborating since 2017 to produce and broadcast Doh Athan (“Our Voices”), a podcast focused on human rights issues. It is produced by a team of six, as well as reporters and media partners from different states, regions and ethnic groups in Myanmar.
Frontier Myanmar is an award-winning news website on Myanmar. It was one of the first media outlets to develop a paid membership model, working towards financial sustainability and building community with the public. Following the 2021 coup, most Frontier Myanmar and Doh Athan staff were relocated to Thailand.
Key Figures 2023
55 podcasts in Burmese,
31 in English
15 hours of broadcasts
+ 123,000 social network users
17 media professionals trained
Financial Volume
239,946 CHF
Sources of Funding
• Switzerland (SDC Programme contribution)
• UNDP
• Fondation Alfred et Eugénie Baur
• Büchi Foundation
• Temperatio-Stiftung
ESSENTIAL COVERAGE OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN MYANMAR
Myanmar’s fragile democratic experiment was shattered by a military coup in February 2021. Since then, over 26,000 people have been arrested by the junta and more than 4,700 killed. Armed resistance has spread throughout the country, displacing over 2 million people. Journalists are at great risk inside the country. The public has become more reluctant to talk to the media.
Against this difficult backdrop, in 2023 Doh Athan produced human rights podcasts not only in Burmese, but now also in English. The team regularly produces and publishes videos in both languages. ‘Doh Athan Doh Talk’, a discussion podcast with experts, academics and activists was launched. Its aim is to offer the Burmese public balanced debates on human rights issues, more in-depth and with more analysis than can be provided in other programmes. Doh Athan has also produced special reports (interviews, mini-videos, etc.) to mark certain dates, such as Human Rights Day, six years after the atrocities committed against the Rohingya and their exodus to Bangladesh.
We make our voices heard, and so does Doh Athan. We’re not a media company, so we can’t produce a good podcast, but we feel that Doh Athan does that for us.
Nang Moet Moet, General Secretary of the Women’s League of Burma
Podcasts and videos are broadcast on social networks (Facebook, YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify) as well as on partner websites and social media. The number of subscribers on Facebook and YouTube more than doubled in 2023. Podcasts are also broadcast on shortwave and FM by our partner Voice of America.
In 2023, Doh Athan worked with five local media partners and six freelancers, supporting them in their reporting and paying them for their work. This helps support Myanmar’s media, improve their skills and offer the public reports from different parts of the country. Webinars on human rights and discrimination have also been organized with these partners.