Club Online Zoom Event: On the Frontline in Myanmar – A Conversation with Frontier Myanmar CEO Sonny Swe

ONLINE ZOOM EVENT On the Frontline in Myanmar – A Conversation with Frontier Myanmar CEO Sonny Swe

SPEAKER SONNY SWE Publisher, Frontier Myanmar Thursday, April 15, 2021 8:00pm HKT on Zoom

Myanmar’s military seized power on February 1, deposing the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and detaining those in her government and scores of others. It has claimed – without evidence – that an election won by Suu Kyi’s party in November was fraudulent. Now, a brutal crackdown grinds on across the country, and the journalists of Frontier Myanmar are on the frontlines – capturing the anti-coup protests and the deadly clashes with security forces. A selection of images from their photojournalists is currently on display at the FCC in an exhibition titled “Amid Myanmar’s Brutal Crackdown, a Bold Movement Emerges.” In this Zoom event, Frontier Myanmar co-founder and publisher Sonny Swe will talk about the events of the last three months and the importance – and danger – of documenting the coup and its aftermath. Moderated by FCC Correspondent Governor Shibani Mahtani.

Sonny Swe is a pioneer in Myanmar’s media industry with more than 20 years of experience. He is the publisher of weekly magazine Frontier Myanmar, which he co-founded in 2015 and was one one of the first privately-funded English language news publications to open in Myanmar since the government of Thein Sein abolished the country’s repressive censorship regime in 2012. In 2000, Swe co-founded The Myanmar Times, the first Myanmar-foreign joint venture in the country’s media industry. He was imprisoned for his work at the newspaper from 2004 to 2013 after the purge of junta-era Prime Minister Khin Nyunt.