{"id":11261,"date":"2024-08-22T11:13:33","date_gmt":"2024-08-22T09:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hirondelle.org\/doh-athan-a-human-rights-podcast-that-continues-even-in-exile"},"modified":"2024-08-22T11:13:33","modified_gmt":"2024-08-22T09:13:33","slug":"doh-athan-a-human-rights-podcast-that-continues-even-in-exile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hirondelle.org\/en\/doh-athan-a-human-rights-podcast-that-continues-even-in-exile","title":{"rendered":"DOH ATHAN: A HUMAN RIGHTS PODCAST THAT CONTINUES, EVEN IN EXILE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zar Ni, is a reporter for Doh Athan\u00a0\u201cOur Voices\u201d, weekly 10-minute\u00a0podcast produced and broadcast by\u00a0Fondation Hirondelle and Frontier\u00a0Myanmar that covers human rights\u00a0issues in Myanmar. After the coup in\u00a02021, the team had to leave the\u00a0country and now operates from\u00a0Thailand.\u00a0<\/strong>This interview is taken from the 13th issue of Mediation, entitled \u2018Structuring exiled journalism in a more authoritarian world\u2019, which you can find here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Doh Athan was initially produced in the country, why did you have to leave?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zar Ni:<\/strong> The turning point was the coup in\u00a0February 2021. At the time, I was already working\u00a0as a reporter for Doh Athan \u201cOur Voices\u201d. Brutality\u00a0struck the nearby media companies. Officers\u00a0arrested, and even raided, those who worked at\u00a0some of these institutions. This coup came with its\u00a0own challenges as well. My family was neighbour\u00a0with a military family and the school across the\u00a0street was filled with soldiers. I could no longer\u00a0work at home, and for several months I worked at\u00a0night, holed up in my father’s office. The situation became increasingly difficult. By continuing my\u00a0work as a reporter, I was putting myself and my\u00a0family at risk. I’ve had to go into exile in Thailand\u00a0with the rest of the staff, like the vast majority of\u00a0Burmese journalists. Most fled after the 2021\u00a0coup.<\/p>\n

You’ve been away from your family for two\u00a0years now. What drives you to continue\u00a0working as a journalist despite the sacrifices?<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the 2021 coup, most of my friends were\u00a0fighting for democracy. At that time, I was\u00a0wondering if journalism was still supporting the\u00a0country. One of my colleagues younger than me,\u00a0not from the journalism field, asked me for an\u00a0interview before my departure. At that time, I\u00a0answered him like this, \u201cI don’t want to work as a\u00a0journalist any more. Are my stories effective for\u00a0the country or not?\u201d He said \u201cSister, you are doing\u00a0a great job, you are writing history.\u201d When I heard\u00a0that, I thought I need to stay as a journalist, write\u00a0history, make sure it’s accurate, not biased.\u00a0Whenever we produce a story it will be accurate\u00a0and not biased and we will record history clearly.\u00a0Starting from that time, I mainly concentrate on\u00a0being an independent journalist, focusing on the\u00a0people.<\/p>\n

What are the main challenges reporting from\u00a0outside?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A challenge of working in exile is trust. Initially, I\u00a0relied mainly on my personal contacts. As time\u00a0goes by, however, my contacts move away or\u00a0become increasingly afraid to talk. Also, I\u00a0sometimes have to hide my profession so as not\u00a0to endanger my family. Today, working for Doh\u00a0Athan is a definite advantage. The broadcast has\u00a0won the \u2018Human Rights Press Award\u2019 which\u00a0inspires confidence. Word of mouth allows us to\u00a0maintain contact with\u00a0the local population,\u00a0including the most\u00a0vulnerable such as the\u00a0Rohingyas. We do the\u00a0best we can, but we\u00a0can’t work the way we\u00a0used to before the coup,\u00a0that’s obvious.<\/p>\n

People in Myanmar mainly use Facebook for\u00a0their information, although YouTube, Telegram\u00a0and radio stations exist as alternatives. Doh Athan\u00a0has around 120,000 Facebook followers. People\u00a0also listen to our show on Voice of America,\u00a0which broadcasts to millions of listeners across\u00a0the country. According to the demographics\u00a0from Facebook, younger people from the city\u00a0typically follow the podcast.<\/p>\n

How do you ensure financial viability and\u00a0sustainability?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Media in exile depend on external funding.\u00a0Unfortunately, this funding is dwindling as\u00a0Myanmar is slowly becoming a forgotten crisis\u00a0and the role of media in conflict prevention is not\u00a0taken seriously. Doh Athan is unique in its\u00a0productions. Where other news outlets tell the\u00a0story of political developments, Doh Athan\u00a0promotes the stories of ordinary people and the\u00a0human rights violations that are worsening each\u00a0year. Programmes like ours can ensure local\u00a0people express their opinions and receive\u00a0information from reliable sources.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zar Ni, is a reporter for Doh Athan\u00a0\u201cOur Voices\u201d, weekly 10-minute\u00a0podcast produced and broadcast by\u00a0Fondation Hirondelle and Frontier\u00a0Myanmar that covers human rights\u00a0issues in Myanmar. After the coup in\u00a02021, the team had to leave the\u00a0country and now operates from\u00a0Thailand.\u00a0This interview is taken from the 13th issue of Mediation, entitled \u2018Structuring exiled journalism in a more authoritarian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":11262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[196],"tags":[239,300],"class_list":["post-11261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-news","tag-how-we-work-information-dialogue","tag-current-project-myanmar"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 01:51:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hirondelle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hirondelle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hirondelle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hirondelle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hirondelle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hirondelle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hirondelle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hirondelle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hirondelle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hirondelle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}