In Myanmar, a country in South -Eastern Asia, in which a military dictatorship, armed resistance and natural disasters participate, is not just a principle, but also an elixir of life. And for millions of people, this still happens through a modest electronic device: radio.
In the southeastern Asian Myanmar, a military coup of February 1, 2021 stopped the process of democratic reform. Since then, producing opposition groups have fought against the Russian language.
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While at the international level, the country is almost not reported in the country, and the Protecting Broadcaster of Myanmar fights for survival, in remote and declared regions more and more often cuts off residents of the only reliable source of information that they still had: the power source is unstable, the Internet is blocked by military and telephone lines regularly interrupted. Then the radio remains the only functioning channel for vital information.
The urgency of maintaining these rescue lines has only grown from the moment Donald Trump’s budget is strongly reduced for the media in the region financed by American services. Trump collected American assistance in the development of 2025, including support for independent media, for $ 39 million.
They had a direct impact on radio stations in Myanmar. Burmesian programs “Voices of America” (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) were discontinued. RFA had to dismiss 90 percent of their employees, almost all employees were on vacation in VOA.
This led to the collapse of critical services Junta Voa, RFA and the democratic voice of Burma (DVB Radio). These were not only media programs. For many in Myanmar, they were the only reliable sources of information in a country where disinformation can be fatal, and official propaganda dominates the media.
The right to information
“Firstly, people in Myanmar lost their right to information,” says former RFA journalist Het Ning Zau, who is now reported by the BBC. “RFA and Voa were not only radio stations – it was a channel through which people even learned what happened in the most remote areas.”
Ai Chan Nain, the founder and editor -in the course of DVB -radio, says: “Trump has reduced budgets, which may not be very important in some countries, but this is destructive for Birma. He remembers how DVB reporters had to work for several days to be able to transfer reports after the 2021 military coup. “In the Rakhain Internet area, it was already blocked before the coup. Then the junta expanded the blockade to Kachin, the chin and other regions. This generally complicated the dissemination of information. ”
In the mountain border regions and dense jungle of Myanmar, the supply of electricity is unreliable or does not exist at all. Mobile phone masts are often exploded or sabotaged. And the mode regularly reduces Internet access. For interested radio communities, not just an alternative is the only environment that is still working.
In the camps of refugees and the jungle themselves, where people live without access to electricity and rely on small batteries or solar batteries, portable radio receivers using only two AA batteries. “When international broadcasters hired their work, it was as if the country was plunging into the darkness,” says Het Ning Zau.
“People in the country and in ethnic regions depend on the radio, not only on news, but also on education, disasters and health tips.” Now these communities not only threaten drawings, but also by the fact that they are completely cut off with information that they need for vital solutions. Silence on the air is not only political – it is personal and potentially fatal.
Send from bunkers
Several independent media that are close to the resistance movement often tried to fill the vacuum under the great personnel and financial risks that arose from the end of VOA and RFA at the beginning of the year. The federal FM, which began after the revolution, sends independent news, security warnings and educational content in at least 20 cities, as well as in ethnic languages, such as Karen, Kachin and Shang. “Even if we have to dig a bunker to protect ourselves from air strikes, we will continue to send,” says the founder of the television company, Tint Zaw Hein.
Radio Nug, founded in August 2021 by the Government of the National Unit (NUG, democratic confrontation to the government underground), sends two half an hour of a short wave program every day, and also publishes online content through YouTube and podcast. The broadcaster offers everything, from security tips in military zones to updates to livelihood and political comments.
“Radio Nug is not only a counter-government language pipe is also the voices and emotions of those who are faced with military government,” said Maung Yit, the head of the Radio Nug program. In the program, the broadcaster has the content of the movement of civil disobedience (CDM) or from writers and journalists who demonstrate solidarity with people affected by the war. “Missed broadcasting programs are a serious problem in the country in which access to the Internet, electricity and communication channels are often interrupted,” says the program manager. “In this vacuum, Radio Nug sends a short wave for 30 minutes every morning and evening.”
But, like many others, Radio Nug does not receive regular financial support from foreign governments or other international donors. “We rely on public donations and internal fundraising. Our work became possible thanks to the adherence of employees, volunteers and journalists from home and abroad, ”Maung Iit said.
Local
Mizzima Radio continues its unilateral Burmezian short gearbox every day. “He covers the whole country. But we had to stop the FM broadcasts in the regions. In the past, we had broadcasters in Chin, Shang, Karennie, ”said the founder of East Min. Others, such as the Voice of Spring (VOS) and some stations of ethnic minorities, are sent in local languages and offer regional security warnings and survival.
Despite the fact that the RFA and VOA programs were installed, their content continues to circulate unofficially-via USB-tits, mobile memory maps and the exchange of Bluetooth and form an underground knowledge network in the country that crave truths. These radio programs not only provide information. They lead, protect and associate communities in resistance. They offer information about the fight against mines, caring for wounds, avoiding air strikes and survival.
The international community and especially the EU countries, such as Germany, should recognize this crisis as it is: not only the problem of the freedom of the press, but also the humanitarian emergency.
Radio stations, portable recipients, solar energy batteries, FM equipment and basic training courses for civilian journalists are urgently needed. These modest interventions can lead to a real, immediate difference in communities -tournaments throughout Myanmar. Each euro for the radio infrastructure helps today to deal with misinformation, save life and protect democratic values. Silence, on the other hand, is that tyrants are building the most. In view of oppression, a small radio can be louder than any weapon.
Kyaw Min Swe He was an editor -in the course of the newspaper Voice and Chairman of the Press Council in Myanmar until 2021. He was already imprisoned for two months under the government Aung San Su Suzh in 2017 from the satire about the military. In 2023, he was in prison for three months, because he blamed his profile on Facebook in protest against the destructive air raid in the village. At the end of 2023, his family managed to escape to Thailand and lives in Berlin since the summer of 2024.
