Only Our Voices Left: Myanmar Journalists Across Borders Speak for Truth

Some left to survive. Others stayed to witness. Together, they ensure the story is still told.

For journalists from Myanmar, this is no longer a choice between profession and safety, it is a daily negotiation between survival and responsibility.

As the world marks World Press Freedom Day, the meaning of “press freedom” feels increasingly fragile. Since the political crisis intensified, journalists have faced arrests, surveillance, and the systematic dismantling of independent media. For many, exile became the only way to continue their work and stay alive.

And yet, others have made the decision to remain. 

Whether reporting from the frontlines, or across borders, Myanmar journalists continue to amplify the voices and issues that matter from the ground. 

A Press Silenced at Home

Myanmar’s media landscape has undergone a dramatic collapse. Independent outlets have been shut down, licenses revoked, and journalists detained under sweeping laws.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Myanmar remains one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists. Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders continues to rank the country among the most dangerous environments for media professionals.

Inside the country, reporting the truth can come at the cost of imprisonment or worse.

Reporting from Exile

Across borders journalists continue their work in fragmented, often precarious conditions.

“I am safe now, but I feel disconnected from the ground. Every story takes more effort, more risk.”

Exile reshapes journalism. Reporters rely on underground networks, encrypted communication, and second-hand verification. Distance complicates access, while security concerns remain ever-present.

For many, there is no newsroom, only a camera, a laptop, shared rooms, and unstable internet connections.

And yet, the work continues.

Staying to Report: Journalism on the Frontlines

While many journalists have been forced into exile, others have stayed.

Htet, a critical voices fellow and a  journalist reporting from inside Myanmar, continues his work from within active conflict zones where the risks are immediate and constant.

“If we don’t report from here, the reality on the ground disappears.”

His work unfolds under extreme constraints. The threat of violence or being bombed is never far away. Reporting often requires navigating complex militarized situations and territories, surveillance, and unreliable communication networks.

Yet proximity offers something exile cannot: direct access to unfolding events, communities, and truths that might otherwise go undocumented.

Two Frontlines, One Struggle

Journalists inside Myanmar and those in exile remain deeply connected. Those inside provide firsthand accounts, often at great personal risk. Those in exile amplify, verify, and ensure stories reach global audiences

Mon, an exiled journalised, aged 39, now based in Mae Sot shares, “We rely on each other. Without them, our stories don’t reach the world. Without us, some stories wouldn’t exist.”

Together, they form a distributed newsroom one that operates across borders, under pressure, but with a shared commitment to truth.

Between Survival and Responsibility

Journalists face structural challenges, as well as personal ones. 

Mon added, “Sometimes I feel guilty for leaving. But if I stop reporting, then what was the point of everything we lost. I left my home, the life I have built. But now I don’t want to  leave the story.

Many navigate financial instability, uncertain legal status, and limited access to long-term support systems.

At a time when journalists are silenced, their voices continue to carry across borders.

Through Exile Hub’s “Only My Voice Left” campaign, journalists from Myanmar, both in exile and inside the country, share their stories in their own words. By illuminating struggles of media professionals which are often hidden, these testimonies are themselves  acts of resistance.

Listen to their voices here: Only My Voice Left | Exile Hub 

Each voice is a reminder that behind every headline is a human story of loss, courage, and the determination to continue, as one of the human rights defenders shares, “Even if everything is taken, my voice remains.”

The future remains uncertain. Many journalists do not know when or if they will be able to return home. Others continue working in conditions that shift by the day. And yet, their commitment endures.

On World Press Freedom Day 2026, we call for more than recognition.

We collectively  call for protection for journalists at risk and sustained support for exile and in-country journalists.

Because when journalists are silenced, societies lose more than information; they lose truth, accountability, and the possibility of justice.