Myanmar Media Historically and the Challenges of Transition 35 Private Media The country has seven private national dailies: 7Day, Daily Eleven, The Voice Daily, two editions of The Myanmar Times (English language and Myanmar language), The Standard Time Daily and Democracy Today. Daily Eleven is part of the Eleven Media Group established by Than Htut Aung in 2000. The group began by publishing sports journals and, since 2005, newsweeklies and bi-weeklies. It was one of the first media outlets to publish a daily, in May 2013 (Meston 2013). The 7Day daily and weekly publications are owned by Thaung Su Nyein through his media company Information Matrix Co Ltd, which started with a magazine on information technology and now includes a series of popular journals. He is the son of Win Aung, the late foreign minister (BBC 2013). The Voice Daily is part of the stable of publications owned by the Myanmar Partners Think Tank Group affiliated with the development organization Myanmar Egress, which first published the Living Color business magazine in 1995. The Voice Weekly was launched in 2004 and began publishing a daily in 2015. Myanmar Egress founding member, the late Nay Win Maung, was the son of a military officer and was known to be close to the lower house chairman Shwe Mann. He later, however, handed over Living Color magazine to Ye Naing Win, whose father is the ex-military intelligence chief General Khin Nyunt (Aung Din 2011).16 Set up in 2000 by Australian Ross Dunkley and Sonny Swe, The Myanmar Times has had various owners with military and government connections. It has also had a tumultuous history, with both its founders serving stints in prison. In February 2014, business tycoon Thein Tun, widely known as the man who brought Pepsi to Myanmar, became the majority shareholder of the company (Mizzima 2014). From the start the company was perceived as pro-establishment, and at times pro-junta, due to its connections with prominent figures in the government. But under the junta it also faced tremendous pressure and censorship (Gleeson 2017). Since Sonny Swe’s release from prison in 2013, he has had an active presence in the media sector; first as deputy CEO of Myanmar Consolidated Media Ltd, the owner and operator of The Myanmar Times, then as CEO of Mizzima and majority shareholder, and now as founder and CEO of Black Knight Media, the owner of Frontier Media. Frontier has steadily become one of the 01 ch1-MyanmarMediaIT-5P.indd 35 8/4/19 10:29 am