| T oday, we stand at a precarious moment in history. Myanmar is going through turbulent times, including a terrible civil war, and our reporters have been digging up facts to keep our audience inside and outside of the country informed. Without facts, we cannot know the truth. This presents a daily challenge for our journalists, and creates a daily burden for the people of Myanmar, who are deprived of reliable information. Part of our job is to protect the free press and promote democracy in Myanmar—it is our mission. For us, the battle for truth is waged from exile. The physical hardship of forced displacement—of being separated from our homes—is compounded by the military regime's relentless campaign to create an information vacuum. The intention is to silence us, but it has only fortified our mission. The true weapon of the authoritarian regime is not just the gun, but the lie, amplified by disinformation campaigns. We refuse to let our people be consumed by these engineered falsehoods. Every verified report we publish is a direct counter-offensive against this campaign. As global attention shifts, funding for exiled and independent media shrinks, even as the operational costs of maintaining security, circumventing censorship and conducting clandestine reporting rise. The lack of commercial revenue from our country leaves us wholly dependent on the support and commitment of those who believe in our cause. This is part of the regime's strategy: weaken the messenger, and the message dies. Despite the cost, we remain fiercely committed to information integrity. This means doing the essential, dangerous work: verifying the human toll of the conflict and exposing corruption and atrocities, while also covering important stories such as the spread of scam centers and the trade in rare-earth minerals. We provide our citizens with the impartial facts they need to make informed choices about their future. To maintain and promote press freedom and democracy in Myanmar is to ensure that the regime does not win the final battle—the battle for reality itself. We know that silence is consent, and our mission is to ensure that the stories of our people—the suffering, the resistance and the hope—are never silenced. To our readers who risk so much to access our work, and to our donors and subscribers, whose support is literally the oxygen that allows us to operate: We owe you our deep appreciation and our solemn pledge. You are not just supporters; you are the co-architects of a future free and democratic Myanmar. Every contribution is an investment in the facts, and every share of our work is an act of defiance against censorship. | 
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