The Associated Press (AP) chief of bureau in Myanmar Aye Aye Win, who told her nation’s story to the world despite threats, surveillance and official warnings, retired yesterday after 25 years with the news agency.
Win carried on a legacy begun by her father, U Sein Win, AP’s Myanmar correspondent from 1968 to 1989, who was jailed three times while fighting for press freedoms. Together, their reporting spanned the decades when Myanmar was ruled by the military and its recent transition to civilian authority — changes that brought an end to its isolation, but also saw the army retain great power.
For her perseverance, Aye Aye Win won the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Courage in Journalism Award in 2008. The foundation described her as the “axe-handle of the foreign press” for her efforts in opening the door for more foreign coverage of Myanmar.
“I believe that journalists have to take risks if they are to challenge those who want to silence us from telling the truth,” she said in her acceptance speech. “I have pledged to work as a journalist in my own country ... with a firm belief that a free and independent press is vital to a free society.”
Aye Aye Win began her career as her father’s unpaid apprentice — witnessing firsthand the dedication and fearlessness it takes to report from a country where press freedom is not guaranteed.
“Counting my father’s 20 years with the AP and adding my 25 years, I realized that I have spent more than half my life with AP,” she said. “I have devoted the best years of my life with the agency where I knew and worked with wonderful people and became part of my life.”
While Aye Aye Win, 61, plans to move onto more personal projects, AP vice president of international news John Daniszewski said she would have a lasting impact on international reporting.
“Aye Aye Win has been the very embodiment of journalistic courage, keeping the flame of honest reporting alive during the worst period of military dictatorship in Myanmar,” Daniszewski said.
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