San San Nweh

San San Nweh

"Dissident writer San San Nweh, 57, was editor of two journals ­ Gita Ppade-tha and Einmet-hpu ­ and is a novelist and poet.

"She was imprisoned for ten years in August 1994 for "anti-government reports" to French journalists and for "providing information about the human rights situation to the UN special rapporteur for Burma.""

"Well-known French TV journalist Christine Ockrent has presented Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi with the 1999 Reporters Without Borders / Fondation de France Prize to pass on to winner San San Nweh.

"Ockrent, who is also a member of the board of Reporters Without Borders, handed over the prize at a meeting on 31 December 2002 at the opposition politician’s home in Rangoon, where they discussed the fate of other journalists imprisoned in the country, including 73-year-old Win Tin, who has been in jail for the past 13 years."

"The World Association of Newspapers has awarded its annual press freedom prize, the 2001 Golden Pen of Freedom, to imprisoned Burmese journalists San San Nweh and U Win Tin in recognition of their outstanding services to the cause of press freedom."

"Burmese journalist, San San Nweh, was released from prison yesterday, June 18, 2001 along with ten other members of the National League for Democracy (NLD)."

She writes that "In the years 1988 and 1989, just before U Win Tin was imprisoned, I had a close friendship with him, while he was Secretary of the National League for Democracy. I worked as a member of the Divisional Organizing Committee and an executive member of the Central Intellectual Group."


 * Winner of the 1999 Reporters Sans Frontieres-Fondation de France prize
 * Winner of 2001 HRW Hellman-Hammett Grant