San San Nweh ( my, စမ်းစမ်းနွဲ့ (or) စမ်းစမ်းနွဲ့ (သာယာဝတီ), ; or San San Nwe) is a Burmese

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

. She was jailed for nearly seven years (1994–2001) by the Burmese military junta for her "anti-government intentions". San San Nweh was awarded the 2001 Golden Pen of Freedom, along with

Win Tin Win Tin ( my, ဝင်းတင်, , 12 March 1929 – 21 April 2014) was a Burmese journalist, politician and political prisoner. He co-founded the National League for Democracy (NLD). He was imprisoned by the military government for 19 years ( ...

, in recognition of "their outstanding services to the cause of press freedom" in

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

Biography

San San Nweh was born on in August 1945 in Tharrawaddy,

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

(now Myanmar). One of the first Burmese women to complete journalism training, San San Nweh was editor of two journals--''Gita Padetha'' and ''Einmet-Hpu''. Since 1974 she has published a dozen novels, over 500 short stories and about 100 poems. Her books include ''Alone in the Wind and the Rain'', ''Only a Folding Umbrella'', and ''Prison of Darkness''.Wan - San San Nweh, Burma
/ref> On 6 October 1994, San San Nweh was arrested, together with her daughter, and found guilty of "publishing information harmful to the state" with a view to "fomenting disorder". She was sentenced to seven years in jail, the maximum provided by the emergency law, and then to a further three years for "giving biased viewpoints" to French journalists in April 1993. She was also accused of "providing information about the human rights situation to the United Nations' Special Rapporteur for Burma". San San Nweh suffered various health problems during her time in prison. Amnesty International named her a prisoner of conscience and campaigned for her release. After serving seven years of her ten-year prison sentence, San San Nweh was released in July 2001 from

Insein Prison Insein Prison ( my, အင်းစိန်ထောင်) is located in Yangon Division, near Yangon (Rangoon), the old capital of Myanmar (formerly Burma). From 1988 to 2011 it was run by the military junta of Myanmar, named the State Law an ...

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

but has not been allowed to leave Myanmar. San San Nweh has won numerous awards for her work, including a

PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award Awards presented by the PEN American Center (today PEN America) that are no longer active. The awards are among many PEN awards sponsored by International PEN in over 145 PEN centres around the world. The PEN American Center awards have been ...

in 1995 and a Reporters Without Borders-

Fondation de France The Fondation de France ("Foundation of France") is an independent administrative agency which was established by the French government in an effort to stimulate and foster the growth of private philanthropy and private foundations in France.Fon ...

Prize in 1999. In 2001, she and

were jointly awarded the

World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award The Golden Pen of Freedom Award is an annual international journalism award established in 1961, given by the World Association of Newspapers to individuals or organisations. The stated purpose of the award is "to recognise the outstanding action, i ...

References

External links

San San Nweh (World Association of Newspapers)
{{authority control 1945 births Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Myanmar Burmese journalists Burmese women journalists Burmese writers Living people People from Bago Region Burmese prisoners and detainees