Swe Win

Ko Swe Win (Burmese: ဆွေဝင်း; born c. 1978) is a Burmese journalist based in Australia.[1] He currently serves as the chief correspondent and editor-in-chief of Myanmar Now, a news service.[2] He is currently the director of MYANMAR NOW LTD (ABN 69 653 161 838) [1] and MYANMAR NOW MEDIA PTY LTD (ABN 81 647 592 354).[1]

In this Burmese name, Ko is an honorific, not a given name.
In this Burmese name, the given name is Swe Win. There is no family name.
Ko

Swe Win
ဆွေဝင်း
Bornc. 1978 (1978) (age 45)
Rangoon, Burma
(now Yangon, Myanmar)
NationalityBurmese
OccupationJournalist
Years active2009-present

Early life and education

Swe Win was born to a poor family in Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar) c. 1978.[3] In 1998, he was arrested as a university student, for participating in a student protest in opposition to the military junta, the State Peace and Development Council.[3] Swe Win was imprisoned for 21 years, and was released under a general amnesty in 2005.[4] It was in prison that he began to practice mettā meditation; later on, he would add structure to his practice by participating in meditation retreats in the S. N. Goenka tradition.[5]

Career

Upon his release, he pursued academic studies in journalism, completing an online undergraduate program and completing a master's degree in journalism at the University of Hong Kong in 2009.[3] He joined The Irrawaddy, ultimately becoming a senior reporter there.[6] With the onset of the 2011–2015 Myanmar political reforms, he returned to Yangon in 2012.[3] He freelanced for Al Jazeera and New York Times, and set up a short-lived, self-financed internet news service.[3]

In 2015, Swe Win co-founded the news service Myanmar Now, with support from the Thomson Reuters Foundation.[7] Also, he founded MYANMAR NOW MEDIA PTY LTD on 3 February 2021, Victoria, Australia.[1] He co-founded a charity organisation with AUNG SHIN and PHYO THIHA CHO on 26 August 2021.[1]

In September 2016, he received President's Certificate of Honour from Myanmar's Ministry of Information for an investigative expose on 2 teenage maids abused by their employers in a Yangon tailor shop.[6]

Under Swe Win's leadership, Myanmar Now aggressively reported and investigated the 2017 assassination of Ko Ni, Aung San Suu Kyi's legal advisor, which made him the subject of legal backlash from authorities, and death threats from Burmese nationalists.[8] In March 2017, he was assaulted in Sanchaung Township, Yangon, en route home.[9] In March 2017, he was arrested and charged under Article 66(d) of the Myanmar's Telecommunications Law for a Facebook post critical of U Wirathu, a Buddhist monk known for his anti-Muslim rhetoric, specifically for defaming Wirathu.[10][11][12] The lawsuit originated from a Patriotic Association of Myanmar supporter of Wirathu.[10] His trial in Mandalay began on 30 July 2017, and Swe Win requested the trial be dropped as the plaintiff's witnesses had repeatedly not shown up for the trial.[13] The case was dropped on 2 July 2019.[14]

In August 2019, Swe Win won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, for his leadership in fostering journalistic integrity and quality in Myanmar, becoming the youngest awardee in the award's history.[15][16]

On 31 December 2019, Swe Win suffered a gunshot wound while vacationing in Gwa, Myanmar, in a targeted attack.[17] As of December 2020, the assailants remain unidentified, and the government's official investigation have not been publicly disclosed.[18]

In 2021, he received the 2021 Shorenstein Journalism Award from Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.[19]

See also

References
  1. "ABN Lookup". abr.business.gov.au. 2014-11-01. Retrieved 2022-10-07.
  2. "Myanmar Now". Thomson Reuters Foundation. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  3. "Ko Swe Win". The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation. 2019.
  4. Win, Swe (2013-07-24). "Back to Jail in Burma". Latitude. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  5. "Episode 8: Swe Win". 15 April 2020.
  6. "Ko Swe Win". Front Line Defenders. 2017-08-02. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  7. "Journalist's truth mission gives voice to Myanmar's voiceless". international.la-croix.com. 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  8. "Myanmar's Other Reporters". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  9. "Myanmar Now Journalist Assaulted". The Irrawaddy. 2017-03-15. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  10. "Myanmar Journalist Detained For 'Defaming' Anti-Muslim Monk". Time. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  11. Reed, John (2018-02-22). "Hate speech, atrocities and fake news: the crisis in Myanmar". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  12. "Nationalists Subject Journalist to Devastating Legal Ordeal". The Irrawaddy. 2019-01-17. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  13. "Dismissal of Lawsuit Against Myanmar Now Editor Requested". The Irrawaddy. 2019-06-17. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  14. "Lawsuit Against Myanmar Now Editor Dropped After 2 Years". The Irrawaddy. 2019-07-02. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  15. "'Truth, justice, love': Ko Swe Win on journalism in times of repression". Rappler. 11 September 2019. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  16. "Myanmar Now Editor-in-Chief Awarded Asia's Highest Honor". The Irrawaddy. 2019-08-02. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  17. "Investigation into shooting attack on Myanmar journalist goes nowhere". RSF. 2020-12-02. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  18. "Myanmar Now editor suffered gunshot wound to leg during trip to southern Rakhine last year". Myanmar NOW. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  19. "Swe Win, Editor-in-Chief of Myanmar Now, to Receive 2021 Shorenstein Journalism Award". Stanford Report. 2021-04-29. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
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