RANGOON — Veteran Burmese journalist Aye Aye Win has announced she will retire this week from The Associated Press after an illustrious 25-year career.
The recipient of four international journalism awards, the 61-year-old announced her retirement on Facebook on Tuesday.
“I want to have my own time. I want to be my own boss,” she told The Irrawaddy.
She added that she would spend her retirement on a personal project involving records left behind by her late father Sein Win, a renowned reporter who championed press freedom in Burma and endured three stints in prison while chronicling several decades of the country’s turbulent history. Sein Win, who died in 2013, was the recipient of the Golden Pen of Freedom award from the International Federation of Newspaper Publishers.
“I have a cupboard-load of documents that he saved, I still don’t have time to browse them. I just want to share with people some interesting information of his life and times,” said Aye Aye Win.
Despite the retirement, she said she has always been proud of pursuing a career in journalism and said she would remain a journalist at heart.
Aye Aye Win received international honors in 2004, 2008 and 2013, including the Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism from the Missouri School of Journalism, for her “life-long dedication to honest and courageous journalism, often at the risk of personal safety.”
