U Thaung
| U Thaung | |
|---|---|
| Native name | ဦးသောင်း |
| Born |
Aung Bala 4 October 1926 Nyaung Oo, British Burma |
| Died | 3 April 2008 (aged 81) Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States |
| Nationality | Burmese |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Known for | Founder of Kyemon newspaper |
| Spouse(s) | Tin Tin Win |
| Children | Five |
| Parent(s) | Tha Phan Ok |
| Awards | World Press Freedom Heroes |
U Thaung (born as "Aung Bala", 4 October 1926, Nyaung Oo, Burma; died 3 April 2008, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA) was a Burmese author and journalist. In 1957, he founded the newspaper Kyemon, which quickly became the most popular in Burma. In 2000, he was named one of the International Press Institute's 50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the past half-century.
U Thaung was born "Aung Bala" in Nyaung Oo township, Mandalay Division, to Thar Phan and Daw Oak. He began his literary career with humor writing and plays, entering journalism in 1947 with the Yangon-based newspaper The Burma Times. Within four years, at the age of 25, he had become the newspaper's editor-in-chief.
In 1957, he founded his own independent daily, which he titled Kyemon (English: "The Mirror"). The paper was an immediate success, and its circulation rose to 55,000 over the next seven years, more than twice the circulation of its next closest competitor.
The following year, following a split in Prime Minister U Nu's Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League, General Ne Win was given control of a two-year caretaker government. The military government immediately began to restrict press freedoms, imprisoning journalists and dissidents.Kyemon was briefly confiscated by the authorities, but returned to U Thaung's control after U Nu's 1960 return to power.
Ne Win took control again, however, in a 1962 coup d'état. For the next two years, Kyemon continued to publish "open criticism" of the military rule of Ne Win's new party, the Burma Socialist Programme Party. In 1964, U Thaung, along with three other editors, was arrested for his writing and imprisoned without charge.Kyemon was nationalized on 1 September 1964, followed by several other papers, marking the end of a free Burmese press for more than fifty years.
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