Sein Win, force for press freedom in Myanmar who spent much of career with AP, dies at 91

BANGKOK – Sein Win, a Myanmar journalist who championed press freedom and endured three stints in prison as he chronicled several decades of his country's turbulent history, has died at age 91.

His daughter Aye Aye Win said he died Thursday in a Yangon hospital after a long period of ill health.

Sein Win worked for The Associated Press from 1969 to 1989, and earlier was editor and publisher of a newspaper in what was then called Burma. His work won him international honors, but in his own country his accomplishments were rewarded with jail time and a quarter-century ban on foreign travel.

He worked under Japanese occupation, British colonialism, parliamentary democracy and military rule. He lived long enough to see censorship lifted, and this year's return of private daily newspapers.