AS the media industry grows in Myanmar so too have the number of women who have taken positions as reporters and editors at newspapers and journals in Yangon.

Nowadays local publications are filled with stories written by female journalists but 40 years ago traveling the country in pursuit of news was seen as work unfit for a woman.

Despite the perceived unsuitability of the profession for women back then, Daw Kywe Kywe started working as a journalist and editor for Lan Sin Party magazine in 1970 and stayed there for the next 25 years.

“When I was 38 I decided to become a journalist because I liked writing articles and novels and I wanted to educate people with my pen,” said the pioneering writer, now 75 years old.

“Before I worked as a journalist I had been a staff member at the Ministry of Commerce and I had also been a teacher. They were both great jobs as far as future potential but I didn’t feel like I found the right career until I became a journalist,” she said.

Although she loved her work, Daw Kywe Kywe said that as the married mother of three children she faced many social obstacles that she would not have encountered as a teacher.

“My family and relatives severely criticized me because as a journalist I often had to travel with male photographers to cover stories. I eventually had to divorce my husband because of this,” she said.

She said she “passed many years with tears” and often questioned the wisdom of pursuing journalism as a career.

“Although I felt pain in my heart, I worked with the confidence that I was a good reporter,” she said. “And when I had to travel with a photographer for a week to write a story we knew that as Buddhists we could uphold our moral standards.”
She said her main news rounds at Lan Sin Party were agriculture, fisheries and forestry, with health and education as secondary rounds.

Daw Kywe Kywe said that to be a good journalist she felt compelled to read widely and learn everything she could about her rounds.

“At the same time we need to be mature and humble,” she said with a big smile on her face, obviously relishing the chance to talk about the career she loved.

“I was always lucky in my career because I was able to pick up good news stories by chance just by talking to people,” she said.

Now retired from her work at the magazine, Daw Kywe Kywe lives with her only daughter in Yangon’s North Dagon township and spends her time writing novels and stories.

She said she welcomed the opening of Myanmar’s first degree program in journalism next year. The three-year program will be offered at Botahtaung College as a collaborative effort between the ministries of Information and Education.

“It is a good idea because young people will get the chance to study under experienced journalists,” she said, adding that she thought learning from older generations was important because contemporary newspapers were not as satisfying to read as they had been in the past.

“There are many publications on the market now but I don’t like them very much because the stories are brief and don’t provide enough information,” she said.

Daw Kywe Kywe also offered some words of advice of her own for young journalists.

“Reporters must love and work for the good of their country and its people. They must be clever in the way they present information so it is not biased,” she said.