Saw Cha Toe
Saw Cha Toe, who reports under the byline Saw Yan Naing, covers Myanmar's civil conflict, human rights and ethnic minority politics. He built his foundation at The Irrawaddy as a senior reporter from 2007 to early 2017, working around censorship, surveillance and the dangers of field reporting.
He freelanced for the Bangkok Post from 2010 to 2016 and was a senior journalist at BBC Burmese from 2017 to early 2020. His work has also appeared in Asia Democracy Chronicles and the Global Investigative Journalism Network, where he has written on press freedom and citizen journalism.
His fellowships include the Southeast Asian Press Alliance in 2010, the Jefferson Fellowship at the East-West Center in 2014 and the Alfred Friendly Press Partners Fellowship in 2015. He was also recognized for courageous journalism by Power Mentor and the Philippine Press Institute.
After the 2021 coup pushed many journalists into exile, he founded Salween Press, a Burmese-language outlet anchored on Facebook and social video that now draws roughly 3 million views a month.