Thiha Saw giving talk alongside British ambassador to Myanmar. PHOTO/FACEBOOK
Less than a year after being hired as editorial director at the Myanmar Times, veteran journalist and prominent media figure U Thiha Saw has quit under somewhat unclear circumstances.
Two days ago he posted a copy of this May 29 resignation email to CEO Tony Child on his Facebook page:
Dear Tony,
I hereby tender my resignation from the position as the editorial director with the Myanmar Consolidated Media Ltd.
I know that the resignation would not take effect until a month after my submission, so I’ll still be around and may take leave occasionally during the month of June.
With the publishing and printing licenses under my name, I’ll talk with the officials from the Ministry of Information to change these licensee name to whoever the MCM [Myanmar Consolidated Media, the company the owns the paper] assigns.
It’s been a pleasure and honor to work with you and I hope you’ll be able to lead the company to more success.
Best Regards,
Thiha Saw
On Thursday he requested the transfer of the licenses referred to in the letter, posting a copy of the documents on Facebook.
When contacted for comment on Friday, Thiha Saw declined to go into detail but said he would be having a press conference in the near future to explain why he resigned.
CEO Tony Child told Coconuts Yangon in an email there was no such thing as a disagreeable “split” between the paper and editorial director.
“Thiha resigned for personal reasons which have nothing to do with Myanmar Times. We are extremely sorry to see him go, and his contribution will be sorely missed. We are intending to hold a farewell well [sic] party when he leaves at the end of the month,” he said.
When Thiha Saw was hired last year, the paper ran an in-house article in July with the headline: “Veteran editor takes up senior post with the Myanmar Times.”
Indeed, Thiha Saw is a veteran. He has decades of experience in Myanmar’s journalism scene and actively participates in industry events. He was often sought out to explain the lay of the land in Myanmar to outsiders (for instance, he took celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain to a tea shop in Yangon, where they ate mohinga). In March, he spoke as a panelist about hate speech at the International Press Institute’s World Congress in Yangon.
Before coming to the Myanmar Times, he launched the Myanma Freedom Daily in 2013, the first private English-language paper to emerge in the post-junta era. But he struggled to keep it financially afloat in a challenging industry, and he sold it to Myanmar Consolidated Media, then joined the team as editorial director. He was there for its transition to a daily edition on March 9.
