AFP
YANGON (AFP)--One of Myanmar's most renowned writers and journalists Ludu Daw Amar, an outspoken critic of the military junta, died Monday at the age of 93, her family said.
Ludu Daw Amar died in hospital in the central city of Mandalay, where her family set up the town's first publishing house in the 1940s.
"She died from heart disease at Mandalay General Hospital this morning. We brought her body back to our home," her son Nyi Pu Lay told AFP by phone.
Ludu Daw Amar -- a pen name which means "of the people" -- was a famous figure among reporters and writers in Myanmar, where the media is tightly controlled by the military government.
Her birthday is celebrated with the reverence of a public holiday each year by writers, journalists and artists throughout Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since 1962.
"It is a big loss for us. She was not only a leader for our press society, but also for the people," said a local journalist who did not want to be named.
Ludu Daw Amar's publishing house printed a political journal, the Ludu Daily News, which eventually fell foul of government censors and was shut down in the 1960s.
This did not silence left-leaning Ludu Daw Amar's voice, however, and she carried on giving interviews criticizing junta policy into her old age.
Most recently, she called on the junta to stop using force during a crackdown on street demonstrations in Yangon last year that left at least 31 people dead, the UN estimates, and hundreds detained.
Some journalists were briefly arrested during the protests, but Ludu Daw Amar's age appeared to have protected her from retribution by the junta.
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