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Mr. Win suffered from respiratory problems and other ailments that largely were left untreated during his 19 years in prison before his release in 2008. He had been one of the worlds longest-detained reporters, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

For Mr. Win, who came of age in Burma under British rule, the urge to dissent was long ingrained in his character. As a teenager, he tried to join Gen. Aung Sans Burmese resistance army but was politely rebuffed by the man who would become a national hero during the independence struggle.

Aung San plainly said, Stick with your studies. There are many people to fight. The time will come for you, Mr. Win once recalled. Aung San, the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, was gunned down shortly before independence was achieved in 1948.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, descended into absolute military rule starting in 1962 and became a pariah state because of the juntas human rights violations and repression of civic society.

Mr. Win served as top editor of the independent Burmese newspaper Hanthawati in Mandalay before dictator Ne Win shuttered it in the late 1970s.

The reason I became a politician is because of military governments, Mr. Win told the Agence France-Presse news service last year. They seized the newspapers and publishing houses. As I have many contacts in politics, I reached into politics.

He became part of the circle of intellectual advisers that coalesced around Suu Kyi, who called for nonviolent resistance and who was embraced as the countrys greatest hope in generations for freedom. Mr. Win was nicknamed Saya, or teacher, an indicator of his esteem in anti-military politics.

The National League for Democracy won an overwhelming victory in the 1990 general election but was not permitted by the junta to govern. The crackdown on NLD leaders had already begun.

Suu Kyi, who spent much of her life abroad before returning to Burma in 1988 to care for her dying mother, was placed under house arrest for much of the period between 1989 to 2010.

Mr. Win was thrown into prison in 1989, having been charged with being a member of the banned Communist Party of Burma.

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