Steven Gan

Steven Gan (; born 1962) is a Malaysian journalist known for co-founding and editing the political news website Malaysiakini (English: "Malaysia Today"), Malaysia's "first and only" independent news source.

Speaking on his childhood in a Malaysiakini interview, he described his father as being "quite dictatorial". He began his journalistic career in print, as a freelancer for a Hong Kong–based newspaper. In 1991, he covered the Gulf War from Baghdad. In 1994, he returned to Malaysia, where he became a reporter for the new Malaysian daily The Sun. There he struggled against both government regulation and the self-censorship of The Sun'''s editors. When Gan's editors refused to publish the story for fear of government reprisal, Gan passed the information to the immigrant rights organisation Tenaganita.

In 1996, Gan was arrested, along with four other reporters, at the 1996 Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor. After his release, he wrote a column protesting his arrest and treatment, but his editors refused to publish it. Gan resigned in protest,

Malaysiakini Though Malaysian law had provided for strict government controls on print media since 1984, the Malaysia Multimedia Super Corridor, an initiative to encourage technological development in Malaysia, was launched in 1995. A founding principle of the project was that government censorship of the Internet would not be permitted. Seeing a loophole, Gan and colleague Premesh Chandran decided to found an online news resource that would be free of the controls placed on print media.

The pair founded Malaysiakini.com in November 1999, with a staff of four other journalists and a starting budget of $100,000. In April 2001, Malaysiakini made news again when it discovered and reported the secret detention of 10 political activists. However, attracting advertising was often a challenge for the website, which Gan blamed on collusion between Malaysian politicians and businesspeople.

Government responses to Malaysiakini Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad described the Malaysiakini staff as "traitors"

On 20 January 2003, police raided the Malaysiakini office and confiscated its servers and 15 newsroom computers, costing an estimated RM150,000 (US$40,000). The website was able to go back online ten hours after the raid.

Awards and recognition Gan was awarded one of the 2000 CPJ International Press Freedom Awards, along with Željko Kopanja of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Modeste Mutinga of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mashallah Shamsolvaezin of Iran. The CPJ describes the award as "an annual recognition of courageous journalism".

In July 2001, Businessweek named Gan one of the "Stars of Asia" in the category "Opinion Shapers". Later that year, Malaysiakini'' won a Free Media Pioneer award from the International Press Institute.