Category: FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT
Foreign Correspondent Study Tour: Thailand
In December 2024, 13 UTS journalism students travelled to Thailand as part of the Foreign Correspondent Study Tour, a University of Technology Sydney programme supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s New Colombo Plan, and in association with Chiang Mai University's strategic communications and language schools.
Supported by six students from CMU, the tour was designed to further their journalism skills and tell stories that weren't being told in the Australian media. Students reported from Chiang Mai in northern Thailand and Mae Sai on the Myanmar border. From covering Thai government press conferences to interviewing victims of torture and human trafficking, reporting from flood zones and investigating trans rights and ethical elephant sanctuaries, students produced and published works that included longform stories, video documentaries and podcasts.
While doing so they formed powerful friendships along the way and developed an abiding appreciation and respect for northern Thailand and its people. These are their stories.
Thailand
Latest
This city’s getting the night time economy right, and no, it’s not Sydney
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Revival: Mae Sai emerges from the mud
By Sarah Goff-Tunks, Caitlin Maloney and Jessica O’Bryan For residents of Mae Sai, the...
Thai-EU trade deal may mean cheaper Aussie imports
A free trade agreement between Thailand and the European Union would see new production bases...
The journalists peeling back Myanmar’s iron curtain
Chiang Mai | From the outside, it looks like a regular house in the Thai suburbs, where helmetless...
Torture and abuse in Myanmar’s most infamous prison
Chiang Mai | At first, James* didn’t realise he was wanted for arrest by Myanmar’s junta. He had...
‘Stateless’ Myanmar refugees’ lives in limbo
By Hugh Phillips and Genevieve Blandin de Chalain Chiang Mai | Four years ago on February 1, 2021,...
Kathoey cabaret defies trans backlash
By Jessica O’Bryan and Sarah Goff-Tunks Chiang Mai | Cabaret performers at a northern...
Thai marriage equality law the ‘tip of the iceberg’
By Caitlin Maloney and Jessica O’Bryan Thailand will tomorrow become the first Southeast...
After the flood, a story of hope in Muang Dang Tai
By Esha Kaur Tiwana, Sarah Sunmin Kang, Jatupat Wittayapraparat, Pawika Dhammalongkrot and Patrick...
Historic market survived floods, but still pays a price
By Chatmongkon Luanginta and Chayanit Kosutho Mae Sai | For almost a hundred years Nai Boon Yuen...
Thai PM announces flood help for businesses
By Nathan John Dela Torre Carlos and Pitchaya Wongchitt Mae Sai | Thai businesses affected by...
Mum of three Soso Aye, 44, saw her hut washed away by the flood waters. She waited two days without food or drinking water, sitting atop bales of garlic in the flooded warehouse where she works, before being rescued by the military. She lost all of her belongings, with only her government ID card remaining. As Soso is not a native Thai citizen, she is afraid to ask the Thai government for help rebuilding. Photo: Genevieve Blandin de Chalain.
Pa Yok, 69, a Shan market trader has been selling wares in Nai Boon Yuen market in Mai Sai for 40 years, many of which she makes herself. “I just work and go home and sleep,” laughed the mum-of-four and grandmother of eight. “Family makes me happy. I have everything I want. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke. Just eat. I’m healthy and have never needed to go to hospital.” Photo: Martin Newman
Bangalore’s Drag Race
Bangalore, India has a hidden underground scene. And who runs this scene? Drag Queens. It a place where LGBTQIA+ culture is not always spoken about, Bangalore’s Queens shed light on a taboo topic.
The story was produced by Dana Rutner as part of the UTS Foreign Correspondents Study Tour.
House of Artisans, Tunisia
“Weaving archways create an alluring maze, as the sound of tinkering artisans’ echoes through the hallways.” Toni Ambrogetti explores Tunisia’s Maison de l’Artisanat as part of the Foreign Correspondent Study Tour.
‘Back to basics’ the key to Palawan’s farming future
The use of pesticides and chemicals is common in today’s agriculture sector. But on the Philippine island Palawan, a culture of “back to basics” is gaining momentum.
Stuck in China: COVID-19 leaves students in limbo
Alson Cai was hoping to resume her studies at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), next week. But like so many international students, she’s stuck in China because of the deadly outbreak of coronavirus.
Shot, blinded or beaten: the high cost of protesting in Chile
After just five minutes at a demonstration in his Santiago neighbourhood, Diego Foppiano Jara was shot in the eye with a rubber bullet, leaving him half blind.
Deserted and paralysed: the other side of the Hong Kong protests
Central News reporter Melanie Wong has discovered that away from the globally covered CBD riots and university battlegrounds, Hong Kong’s streets and shopping centres are deserted – and locals are retreating behind closed doors.
On the streets of #ChileEnCrisis
Tys Occhiuzzi returns to the epi-centre of yesterday’s million-strong protest in Santiago Chile.
Chile protests: UTS student captures a country in crisis
A UTS journalism student on exchange in Chile, has captured scenes of a country in crisis.
The basket weavers banking on tradition
The indigenous women of Coron in the Philippines’ northern islands, are adapting to their rapidly changing environment by turning to their past. A shortage of fish – at a time of rising tourist numbers – has...
THE REPORTING TEAM
Left to right, Esha, Sarah, Caitlin, Ike, Guy, Patrick, Emile and Baitong.
Visiting the offices of exiled Myanmar media group Mizzima.
Interviewing recovery volunteers at the site of a house swept away in flood waters on the Thai-Myanmar border.
Ebony and Hugh.
Reporting team and support
Reporters: Esha Tiwana, Sarah Kang, Caitlin Maloney, Ike Morris, Pawika Dhammalongkrot, Patrick Brischetto, Emile Kwasner-Catsi, Jatupat Wittayapraparat, Pitchaya Wongchitt, Jessica O'Bryan, Chatmongkon Luanginta, Chayanit Kosutho, Boom, Sarah Goff-Tunks, Nathan John Dela Torre Carlos, Gabi Ohmer, Hugh Phillips, Genevieve Blandin de Chalain and Ebony Brown.
Students on the Foreign Correspondent Study Tour to Chiang Mai and Mai Sae were accompanied by lecturer and Central News editor Martin Newman. The tour was organised and assisted by Chiang Mai University's Karim Hussain and UTS's Saba Bebawi, Monica Attard, Martin Newman, Simon Watson, Kate Cormie and Macarena Gordillo de Paz. Special thanks to CMU staff who assisted, supervised and wrangled, including Yaowares Jompaeng, Palida Janteenok, Peerasit PK, Papitchaya Mie and Kako Masaki.