Luke Hunt

Last updated

Luke Anthony Hunt (born 2 July 1962) is an Australian journalist, war correspondent and academic.

Contents

Biography

Hunt was born in Caulfield, Victoria, to Winifred Monica Hunt (nee Hayes) and Brian James Hunt, in 1962. He attended Mazenod College and Deakin University, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and a Masters of Arts in defence, and was named editor of the student newspaper Planet.

Hunt was hired by the Australian Associated Press (AAP) as a cadet and moved quickly through the ranks in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra before joining Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Hong Kong, where he covered the end of the British empire and was dispatched to Afghanistan as bureau chief during Taliban rule. [1]

Hunt covered Taliban offensives in 1997 and 1998, launched against Ahmad Shah Masood and his Northern Alliance. While there he was charged with espionage and told by Taliban Information Minister Mutmaeen Mutawakkil he would "be executed on the football pitch" in Kabul. However, Hunt was found not guilty in a Sharia court after a lengthy interrogation and was later commended by the United Nations special envoy Lahkdar Brahimi for the 'best and most insightful' coverage of the civil war. [2]

He returned to cover the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks and was embedded with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Forces during the invasion of Iraq where he rose in prominence with his coverage for AFP and CNN as marines crossed the Diyala River and entered Baghdad. He was embedded with the 101st Airborne Division on a second tour later the same year. [3]

Asked in Kuwait why the US was invading Iraq, Hunt replied: "There's beer in Baghdad" amid a gaggle of war correspondents. "It became a battle cry for reporters sent to this dusty, alcohol-free region so far from home." [4]

Hunt has covered the Indian/Pakistan conflict over Kashmir, the Sri Lankan civil war and the border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, which erupted at Preah Vihear in early 2008 when Hunt became a freelancer. [3] He has also covered the ongoing running Khmer Rouge Tribunal since its inception.

Luke Hunt pictured in Phnom Penh, 2019 LHWIKIPHOTO.jpg
Luke Hunt pictured in Phnom Penh, 2019

He has since written for Time magazine, Far East Economic Review, The Times of London, The Economist , [5] The New York Times , [6] The Associated Press , The Washington Times and The Age in Melbourne. [1]

Hunt has maintained a sharp focus on Indochina since arriving in Vietnam as the Cold War was ending. His exclusive interviews with Gen. Pham Xuan An, Gen. Tran Van Tra, Tran Bach Dang and Khieu Samphan led to the publication of his second book The Punji Trap. [7]

However, it was his experience in Afghanistan that enabled him to specialise in counter-terrorism and jihadi groups, like Jemaah Islamiyah, in Southeast Asia spending four years based out of Malaysian Borneo and a further seven years working from Cambodia.

In Phnom Penh, Hunt was appointed as an academic program professor by Pannasastra University where he wrote the course War, Media and International Relations. He writes regularly about Southeast Asian affairs for UCAsia News and The Diplomat, [8] reports for Voice of America [9] and AAP, and is a regular on radio in Australia and Hong Kong.[ citation needed ]

Hunt is a former president and life member of the Overseas Press Club of Cambodia. [10] He is also a founding member of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Malaysia and a former board member of the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong. [11]

In his work for The Diplomat, Hunt hosts a semi-regular podcast where he talks to journalists, academics and Southeast Asian specialists. [12]

Awards

Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phnom Penh</span> Capital and largest city of Cambodia

Phnom Penh is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, industrial, and cultural centre. Before Phnom Penh became capital city, Oudong was the capital of the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cambodia</span> Country in Southeast Asia

Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Mainland Southeast Asia, spanning an area of 181,035 square kilometres, bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, Vietnam to the east, and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest. The capital and most populous city is Phnom Penh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foreign Correspondents' Club, Phnom Penh</span> Public bar and restaurant in Cambodia

The Foreign Correspondents' Club in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, is a public bar and restaurant along the Tonle Sap river, not far from the confluence with the Mekong river. It is often referred to as 'the FCC,' or just simply 'the F.' It is in a three-story colonial-style building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sydney Schanberg</span> American journalist

Sydney Hillel Schanberg was an American journalist who was best known for his coverage of the war in Cambodia. He was the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, two George Polk awards, two Overseas Press Club awards, and the Sigma Delta Chi prize for distinguished journalism. Schanberg was portrayed by Sam Waterston in the 1984 film The Killing Fields based on the experiences of Schanberg and the Cambodian journalist Dith Pran in Cambodia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phnom Penh International Airport</span> Primary airport serving Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Phnom Penh International Airport is the busiest airport in Cambodia and serves as the country's main international gateway. It is Cambodia's second largest airport by area after the new Siem Reap–Angkor International Airport. It is located in the Pou Senchey District, 10 kilometres (5.4 NM) west of Phnom Penh, the nation's capital. Phnom Penh airport's former name was Pochentong International Airport. .

Foreign Correspondents' Club is a group of clubs for foreign correspondents and other journalists. Some clubs are members only, and some are open to the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teng Bunma</span> Cambodian tycoon

Teng Bunma, also written as Teng Boonma, Theng Boonma, and Theng Bunma, was one of the wealthiest businessmen in Cambodia. He was one the founders of Thai Boon Roong Group and, along with Sok Kong and Meng Retthy, he was well known as one of the “four tigers” of the Cambodian economy after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, between the 1980s-2000s.

The Cambodia Daily is a US-based English and Khmer language news site that evolved from a newspaper of the same name that stopped publishing in Cambodia in 2017 due to a tax dispute with the government then led by Hun Sen.

<i>The Phnom Penh Post</i> English-language daily newspaper in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, established 1992

The Phnom Penh Post is a daily English-language newspaper published in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Founded in 1992 by publisher Michael Hayes and Kathleen O'Keefe, it is Cambodia's oldest English-language newspaper and prior to the transferring of ownership, was considered to be one of Cambodia's newspaper of record. The paper was initially published fortnightly as a full-color tabloid; in 2008 it increased frequency to daily publication and redesigned the format as a Berliner. The Phnom Penh Post is also available in Khmer. It previously published a weekend magazine, 7Days, in its Friday edition. Since July 2014, it has published a weekly edition on Saturdays called Post Weekend, which was folded into the paper as a Friday supplement in 2017 and was discontinued in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate Webb</span> Australian journalist (1943–2007)

Kate Webb was a New Zealand-born Australian war correspondent for UPI and Agence France-Presse. She earned a reputation for dogged and fearless reporting throughout the Vietnam War, and at one point she was held prisoner for weeks by North Vietnamese troops. After the war, she continued to report from global hotspots including Iraq during the Gulf War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sylvana Foa</span> American journalist

Sylvana Foa is a former American journalist and public affairs specialist. She was the first woman to serve as the foreign editor of a major international news organisation, the first woman to serve as a news director of an American television network and the first woman to serve as spokesperson for the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Martin Stuart-Fox is a retired Australian professor and foreign correspondent who writes about the history, politics and international relations of Southeast Asia, primarily Laos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sihanoukville (city)</span> City in Preah Sihanouk Province, Cambodia

Sihanoukville, also known as Kampong Saom, is a coastal city in Cambodia and the capital of Preah Sihanouk Province, at the tip of an elevated peninsula in the country's south-west on the Gulf of Thailand. The city has a string of beaches along its entire coastline and coastal marshlands bordering Ream National Park in the east. The city has one navigable river, the mangrove-lined Ou Trojak Jet, running from Otres Pagoda to the sea at Otres. A number of thinly inhabited islands, under Sihanoukville's administration, are near the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tilman Baumgärtel</span> German journalist, author

Tilman Baumgärtel is a German author, media theorist, curator and journalist. He is currently professor of media theory at the University of Applied Sciences, Mainz.

Coconuts Tabloid Media is a multi-national media company across Hong Kong that publishes a network of local city websites and documentary videos online. The company serves ten cities and countries across South East Asia, namely Bangkok, Manila, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bali and Yangon, covering local news and cultural trends. Coconuts Media is using social media and video platforms to increase its reach. In addition to English, the company produces content in Thai and Bahasa Indonesia.

Vandy Rattana is a photographer and artist, now resident in Taiwan, whose work is concerned with Cambodian society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NagaCorp</span> Cambodian gaming and hospitality company

NagaCorp Ltd. is a Hong Kong-listed hotel, gaming and leisure company. Its Cambodian property, NagaWorld, is the country's largest hotel and gaming resort, and is Phnom Penh's only integrated hotel-casino entertainment complex. NagaCorp holds a 70-year casino licence in Cambodia which runs until 2065, and has a monopoly within a 200-kilometre (120 mi) radius of Phnom Penh until 2045.

You Khin was a Cambodian architect and artist. He graduated from the Royal University of Fine Arts in 1973, and left Cambodia prior to the Khmer Rouge evacuation of Phnom Penh. Over the next two decades, he practised architecture in France, Sudan, Qatar and the United Kingdom. You Khin returned to Cambodia in 2003 with his wife Muoy where they founded a Montessori school for disadvantaged children and a guesthouse to help support it. His mixed media paintings are of the impressionist style and have been exhibited in the US, Sudan, the UK and Cambodia. The You Khin Memorial Women's Art Prize was established by the United States Embassy in Cambodia and JavaArts

The Ho Chi Minh City–Phnom Penh railway is a proposed railway between Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The railway is envisioned to complete the missing link on the eastern line of the Kunming–Singapore railway.

Oknha Ly Yong Phat is a Sino-Cambodian senator and businessman. He owns LYP Group, a major conglomerate in Cambodia, with interests in tobacco, electricity, casinos and tourism. He has a major business presence in Koh Kong province, where he was born. Yong Phat's businesses have been linked to numerous controversies, including the use of child labour, cyber scam fraud factories, and forced land evictions. On 6 December 2022, he was appointed as prime minister Hun Sen's personal advisor.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Luke Hunt". BOMBORRA. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  2. ↑ "Luke Hunt". The Diplomat. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  3. 1 2 Alexander, Deepa (17 December 2018). "Postcards from the edge". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  4. ↑ "Taste of War, Taste of Beer, Taste of Home". Bomborra. 16 April 2003. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  5. ↑ "Strongman of Cambodia". The Economist. 8 June 2012. ISSN   0013-0613 . Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  6. ↑ "Luke Hunt - Latitude Blog - The New York Times". 20 November 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  7. ↑ "The Punji Trap amazon - Google Search". www.google.com. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  8. ↑ "Luke Hunt". The Diplomat. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  9. ↑ "Luke Hunt - VOA Author Bio". VOA Cambodia. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  10. ↑ "The Board". Overseas Press Club of Cambodia. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  11. ↑ "Foreign press clubs feel the pinch". La Croix International . 20 December 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  12. ↑ Luke Hunt. "The Trouble with Tourism in Southeast Asia". The Diplomat. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  13. ↑ "Post brings WAN-IFRA gold home". Phnom Penh Post. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  14. ↑ "The 19th Human Rights Press Awards – Winners and Merits". 國際特赦組織香港分會 Amnesty International Hong Kong. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  15. ↑ "Post brings WAN-IFRA gold home". Phnom Penh Post. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  16. ↑ Hunt, Luke; Heinrich, Karen (1996). Barings Lost. Butterworth-Heinemann Asia. ISBN   9810068026.
  17. ↑ "The Punji Trap amazon - Google Search". www.google.com. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.