 |
Richard Lloyd Parry (born 1969) is a British foreign correspondent and writer. He is the Asia Editor of The Times of London, based in Tokyo, and is the author of the non-fiction books In the Time of Madness, People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman, and Ghosts of the Tsunami .
He was born in Southport, Lancashire, and was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby and Oxford University. His interest in the Far East was sparked by a trip to Japan in 1986 that was awarded to him as a prize when he appeared on the UK TV quiz show Blockbusters .
In 1995, he became Tokyo correspondent of the British newspaper The Independent and began reporting from other countries in Asia. In 1998 he covered the fall of President Suharto in Indonesia, and the violence which followed the independence referendum in East Timor. In 2002, he moved to The Times. Altogether he has worked in twenty-seven countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Kosovo and Macedonia. [1]
While covering the aftermath of the invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001, he recovered a pair of Osama bin-Laden's underpants from a residential compound near the city of Jalalabad. [2] The following month he was one of a small group of reporters to travel to the village of Kama Ado, south of Jalalabad, which had been destroyed, along with its inhabitants, by a US Air Force attack – despite claims by the Pentagon that "nothing happened". [3] His report was the inspiration for a song by the American singer-songwriter David Rovics. [4]
In April 2003, he was the first to report that the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch, the US soldier reportedly rescued during the war against Saddam Hussein in Iraq, was not the heroic story told by the US military, but a staged operation that alarmed patients and the doctors who had struggled to save her life. [5]
In November 2009, he was accused by a group of Thai politicians of the crime of lèse-majesté , or insulting the monarchy, over an interview which he conducted with the deposed Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra. [6]
In September 2010, he and David McNeill of The Independent were briefly arrested in North Korea, after discovering a secret street market in the capital Pyongyang. [7] The incident inspired a controversy on the website NK News. Lloyd Parry defended McNeill and himself from accusations that they misrepresented the situation in North Korea and put their local guides at risk of punishment. [8]
In an article for The Times in November 2024 Lloyd Parry described eating dog meat in South Korea. “Eating bosintang is an interesting and unexpected experience. Boiled in a steaming pot filled with cabbage and fiery condiments, it is a surprisingly light meat, slightly fatty in the way of lamb and tasting a bit like brisket.”
Parry has published three non-fiction books:
Lloyd Parry also contributes a weblog to The Times website, entitled Asia Exile.
The politics of Thailand are conducted within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, whereby the prime minister is the head of government and a hereditary monarch is head of state. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislative branches.
Bhumibol Adulyadej, on whom the title of Bhumibol the Great was posthumously conferred, was the ninth king of the Chakri dynasty of Thailand, titled Rama IX, from 1946 until his death in 2016. His reign of 70 years and 126 days is the longest of any Thai monarch, the longest on record of any independent Asian sovereign, and the third-longest verified reign of any monarch of a sovereign state in history.
Thaksin Shinawatra is a Thai politician and businessman who served as the 23rd prime minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006.
Miura is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.
Sulak Sivaraksa is a Thai social activist, professor, writer and the founder and director of the Thai NGO "Sathirakoses-Nagapradeepa Foundation", named after two authorities on Thai culture, Sathirakoses and Nagapradeepa. He initiated a number of social, humanitarian, ecological and spiritual movements and organizations in Thailand, such as the College SEM.
Sondhi Limthongkul is a Thai media proprietor, conspiracy theorist, pro-Beijing anti-democracy reactionary activist, demagogue, and leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD). He was elected leader of the New Politics Party (NPP).
In 2005 and 2006, a series of events occurred in Thailand as a result of public anger with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra that was supported by Sondhi Limthongkul and his coalitions. It led a military coup that concluded in the overthrow of the Thai Rak Thai government in September 2006, the flight of Thaksin after the court verdict, and the establishment of the junta government led by Surayud Chulanont, a favourite of privy councillor and senior statesman Prem Tinsulanonda.
Censorship in Thailand involves the strict control of political news under successive governments, including by harassment and manipulation.
The Council for National Security (Thai: คณะมนตรีความมั่นคงแห่งชาติ; RTGS: Khana Montri Khwam Man Khong Haeng Chat; abbreviated CNS, was the military junta that ruled Thailand between its coup d'état against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on 19 September 2006 until the later coup d'état on 22 May 2014. Thaksin was deposed while overseas in New York City in a nonviolent coup led by Royal Thai Army Commander General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, one of Thailand's top military commanders. Martial law was declared on 19 September by General Sonthi, who stated that the action was taken in an effort to "bring back normality and harmony" and with the intent to "return power to the Thai people as soon as possible." This sentiment was echoed by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who subsequently appointed General Sonthi to lead the governing council.
Surayud Chulanont is a Thai politician. He was the prime minister of Thailand and head of Thailand's interim government between 2006 and 2008. He is a former supreme commander of the Royal Thai Army and is currently Privy Councilor to King Vajiralongkorn.
Joji Obara, born Kim Sung-jong is a Korean-Japanese serial rapist who raped between 150 and 400 women between 1992 and 2000. He was charged with drugging, raping and killing an English woman, Lucie Blackman; the rape and manslaughter of an Australian woman, Carita Ridgway; and the rape of eight other women.
Klong Prem Central prison is a maximum security prison in Chatuchak District, Bangkok, Thailand. The prison has several separate sections. The compound houses up to 20,000 inmates. Within the perimeter of the compound are the Women's Central Prison, often referred to as "Lat Yao" or "Lat Yao women's prison". There is the Central Correction Institution for Drug Addicts, Bangkok Special Prison, and the Central Correctional Hospital. The Lat Yao men's section takes custody of male offenders whose sentence term is not over 25 years. As of 2002 the men's section held 1,158 foreigners from 56 countries out of a total of 7,218 prisoners. It is a part of the Thai Department of Corrections.
Evan Alan Wright was an American writer, known for his reporting on subcultures for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. He was best known for his book on the Iraq War, Generation Kill (2004). He also wrote an exposé about a top CIA officer who allegedly worked as a Mafia hitman, How to Get Away with Murder in America (2012).
Thaksin Shinawatra was the 23rd prime minister of Thailand.
In Thailand, lèse-majesté is a crime according to Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code, which makes it illegal to defame, insult, or threaten the king of Thailand, the queen of Thailand, the heir to the throne of Thailand, or the regent of Thailand. Modern Thai lèse-majesté law has been on the statute books since 1908. Thailand is the only constitutional monarchy to have strengthened its lèse-majesté law since the Second World War. With penalties ranging from three to fifteen years imprisonment for each count, it has been described as the "world's harshest lèse majesté law" and "possibly the strictest criminal-defamation law anywhere". Its enforcement has been described as being "in the interest of the palace".
Somyot Prueksakasemsuk is a Thai activist and magazine editor who in 2013 was sentenced to eleven years' imprisonment for lese majeste against King Bhumibol Adulyadej. His sentence drew protest from the European Union and from numerous human rights groups, including Amnesty International, which designated him a prisoner of conscience. He was an editor of the “Voice of Thaksin” magazine and a prominent labour rights activist affiliated with the Democratic Alliance of Trade Unions who protested for Thai labour law reform.
The history of Thailand since 2001 has been dominated by the politics surrounding the rise and fall from power of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and subsequent conflicts, first between his supporters and opponents, then over the rising military influence in politics. Thaksin and his Thai Rak Thai Party came to power in 2001 and became very popular among the electorate, especially rural voters. Opponents, however, criticized his authoritarian style and accused him of corruption. Thaksin was deposed in a coup d'état in 2006, and Thailand became embroiled in continuing rounds of political crisis involving elections won by Thaksin's supporters, massive anti-government protests by multiple factions, removals of prime ministers and disbanding of political parties by the judiciary, and two military coups.
Ghosts Of The Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone is a 2017 non-fiction book written by Richard Lloyd Parry, an English reporter who lived in Japan and reported about events there for years before the 2011 Japanese tsunami, in particular, the fatal decision-making leading to the drowning of the 74 students and 10 teachers of Ogawa Elementary School (石巻市立大川小学校). In this book, Parry examines and recounts the devastating impact of the 2011 tsunami on Japanese survivors, communities and society at large, including years later. "It's a...chronicle of a disaster that, six years later, still seems incomprehensible."
Arnon Nampa is a Thai lawyer and activist known for his critical stance on theon the Thai monarchy, a highly controversial topic in the country. Initially celebrated as a leading human rights defender, Nampa's involvement in pro-democracy movements has led to numerous criminal charges. He became a key figure in the 2020–2021 Thai protests, advocating for unprecedented reforms to the monarchy led by non-elite groups.
Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Japanese Woman and Her World is a biographical book by Amy Stanley which was published on July 14, 2020 by Charles Scribner's Sons.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
