Nate Thayer is an award-winning freelance investigative journalist and correspondent with 25 years of foreign reporting experience. He has a focus on Asia, and a specialization in modern Cambodian political history. He is a noted expert on the Khmer Rouge and was the first journalist to interview Pol Pot in almost twenty years. He has a current focus on North Korea.
This blog is a work in progress, with a mix of current output and archived published material by Nate Thayer, from over 200 publications and mediums.
Nate Thayer’s reporting has earned him The World Press Award, the British Press Awards Scoop of the Year Award, and the Francis Frost Wood Award for Courage in Journalism, given to a journalist “judged to best exemplify physical or moral courage in the practice of his or her craft.” He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by The Wall Street Journal.
Please feel free to comment, contact Nate Thayer directly at [email protected], via Facebook, Twitter or via this blog. Any criticisms, comments, disputes, corrections, dialogue or other civil communication is encouraged. You Could Check Here Essay Mistakes.
Hi, Nate. I nominated you for the Liebster Award. Check out this post for more information: http://bit.ly/12IAHGY.
Hi Nate,
Really enjoy your blog and it’s championing of freelance journalism. I’ve been the victim of the “we don’t need to pay you for this content” line on far too many occasions and your blog resonates strongly with me. On that note I think you certainly deserve an inspiring blogger award 🙂
http://czechingoutofhere.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/yikes/
Hi there, I really enjoy your work, so I’ve nominated you for a Liebster 🙂
http://idiotwithcamera.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/day-23-moi/
cc to you, Nate.
(This to Seth MydanNYTimes)
Excellent article today, as always.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/world/asia/cambodia-khmer-rouge-united-nations-tribunal.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fasia
Heder and Chandler are really the last word in deep Cambodian analysis, and you and Nate Thayer always nail it. I’m a big fan of his also. Goodness – the man palled around with Pol Pot!
His stuff on North Korea is also excellent.
Today you write “The government includes several former members of the Khmer Rouge, including Mr. Hun Sen himself, and it has been careful to protect its own. In addition to trying to limit the number of defendants, it has denied access to potential witnesses who now hold influential government positions.”
This is really the crux of the matter – a part I didn’t get near, but it is so important – the Hun Sen factor.
I’ve been reading your stuff for years now. Congratulations on the prize by the way (though it is probably rusty now!)
You and nate inspired me. I have a background as a Wall St’er and atty and in the last year I’ve started writing. Quite successfully b/c as well as themoderatevoice, alternet, and a bunch of other places, I write for Forbes now – my “swim lane” is 3rd world politics.
In fact, I wrote this about the tribunal last year – it got a lot of pick up and play. I think you’ll appreciate it.
The hidden risk of slaying Cambodian monsters
http://themoderatevoice.com/221848-2/
by David Anderson Late last month the International Court in Cambo…
and this
https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2017/03/06/useful-idiots-tourism-in-north-korea/#645a867a7dcd
In the era of fake news its people like you (and me now!) who are responsible for the truth.
My next piece (in Forbes) is on Zimbabwe.
best regards,
David Anderson, J.D.
NYC
(following is my brief bio, older articles attached)
https://davidandersonweb.wordpress.com/about/
Nate, I visited Cambodia some years ago and found your work informative and powerful at the time. I read another piece on Cambodia just recently and was inspired to Google your name and see what you’ve been writing in the last few years. Only then did I discover the story of how you were ripped off by the corporate media. I had no idea what you were going through just a few short years ago when I was devouring your Pol Pot articles. Such a shame — but my hat is off to you for going public with the story. I know it’s no consolation, but your dedication and courage will be historic.
Hi Nate. I manage a radio station in Phnom Penh and have just returned from a trip back in time to to Anlong Veng and Choam and also Osmach. I really think you should re-write Sympathy for The Devil as a screen-play, purely from the perspective of a journalist following his passion, who gets crushed and cheated by a big US media giant (you dont have to specify ABC by name). I think it would be a great movie. Its the closing chapter to Pol Pot and the KR, seen through your eyes and experiences. But of course, the KR live on in the Hun Sen GOVT and Pol Pot lives on in his daughter who married a couple of years ago to obtain a degree of legitimacy. Pan might be interested. I know him via LinkedIn. Let me know if you are coming back to your old stomping ground. Its changed a great deal in appearance. Similar to you, I have written a non-fiction book about being a starving freelancer while running around with the KNU in Burma. Paid peanuts while risking my life for an adventure and story I was obsessed with. Then I went back home, dead broke, and joined the Army as a propaganda officer and found myself in Iraq making TV commercials. Cheers.