What we’re about
The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand hosts a variety of events which encourage conversation on tough topics. Our clubhouse hosts panel discussions and book launches on events in Thailand and throughout the region, where both members and non-members come to engage in stimulating conversations and meet interesting people. Come join us!
The FCCT is not just for correspondents - in fact, most of our members are not news people. For more than 60 years, the FCCT has played a vanguard role as the ASEAN region's most active press club. The Club advocates press freedom as a cornerstone of civil society in emerging democracies and is a vital venue for an open exchange of information.
A past FCCT president even came up with the slogan, "You don't have to be foreign and you don't have to be a correspondent". We are a very diverse club and welcome all.
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Dateline -- SaigonForeign Correspondents Club, Khet Pathum Wan
# Documentary screening with producer and director Thomas D. Herman
[Members free, non-members 300 baht; students with ID, 150 baht.]
“If the government is telling the truth, reporters become a minor, relatively unimportant conduit to what is happening. But when the government doesn’t tell the truth, begins to twist the truth, hide the truth, then the journalist becomes involuntarily infinitely more important.” -- David Halberstam, The New York Times, in Dateline-Saigon
Southeast Asia. 1960's. Flash point of the Cold War. The award-winning documentary Dateline-Saigon tells the inspiring story of a small group of young journalists -- David Halberstam, Neil Sheehan, Malcolm Browne, Peter Arnett and the great photojournalist Horst Faas.
During the early years of the Vietnam War -- even as their own governments sought to discredit them – these journalists reported truth on the ground vastly different from the rosy White House version, and all won Pulitzers.
Dateline-Saigon is a distant mirror to a present-day drama: the determination of courageous citizens to speak truth to power and hold government to account. Narrated by Sam Waterston and produced and directed by Thomas D. Herman, the film combines the drama and high stakes of All the President's Men with the romance and danger of The Year of Living Dangerously.
This documentary is the third of three FCCT programmes marking the 50th anniversary of the fall of Indochina to communism in April 1975. Director Thomas D. Herman will be joining remotely from Boston.
Members who wish to book in advance should email info@fccthai.com or call the FCCT office on 02-652-0580.
Non-members can use this link.
- Policies and patterns: State-abetted transnational crime in Cambodia as a globalForeign Correspondents Club, Khet Pathum Wan
[Members free, non-members 200 baht. Non-members can use this link.]
Southeast Asia’s transnational cybercriminal industry is perhaps the most significant economic force in the entire Mekong sub-region -- equivalent to 40% or more of the GDP in the primary host countries, according to recent information from the US Institute for Peace. At the same time, the syndicates and their opaque transnational linkages are amassing even more dangerous political power. Local elites across the region are implicated neck deep and in certain contexts the industry appears “too big to fail”. Such dominance and global reach by a single criminal economy is virtually unprecedented -- generating a vast array of stability and security risks and earning its label as “the most powerful criminal network of the modern era”.
This event profiles a new US government-funded study (Policies and Patterns: State-abetted Transnational Crime in Cambodia) that exposes this new global security threat which is centered in Cambodia. Drawing on scholarly/policy literature, open-source data, and over 50 interviews with experts, journalists, diplomats and survivors, the report explores how Cambodia’s state-crime nexus has incubated the perfect conditions for scam syndicates to emerge and thrive -- and why conventional diplomatic and reform-seeking interventions are failing to stop them.
Following a presentation by study author Jacob Sims, a panel of other leading regional experts will reflect on the implications of this new data on Cambodia, recent regional trends, and the stark implications for concerned governments, multilateral bodies and the private sector.
Panel:Jacob Sims, visiting fellow, Asia center, Harvard University.
Lindsey Kennedy, research director, Eyewitness Project.
Mark Taylor, former chief of party, counter-trafficking project (Cambodia), Winrock International.
Jason Tower, regional transnational crime expert.
Moderator: Phil Robertson, director, Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates, and FCCT board member.
Members who wish to book in advance should email info@fccthai.com or call the FCCT office on 02-652-0580.
- FCCT pub triviaForeign Correspondents Club, Khet Pathum Wan
Gather your friends and colleagues for a night of pub trivia at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand.
Come for a bite and a beverage and test your knowledge. 1,000 baht bar tab up for grabs for the winning team, to be redeemed on the night.
Advanced table bookings encouraged here.
- Progress on the charge of genocide against IsraelForeign Correspondents Club, Khet Pathum Wan
After Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, the subsequent devastation of Gaza and tremendous loss of Palestinian lives stunned the world.
In December 2023, the Republic of South Africa took Israel to the International Court of Justice, and in January 2024 the court passed an interim ruling that there was a plausible case to answer for genocide. Fifteen months later, Israel continues to exact terrible retribution with major materiel support from the U.S.
In pursuit of justice, a group of like-minded states came together to defend the Palestinians. The Hague Group -- Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa -- has expressed its intent to hold Israel to account through the court.
The South African ambassador to Thailand and other diplomatic representatives from the Hague Group will provide an update on the progress of the charge of genocide against Israel at the ICJ.
Speakers:HE Darkey Ephraim Africa, ambassador to Thailand of the Republic of South Africa.
Representatives from the embassies of other members of the Hague Group.
Abou Jahjah, chairman, Hind Rajab Foundation.
Lieutenant General Dr Somchai Virunhapol, advisor and former Chair, PSC Thailand.
Moderator: Assistant Professor Nick Ferriman, Mahidol University International College.
This is not an FCCT event and is being organized by Palestine Solidarity Campaign Thailand.
Bar and restaurant open. Free and open to all.
