“Reporting Asia: Vietnam”
Featuring Bill Hayton, Associate Fellow, Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House and Nguyen Phuong Linh, Southeast Asia Political Analyst, former Financial Times and Reuters’ Vietnam Correspondent
Moderated by Lien-Hang Nguyen, Dorothy Borg Associate Professor in the History of the United States and East Asia, Department of History
About the Reporting Asia Series
Asia is in the news. Headlines are dominated by trade wars with China or the possibility of actual war with North Korea. Yet, even while reasoned and nuanced reportage on Asia is urgently needed, it has become increasingly difficult to do so. Growing illiberalism in different corners of Asia—from China to the Philippines—generate ever more obstacles to accurate accounting. Accusations of “fake news” are generously bandied about. And shrinking budgets cut ever more deeply in expensive, overseas positions. Despite this all, journalists and news correspondents remain committed to delivering responsible and trustworthy news from Asia.
This series features seasoned writers, editors and journalists who have experience in reporting on different parts of Asia. Together they speak to the new and challenging environment which reporters and observers of Asia face today.
About the Speakers:
Bill Hayton is the author of The South China Sea: the struggle for power in Asia (Yale, 2014) and Vietnam: rising dragon (Yale, 2010) and is currently working on a book about the construction of nationhood in China. He works as a journalist for BBC World News in London. He was the BBC’s reporter in Vietnam in 2006/7 and spent 2013 advising Myanmar’s state broadcaster on reform and restructuring. He recently received a PhD from the University of Cambridge.
Nguyen Phuong Linh, after nearly 10 years in Vietnam as a local reporter and in Indonesia and the UK as a foreign correspondent for the Financial Times and Reuters, recently moved to Singapore to work as a political analyst. She writes analyses for her company’s clients on political and regulatory risk issues in Southeast Asia, focusing on Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam. Linh also provides regular media commentary on political, economic, and security topics in Southeast Asia. She holds a master’s of science in Asian politics from University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. Linh is a co-author of upcoming book “Almost home” (Youth Publishing House, 2019) featuring young Vietnamese overseas who have been struggling in finding their identity.
