Panu Wongcha-um

About

Panu Wongcha-um is currently the senior correspondent covering Thailand and mainland SoutheastAsia for Thomson Reuters based in Thailand. He has been a broadcast journalist since 2010 and hasworked as an Indochina correspondent for Singapore’s Channel NewsAsia. Before that he was areporter and presenter at Thailand’s MCOT, producing television news and documentaries.Panu has covered a wide-range of issues including Thai 2014 coup and politics under the military junta,Thai royal succession, 2018 dramatic cave rescue in northern Thailand, 2018 dam burst in southern Laos,2019 and 2023 Thai General Elections, Hydropower development on the Mekong River, 2020 Thailandunder coronavirus, 2020 Thailand monarchy reform protests, 2021 Myanmar coup and border conflicts,as well as the diplomacy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) over the years.From March 2021 – March 2023, Panu was elected to serve as the president of the ForeignCorrespondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT), the oldest foreign press club in Southeast Asia. In April 2025,Panu was re-elected again and returned as president of the FCCT.Before becoming a journalist, Panu briefly worked for a non-governmental organisation in SouthernThailand, coordinating relief efforts after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake andtsunami. Panu graduated with a Master of Arts in History from the National University of Singapore andobtained a Bachelor of Arts in History and International Relations from the University of Melbourne,