Louise Williams

Louise Williams "is a senior Australian journalist with considerable experience as a foreign correspondent in the Asia-Pacific region and international affairs. She has worked as Asian Editor and Foreign Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and has written or contributed to a number of books on regional issues. She has also lectured at the University of Technology, Sydney and Macquarie University and is a long time member of the International Humanitarian Law committee of the Australian Red Cross, NSW Branch. Louise Williams is currently contracted by the Sydney Morning Herald to write editorials and feature articles and is project coordinator for a media internship program in Indonesia, administered by Murdoch University."

"She spent more than a decade as a foreign correspondent for Fairfax newspapers (the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Melbourne) based in Manila, Bangkok and Jakarta, meeting and interviewing figures such as Benazir Bhutto, Corazon Aquino and Aung San Suu Kyi during a period of extraordinary economic, political and social change.

"In 1996 Louise negotiated the re-opening of the Sydney Morning Herald bureau in Jakarta, a decade after the newspaper had been banned from the country by the Soeharto regime. She was the first Herald reporter to get residency and during this time she witnessed the collapse of the New Order regime, and the economy, and later saw Xanana Gusmao walk out of jail and East Timor gain its independence.

"She has worked as Asian Editor and Foreign Editor at the Sydney Morning Herald and has written or contributed to a number of books on regional issues. She is currently contracted by the Sydney Morning Herald to write editorials and feature articles and also contributes to Readers Digest publications.

"Louise teaches at the University of Technology, Sydney, where she recently designed and ran the first course for a delegation of Chinese newspaper publishers. Throughout her career, she has been awarded various major accolades, including the Walkley Award for Excellence in Journalism, the John S. Knight Fellowship for Journalism at Stanford University, the Australia Council's Asia-Pacific Writers' Fellowship and the Citibank Pan Asia Journalism Award in conjunction with Columbia University.

Professional experience

• Current: Editorial and feature writer, Sydney Morning Herald.
• Lecturer, Faculty of Communication, University of Technology, Sydney.
• 1999-2005: Leader writer and columnist, Sydney Morning Herald.

Responsible for analysis and editorial comment on a wide range of issues plus a regular column published in the foreign pages. Reporting assignments including Europe and the EU, New Zealand and India.

• 1996-1999: Indonesian correspondent, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Melbourne. Regular guest on the BBC. Major stories: the fall of the Soeharto regime, independence in East Timor, and the East Asian economic crisis.
• 1995: Asia Pacific Writer's Fellowship, Literature Board, Australia Council. Publications editor, Research Institute of Asia and the Pacific, University of Sydney.
• 1992-1994: Asia Editor, then Foreign Editor, Sydney Morning Herald.
• 1988-1991: Regional correspondent, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Melbourne, based in Bangkok covering Southeast Asia and the Indian sub-continent. Numerous major stories such as the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the crushing of pro-democracy movement in Burma, Vietnam's withdrawal from Cambodia, the end of military rule in Thailand, the rise of the jihadi forces in Afghanistan, and the fall of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan.
• 1986-1988: Philippines-based correspondent, the Sydney Morning Herald. Regular contributor to The Observer, London, and The Independent, London. Major stories: Cory Aquino's "people's power" victory in the Philippines, the end of military rule in South Korea, and political crackdowns in Malaysia and Singapore.
• 1984-1986: Sydney-based journalist, Sydney Morning Herald, covering NSW politics and law rounds.
• 1981-1984: Trainee, then journalist at Australian Associated Press.

Books

• Losing Control, Freedom of the Press in Asia (2000), co-editor with Roland Rich, Asia Pacific Press
• Indonesia After Soeharto (1999), contributor, New Zealand Asia Institute
• Wives, Mistresses and Matriarchs, Asian Women Today (1998), author, Allen and Unwin, Sydney
• Hotel Asia, an anthology of literary travelling to the East (1995), contributor, Penguin Books, Australia
• On the Wire, on the frontline in Asia (1992), author, Simon and Schuster, Australia