As a video journalist and television producer, I live for telling powerful stories about current affairs and humanitarian issues in Southeast and South Asia and around the world. I specialize in producing, shooting, reporting and editing features and documentaries about conflict, peace building, human rights, natural disasters and the environment. I am now based in Bangkok.

I really started out doing this work in 1999 in East Timor, where I reported on the UN-sponsored referendum on independence – but above all, on the terror created by militia groups backed by the Indonesian army against the Timorese. This tumultuous period really cemented my passion for international reporting. In 2002 I went back to East Timor to report on how people were embracing the challenges of hard-won independence.

In 2004, I filmed and directed a half-hour documentary about the search for thousands of boys and men who were forcibly disappeared by government forces during the civil war in Sri Lanka, entitled “Missing: Sri Lanka’s Silent Tsunami” (Al Jazeera English, produced by Mars Entertainment). Since then, my stories have focused on legacy of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, exiled Tibetans in Dharamsala, India, and attacks on journalists and civilians at the height of Nepal’s civil war. I’ve also focused on the Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand, extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, the Shan State Army in eastern Burma, and other issues.

My television features and documentaries have been broadcast by PBS Frontline World, SBS Dateline, Al Jazeera English, Associated Press Television News, and Agence France Press Television. I have also reported live for CNN and CBC. My news and feature articles have been published by Reuters, the Toronto Star, National Post, Vancouver Sun, Inter Press News Service, IRIN News (the United Nation’s humanitarian information service), and others.

In 2004, I received a Gabriel Award and the Radio Television News Directors Association of Canada Award for Best Short Feature for my radio documentary “Nina and Arne” (CBC Radio, 2004). The story is about my cousin Arne, who has helped care for Nina, a woman who developed a severe form of multiple scleroris and moved into a palliative care home. Nina came to Canada from the Philippines over 20 years ago and helped raise Arne’s younger brother and sister. In 2004, I also received an award in international development journalism from the International Development Research Centre in

I have also enjoyed training journalists from across the region – with the Independent Journalism Foundation in Cambodia in 2001, and with Internews in northern Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake that killed over 73,000 people with Internews. I currently teach broadcast and print journalism at Bangkok’s Thammasat University.

I will be writing from the field and posting links to my stories, so please check back often.

Email: aaronvideojournalist at gmail.com
Tel: +66 83 133 5557