Tommy Walker is an international journalist from the UK, reporting overseas, mostly in Southeast Asia for the past decade. He has covered politics, political unrest, elections, military coups, and war both in Asia and Europe. His reportage has been seen on TV, online and in print, and his press freedom work has been contributed to award-winning coverage while reporting in the Asia region.
In 2019 and 2020, Tommy covered the Hong Kong protests and the Beijing-imposed the national security law. As well as reporting from the frontline of dozens of street demonstrations, Tommy has interviewed now-jailed media mogul Jimmy Lai and high profile activists Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, Tony Chung and Lee Cheuk Yan.
Press freedom has been a key focus of Tommy’s reportage. For The Telegraph, he interviewed Indonesian journalist Veby Mega Indah – blinded by a rubber bullet during Hong Kong’s anti-government protests.
In 2021, Tommy partly relocated to Taipei, Taiwan, a city that has a rapidly growing status as a media hotspot in Asia. He has covered the cross-Strait tensions sporadically between Taipei and Beijing.
But amid Myanmar’s military coup Tommy relocated to Thailand to cover the subsequent revolution and civil war. He has interviewed key politicians, activists, journalists and soldiers of Myanmar’s rebel armies, and the Thai/Myanmar border Mae Sot to cover the events.
Tommy has also worked heavily with Voice of America’s press freedom team. He interviewed 2021’s Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Ressa from the Philippines shortly before her award.
In November 2021, Tommy was a part of VOA’s Press Freedom team that won the inaugural Media Freedom Award at the Association for International Broadcaster (AIB) awards.
While in Bangkok, Tommy has reported on Thailand’s anti-government youth movement. He has attended several heated clashes between demonstrators and police in the city’s Din Daeng suburb in 2021.
Russia’s war in Ukraine saw Tommy spend months reporting in Ukraine in 2022 and 2023, filing both text and images with newspapers, broadcasters and media agencies. Tommy worked at the Poland border before reporting throughout Ukraine, working mostly for the Daily Express UK, covering the war throughout the country including from the frontlines in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv.
Tommy covered Thailand’s general elections in 2023 for VOA News. His reportage also includes hard news on Thailand’s tourism sector, environment, Songkran festival, mass shootings, new cannabis regulations and pending same-sex marriage law for Deutsche Welle Asia. Tommy has also covered news in the Southeast Asia region, include Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Philippines in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
At the beginning of 2024, Tommy reported in Taiwan for the 2024 Presidential Election, as Asia’s top democracy went to the polls to vote for their next leader.
Conflict in Myawaddy, Myanmar – at the border with Thailand – saw Tommy report from Mae Sot on the fallout, including visiting hospitals caring from Myanmar soldiers and interview refugees. Tommy also reported on the political drama that saw the return of the Shinawatra family in Thai politics after the return of Thaksin Shinawatra, and his youngest daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra becoming Thailand’s 31st prime minister in August.
In March 2025, following the 7.7 Myanmar earthquake that aftershocks rattled Bangkok that caused a 30-storey building to collapse, Tommy reported live on TV from the scene in the Thai capital.
In July, the week-long border war between Thailand and Cambodia erupted, with Tommy reported heavily on TV from the frontlines from the Thai side of the border, incuding Buriram, Surin, Sisaket and Ubon Ratchatani as overhead artillery, shelling and rifle fire was frequent. Prior to the border conflict, Tommy had spent weeks reporting on military build ups, closed borders and tensions between the two Southeast Asia nations.
In August and September, Tommy also reported from the Constitutional Court, Supreme Court and Government House, providing play-by-play updates on Thailand’s latest political news. This saw a court removal of Paetongtarn Shinawatra as Thailand’s premier, the parliamentary vote that saw the installment of Anuti Charnvirakul as the new prime minister, and a week after the imprisonment of Thaksin Shinawatra.
Before transitioning into international journalism, Tommy was a travel writer. His travels are wide and many, having visited dozens of countries within six continents, including several years within the Asia region and 15 months in Latin America.
Tommy has embarked on several sponsored trips to destinations including North Korea, Borneo Malaysia, Singapore, Morocco, and New Zealand. His travel excursions often find Tommy exploring “off the beaten track” destinations, which have included Russia, Ukraine, India, Myanmar, Tonga, Venezuela, Guyana, and Colombia’s “Lost City”, amongst others.
Tommy has lived in Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, amongst other places and of 2025, Tommy has spent 13 years overseas.
Reporting:
Appeared On TV
Deutsche Welle (DW), TRT World, France24, Voice of America (VOA), BBC World News, LBC, India Today
Published | Worked For
The Times, The Independent, Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, Byline Times, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, BBC (Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Tees), The Northern Echo, Al Jazeera, The Diplomat, VICE Asia, South China Morning Post, Rappler, Nikkei Asia, Coconuts Hong Kong, NewsCorp Australia, Asia Media Centre NZ, SwissInfo,, Salzburger Nachrichten, EBS Korea, Hit FM (QLD).
Republished | Cited In
Independent.ie, The Guardian, New Zealand Herald, Global Asia, Asia Times, News Lens International, South Asian Monitor, WorldAkkam, India Express, MSN.
Photography / Video:
Published | Worked For | Via Agency
BBC News, Voice of America, CNN, Al Jazeera, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg, CNBC, ABC News, TIME, The Atlantic, Forbes, Business Insider, Huffington Post, WIRED, Daily Wire, Axios, The Conversation, Amnesty, Financial Times, The Telegraph, Daily Mail UK, Daily Express UK, Liverpool Echo, Byline Times, The Independent, The Tablet, Yahoo!, Deutsche Welle (DW), Rappler, Nikkei Asia, Asia Times, Le Point FR, TRT World, Malta Times, National Herald India, The Straits Times, 7News Australia.
Travel Articles & Reports
Published | Photography | Featured | Appeared On | Cited
BBC World Service, BBC Tees, South China Morning Post, Deutsche Welle Asia, The Bangkok Post, Rappler, Manila Times, NewsCorp Australia, HIT Radio, Stuff NZ, New Zealand Herald, Business Insider, INC. Magazine, Forbes, Buzzfeed, Matador Network, Travel & Leisure, Conde Naste Traveler, The Travel Magazine, View Magazine, Smile Magazine (Cebu Pacific Air), AWOL (Junkee), Travel Pocket Guide, Guyana Chronicle, Samui Times, The Northern Echo, Daily Express UK, Teesside Gazette.