New One Stop Visa centre at Chamchuree Square


Executive Committee 2010 - The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand
As voted in by the club membership at the AGM on Feb 5, 2010

8pm Tues, February 9, 2010
Film: Green
A special screening of the acclaimed documentary and a talk on the illegal wildlife trade

7pm Weds, February 10, 2010
Can Thailand's tourism industry go "green"?


11am Tues, February 16, 2010
Amnesty International (International Secretariat) report launch
The targeting of ethnic minority activists in Myanmar

8pm Thurs, February 18, 2010
Meltdown in Tibet - A personal take on the politics of water in Tibet
A documentary film by Michael Buckley

Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia Online
Project Manager

Thai-to-English translator


Freelance Journalists
Thai-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce magazine

Come to the Friday Wake at FCCT Dateline Bar. Special drinks every Friday from 6pm-7pm.

"The primary objective of the Executive Committee, to my mind, is to maintain and uphold the dignity and credibility of the journalistic profession and the Club as a space for free and fair discourse on issues of the day."

This year's Contemporary World Cinema Season has been particularly successful and featured a spate of Q & A sessions with outstanding film directors. It started with renowned Japanese director Junji Sakamoto flying down from Tokyo, for the exclusive screening of his controversial film 'Children of the Dark', which was pulled out of the Bangkok International Film Festival last year.

The film dealt with the world of child prostitution, paedophilia, organ-sales - a world totally moved from the sell-out audience who attended the screening. The Q & A session which followed the screening was particularly lively.

Another film that attracted a huge crowd, was 'Cambodia Dreams', a documentary which took its New Zealand director Stanly Harper (pictured right) 18 years to make! The director flew down  especially for the event, and answered a wide range of questions ranging from his political naivete to his cinematic strength. The New Zealand Embassy provided free wine to celebrate this special film.

We served Thai wine, from the Village Farm Winery, when  the most talked about young Thai director of today, Aditya Assarat, came to present his much-awarded film 'Wonderful Town' accompanied by his producer Soros and actress Anchalee.


Other movies screened this year were from Brazil, France, India, Canada, Portugal and The Phillippines, courtesy of the Embassies of these countries and thanks to the efforts of FCCT member Lekha Shankar.

To check the current film schedule, please click here to display the Bulletin. To subscribe to the Bulletin for future film schedules by e-mail, please click here

Professor José Ramos-Horta, a 1996 Nobel Laureate for Peace and one of the most extraordinary leaders of our region and our time, addressed the FCCT on January 11 as part of the International Peace Foundation's "Bridges" series:
http://peace-foundation.net .

He is a former Permanent Representative to the United Nations, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, a former Prime Minister and currently the President of East Timor, one of the youngest independent countries in the world. He was appointed acting Prime Minister by President Xanana Gusmao in June 2006. In February 2008, he was shot in an assassination attempt. He has been active in the pursuit of peace, freedom and democracy in his own country and across the world.

Mr. Ramos-Horta won the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for his campaign for East Timor's independence from Indonesia. East Timor's vote for independence in 1999 was marred by violence led by pro-Indonesia militias. The fighting resulted in hundreds of deaths and in the deployment of peace keepers into East Timor. A 2,500-strong international security force, mostly Australians, remains in the country today.

On January 13, FCCT members and guests had a unique opportunity to hear all about the exhilaration of space travel first hand from NASA Mission Specialist Nicholas Patrick, who will be aboard the space shuttle Endeavour for mission STS-130 when it blasts off in December. Endeavour will deliver a third connecting module to the International Space Station and a seven-windowed cupola to be used as a control room for robotics. The mission will also install research and science experiment equipment, a new sleeping area, and re-supply the station using a special logistics module stored in the payload bay.

This will be Patrick's second mission into space as he also served as a mission specialist aboard STS-116 in 2006, logging 308 hours in the near heavens. Patrick reported to NASA's Johnson Space Center for astronaut training in August 1998. Patrick was born in North Yorkshire in the United Kingdom in 1964 and became a US citizen in 1994.

The FCCT's successful publishing project, The King of Thailand in World Focus, a 280-page collation of articles and photographs covering the life and reign of HM King Bhumibol Adjuladej, Rama IX, is back in the shops after selling out last year.

The third edition is more than a reprint, and includes 20 extra pages covering the king's 80th birthday celebrations, the death of his older sister, HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana, some of the recent political turmoil, and an extended profile of the Crown Property Bureau. There is also a transcript of the remarkable comments made at last year’s launch at The Oriental by former prime minister Anand Panyarchun regarding the past, present and future of the Thai monarchy.

The King of Thailand in World Focus is the only comprehensive reference work on the current reign as reported over the years by correspondents, journalists and photographers working for the overseas media.

Although the latest edition is better and larger, the price remains the same. It is available from Asiabooks, Kinokuniya, B2S, Chulalongkorn University's Chulabooks at only 1,450 baht.

Club members can do even better and buy up to three copies each for 1,200 baht apiece from the FCCT office. There are also special discounts for bulk purchases of over 25 copies. Hurry while stocks last.

How do you keep up with all the great FCCT programs?

Join FCCT and receive e-mails whenever new programs are added. Because news changes fast, FCCT sometimes schedules timely programs on short notice.

FCCT members receive e-mails with "late-breaking news" about programs.

The FCCT is not just for correspondents-in fact, most of our members are not news people.

A past FCCT president even came up with the slogan, "You don't have to be foreign and you don't have to be a correspondent". We are a very diverse club and welcome all.

For more information, call 02-652-0580-1 or click here to e-mail info@fccthai.com