About Matt Crook

My name is Matt Crook, I was born in Bath, England, and I’m 28 years old.

I am Web and Social Media Editor for Plan International’s Asia office in Bangkok.

Before that I was a freelance journalist who was most recently based in Timor-Leste. I wrote about current affairs, as well as development and humanitarian issues. My reporting took me all over Timor-Leste, covering stories about everything from human trafficking and justice to youth unemployment and maternal mortality.

I moved to Timor-Leste in 2008 after a four-year stint in Thailand working in a number of positions for websites, newspapers and magazines. The decision to become a freelance journalist came after a little more than a year working as a desk editor for the Phuket Gazette.

After arriving in Timor-Leste, I spent several months acquainting myself with the country and building up a comprehensive list of contacts among non-governmental organizations, international bodies, government ministries and departments, and the local media. With a solid understanding of how the country worked and an address book full of the right people to contact, I began writing stories on politics, current affairs and development issues for the likes of the Guardian and Asia Times Online.

This progressed to writing news and feature stories for wire services such as AFP and IPS, as well as articles on a wide range of topics for publications like IRIN, Reader’s Digest, Global Post and The Observer. As one of the few international journalists based in Timor-Leste, my stories have been regularly published all over the world.

I have a master’s in Southeast Asian Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and I am a graduate from the University of Sheffield’s biblical studies department, which is recognized for producing some of the world’s most innovative research in the field. I have also studied Indonesian language at Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana in Salatiga, Indonesia.

About this site

This site is merely a place where my articles live. It’s not a blog, in the stricter sense of the word. Comments have been disabled, but feel free to contact me or else discuss matters on my blog.