Since 2005, my journalism has appeared in (or on) The Phnom Penh Post, The Economist, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age (Australia), the Nikkei Asian Review (Japan), The Edge Review (Malaysia), The Diplomat (Japan), The Financial Daily (Malaysia), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Crikey (Australia), Asia One, the Melbourne Leader, Stock & Land (Australia), The Canberra Times and the Bendigo Advertiser (Australia).
I worked at The Phnom Penh Post in Cambodia, from 2011-2015, reporting extensively on a range of human rights, labour and political issues. I was also managing editor and national news editor at various stages. Prior to that, I was a staff reporter and subeditor at Fairfax newspapers between 2007-2011.
Reporting highlights include:
- Receiving a Human Rights Press Award for my work on a package about human trafficking for The Edge Review.
- Receiving three Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) awards for breaking news with The Phnom Penh Post.
- Covering the 2013 Cambodian national election.
- Covering the 2016 Australian election as a foreign correspondent for Japan’s Nikkei Asian Review — at times, filing from my childhood home.
- Covering the trials of imprisoned human rights activists Yorm Bopha and the Boeung Kak 13 in Cambodia.
- Covering the 2012 ASEAN summits in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Story archive at The Phnom Penh Post
Story archive at the Nikkei Asian Review
Selected journalism
Cambodian politics: Back to your seats 
Shane Worrell, The Economist, July 24, 2014
AN intense political deadlock, played out against a backdrop of protests and deadly state violence, has come to an end. Read more
The Vietnam War spy who didn’t love us 
Shane Worrell, The Diplomat, January 11, 2018
A new book sheds light on journalist and spy Pham Xuan An. Read more
A few good men and women: bodyguards in Cambodia 
Shane Worrell and Khouth Sophak Chakrya, The Phnom Penh Post, July 2, 2013
IT may be a far cry from the Wild West days of the 1990s, but whether hiring from among their own relatives or turning to professional firms specialising in personal security, Cambodia’s elite are as likely as ever to employ bodyguards. Read more
From prison, an accidental activist
Shane Worrell and Khouth Sophak Chakrya, The Phnom Penh Post, May 8, 2013
WHEN Boeung Kak lake protesters converged on the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to demand justice for imprisoned activist Yorm Bopha last month, an increasingly familiar face was at the front. Read more
Internal opposition to resettling asylum seekers in Cambodia 
Sarah Whyte with Shane Worrell and Lisa Cox, The Sydney Morning Herald, April 4, 2014
A POSSIBLE deal to resettle Australian-bound asylum seekers in Cambodia has been heavily criticised by one of the country’s longest-serving politicians who has warned against the country becoming a “dumping ground”. Read more
Running shoes leave bloody footprints 
Shane Worrell, Crikey, Australia, May 23, 2013
JUST hours after 15-year-old Kim Dany left for work at a provincial shoe factory in Cambodia last Thursday, her family, surrounded by candles and incense sticks, were crying over her lifeless body as it lay on a wooden table in their home. Read more
Good reading, captain: A book about Slint 
Shane Worrell, Fairfax Media Australia, February 19, 2011
IN MUSIC, 1991 is remembered for the explosion of Seattle grunge and the popularisation of underground punk rock through bands like Nirvana. Across the United States in Louisville, Kentucky, an album that was to pioneer a different genre – post-rock – appeared headed for obscurity. Read more
The calm after the storm
Shane Worrell and Mom Kunthear, The Phnom Penh Post, January 3, 2015
ONE year ago today, gunfire from heavily armed security forces killed at least five people on the capital’s Veng Sreng Boulevard. The deadly violence – and a crackdown on opposition supporters in Freedom Park the following day – also landed devastating blows to a united protest movement fast gaining momentum. Read more
A justice of sorts
Shane Worrell, The Economist, November 26, 2013
IN the past decade hundreds of thousands of Cambodians have been pushed off the land they occupy. In the countryside, it is often to make way for rubber plantations developed by government cronies, including Chinese and Vietnamese ones. Read more
One night in Freedom Park
Shane Worrell and Khouth Sophak Chakrya, The Phnom Penh Post, September 17, 2013
THE hush that fell over Freedom Park late on Sunday night – a result of thousands of opposition supporters settling down to sleep after their first day of mass demonstrations – was interrupted by news that police had killed a man. Read more
The buried past: A journey off the beaten track to Pol Pot’s grave
If I had gazed too long at the gigantic casino – which, as it ascends skyward, interrupts the view of a splendid landscape – I might have missed the small, rusted sign opposite.
Released, but hardly free
Shane Worrell, The Economist, June 4, 2014
THE government of Cambodia’s eternal prime minister, Hun Sen, has been waging an assault on public dissent since January 3rd. That was the day Cambodian security forces in the capital shot dead four garment workers who had been striking over the minimum wage. Read more
We’ll always have Paris
Shane Worrell, The Phnom Penh Post, January 3, 2014
IT MAY not be a milestone anniversary, but the significance of this day 22 years ago is something the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party wants everyone to remember when it begins its latest mass protest this morning. Read more
Protests in Cambodia: the scent of lotus 
Shane Worrell, The Economist, September 8, 2013
TO no one’s surprise, final polling results on September 8th confirmed that Hun Sen, Cambodia’s prime minister and leader of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), had won the election in July. Read more
The slaughterhouse blues
Shane Worrell and Khouth Sophak Chakrya, The Phnom Penh Post, August 30, 2013
It’s 1am and, as Phnom Penh sleeps, the haunting squeals of distressed animals are all that can be heard in the darkness of a field in Russey Keo district. Read more
The Buddhists of suburbia
Shane Worrell, The Edge Review, March 6-12, 2015
HOW a small Australian city became an unlikely home for Karen refugees fleeing their homeland. Read more
Protest paths converge
Shane Worrell, Mom Kunthear and Meas Sokchea, The Phnom Penh Post, December 12, 2013
DRAWING on leader Sam Rainsy’s deep connections to the labour movement, the Cambodia National Rescue Party announced plans to mobilise strikers at factories this morning and lead thousands on marches around Phnom Penh. Read more
High-profile cases stick to a script
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea, Shane Worrell and Daniel Pye, The Phnom Penh Post, June 2, 2014
WHEN a court on Friday granted freedom to 23 activists and workers arrested during a violent garment strike in January, another chapter in what has become a familiar tale was written. Read more
City Hall’s pipe dream: Drainage ‘deadly’ at Boeung Kak
Shane Worrell, The Phnom Penh Post, December 10, 2014
PIPES that City Hall has installed to drain water from part of Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak lake area are too small to prevent serious flooding and could result in the deaths of local residents, a leaked report says. Read more
A Christmas in Prey Sar prison
Shane Worrell and May Titthara, The Phnom Penh Post, December 25, 2012
UNLIKE most expats in Cambodia who couldn’t make it home for Christmas this year, Chulsoo* has not told his family – including his two daughters – what’s keeping him in Phnom Penh. Read more