About DP
Daniel Pedersen is an Australian journalist and author who has reported on and off the plight of the Karen people of Burma since 2000.
The culmination of that work is to be published in September 2009, by Irish publishing house, Maverick House.
His reports relating to the Karen have appeared in the The Economist, the Courier Mail, The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post, The Nation, The Daily Telegraph, the Herald Sun, the Tasmanian Times, SeeBurma.com, Mizzima.com and Tasmania’s The Mercury.
Over the years, Pedersen has not only reported on the Karen and Australia but also on many of Southeast Asia’s hotspots.
He lives in Thailand and spends most of his time in the North.
The Karen are an ethnic group living in Burma and Thailand. They are self-titled Pwa Ka Nyaw Po or Kayan and also known in Thailand as the Kariang. The Karen are approximately seven per cent of the Burmese population of 47 million people.
For more information on the Karen go to Wikipedia — The Karen.
Resume
Born March 27, 1970, Australia.
Employment
Freelance reportage
1994-2009
My work as a reporter in Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor has appeared in The Economist, the Courier Mail, the Sunday Mail, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the South China Morning Post, the New Zealand Herald, the Herald-Sun, Germany’s Bild and The Nation (Thailand).
The Mercury, Hobart, Australia
October 2006 – January 2008
The Mercury is the main daily servicing the state of Tasmania.
I work in a pool of sub editors, switching from state and national news copy-subbing to layout and design, or wire and bureau news and pictorial selection for the world news pages.
The Nation, Bangkok, Thailand
Feb 2000 – July 6, 2006
At The Nation I began as a copy editor in a pool of subs, working on domestic and international business and domestic and international news.
I then moved to the newly-established 24-hour tv news station, Nation Channel, Southeast Asia’s first such service. With one other sub I scripted hourly news bulletins in 12-hour shifts, with hour-long programs at 1.30pm and 8.30pm. I was moved to television because I could manage the multi-tasking and workload required.
During this time The Nation hired Danilo Black to produce a new-look broadsheet and I was seconded back to the paper as world news edior and designer. I headed the world desk five days a week for about two years, during which I monitored five news wires, both copy and photographs, selected the best and then designed and finished on QuarkXpress an average of four to six broadsheet pages a day. I also edited files and wrote headlines with the assistance of one sub.
My position then morphed to deputy design editor and I was moved to the national pages working closely with Thai editors. Lay-out duties were combined with copy-editing and headline writing and discussing with the editor how best to present news.
I was also lead designer for the first 12 months from start up on a tabloid, magazine-style weekly, Smartlife.
The Observer, Gladstone, Queensland
May 1999 – January 2000
At the tabloid daily, The Observer, I was chief of staff, helping produce the 32-64 page paper. I also wrote leads, helped teach young journalists and worked on front page design with the subs.
The Guardian, Whitsundays, Queensland
Jul 1996 – October 3 1996
Jun 1 1997 – May 1999
My first stint with the family-owned Guardian was as relief editor for three months. The following year I returned for another month and during that time two journalists left for jobs on dailies and I offered to stay on and help out.
The Guardian is produced on QuarkXpress.
Senator Cheryl Kernot and the Australian Democrats, Brisbane, Queensland
Feb 1996 – May 1996
With the Democrats I helped with the 1996 Federal House of Representatives election campaign and was then contracted to the senator’s office to help manage publicity, write magazine articles and arrange media coverage of a northern farewell for outgoing Tasmanian senator Robert Bell.
Quest Newspapers, Brisbane, Queensland
Jul 1993 – Jul 1995
As a journalist at the Wynnum Herald and South East Advertiser in Brisbane I wrote leads. I employed the Queensland Freedom of Information Act extensively and completed a media law and investigative journalists’ course.
The Richmond News, Melbourne Victoria
1992
In early 1992, with two partners, I began publishing the Richmond News, a free weekly circulating in the Richmond area. The paper was produced on Pagemaker and printed in neighbouring Collingwood.
As editor and publisher I was responsible for vetting of all copy. First-generation digital cameras were also used.
Leader Newspapers, Melbourne, Victoria
Jul 1989 – Nov 1990
Initially employed as a journalist on the Broadmeadows Observer, I then moved to the Whittlesea Post and finally the Northcote Leader with the Collingwood-Fitzroy round.
Macedon Ranges Telegraph, Mount Macedon, Victoria
Journalist/photographer
Jan 1989 – Jul 1989
At the weekly tabloid I covered council meetings, wrote news features and helped train a second-year cadet. I also learned to take photographs, process film and print black and white photographs. The Telegraph was composed on the stone.
The Gippsland Times, Sale, Victoria
Dec 1986 – Jan 1989
The bi-weekly Gippsland Times was a Tuesday broadsheet, Friday tabloid publication. I began a cadetship at 16. Duties included general reporting, municipal council rounds, sports reporting and writing a sports column. The Times was composed on the stone.
News design
Commemorative front page The Nation, Thailand, for His Majesty the King’s birthday, 2005.
With only a photograph of a man sitting at a computer and an hour to produce a page I called on the graphics department to grab a photograph of a woman and drop it into a line drawing.
Being a colour page I added a little tint beneath the text.
The Nation, Thailand, broadsheet.
"Secret Genocide is a scholarly book on the plight of the Karen of Burma. Author Daniel Pedersen writes about the secret genocide of the Karen people at the hands of the Burmese junta, who use murder, rape, forced labour and torture to quell their enemies. Decades after the Karen took up arms against Rangoon; there is no telling when - or if - their struggle for a secure homeland will finally be accomplished"
Read and add comments at the book's blog
Secret Genocide by publisher Maverick House. >>> Read prologue.
