Michael Sullivan
Michael Sullivan is NPR's Senior Asia Correspondent. He moved to Hanoi to open NPR's Southeast Asia Bureau in 2003. Before that, he spent six years as NPR's South Asia correspondent based in but seldom seen in New Delhi.
Michael was in Pakistan on 9-11 and spent much of the next two years there and in Afghanistan covering the run up to and the aftermath of the U.S. military campaign to oust the Taliban and al Qaeda. Michael has also reported extensively on terrorism in Southeast Asia, including both Bali bombings. He also covered the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Michael was the first NPR reporter on the ground in both Thailand and the Indonesian province of Aceh following the devastating December 2004 tsunami. He has returned to Aceh more than half a dozen times since to document the recovery and reconstruction effort. As a reporter in NPR's London bureau in the early 1990s he covered the fall of the Soviet Union, the troubles in Northern Ireland, and the aftermath of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Before moving to New Delhi, Michael was senior producer on NPR's foreign desk. He has worked in more than 60 countries on five continents, covering conflicts in Somalia, the Balkans, Haiti, Chechnya, and the Middle East. Prior to joining the foreign desk, Michael spent several years as producer and acting executive producer of NPR's All Things Considered.
As a reporter, Michael is the recipient of several Overseas Press Club Awards and Citations for Excellence for stories from Haiti, Afghanistan, and Vietnam. He was also part of the NPR team that won an Alfred I DuPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of 9-11 and the war in Afghanistan. In 2004 he was honored by the South Asia Journalists Association (SAJA) with a Special Recognition Award for his 'outstanding work' from 1998-2003 as NPR's South Asia correspondent.
As a producer and editor, Michael has been honored by the Overseas Press Club for work from Bosnia and Haiti; a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for a story about life in Sarajevo during wartime; and a World Hunger Award for stories from Eritrea.
Michael's wife, Martha Ann Overland, is Southeast Asia correspondent for The Chronicle of Higher Education and also writes commentaries on living abroad for NPR. They have two children.
Michael is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He's been at NPR since 1985.
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COVID-19 has now reached refugee camps in Bangladesh where a million Rohingya Muslims are packed into makeshift camps after fleeing a violent crackdown in Myanmar. Aid workers fear the worst.
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Boats full of Muslim minority Rohingya refugees are being pushed back by Malaysia, in part, the government says, over fears of the coronavirus virus.
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In Jakarta, special police units have guarded burial processions for COVID-19 victims, after protesters blocked streets to prevent the dead from being transported to cemeteries. -
Singapore reported 1,426 new cases on Monday and now has the highest number of reported cases in Southeast Asia. Most of those recently infected are foreign workers staying in cramped dormitories. -
With nearly 100 million people, Vietnam has 268 confirmed cases. Experts say experience with prior pandemics and aggressive social distancing have helped, as has the muscle of an authoritarian state. -
Thailand has nearly 3,800 domesticated elephants, most kept in camps. There are fears that many will suffer during what is expected to be a time of prolonged severe economic hardship. -
Authorities in Thailand's capital are prohibiting alcohol sales for 11 days in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19 during the Thai New Year. Instead, it caused long lines at liquor outlets. -
Online sexual abuse is rising as countries close schools and impose various shutdown measures to contain the new coronavirus pandemic, children's rights advocates in Southeast Asia warn.
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As governments in Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar move to mitigate the spread of the virus, they are also enacting measures that stifle journalists and dissent. -
An online campaign recommended business attire and makeup while working at home, and to avoid sarcasm when asking for help with housework. The women of Malaysia were not amused.
