Obituary: Jimmy Hahn

Born John Joseph Hahn in Shanghai in 1930, he was Korean although he never visited his father’s homeland and did not speak Korean.

Hahn joined Reuters in October 1952 and four years later was appointed correspondent in Singapore, then as now the hub of Reuters operations in South East Asia. That post was followed by jobs as superintendent of relay and communications, editorial manager, manager, manager for Malaya and Singapore, and in January 1964, manager for South East Asia in succession to David Chipp.

In 1968, he was commended for his role in making arrangements following the deaths of two Vietnam war correspondents who had been ambushed and shot in Saigon - Ron Laramy and Bruce Pigott.

He was quite a character and great to work under, more of a manager than a journalist, said Nick Turner. “I was running the Saigon bureau with administrative responsibility for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, and worked with him on negotiations with those countries regarding supply of the Reuters news service to them. He taught me a thing or two about negotiation.”

Hahn resigned from Reuters in 1969 to become co-founder and general manager of the Singapore Herald, an independent tabloid. It folded in 1972. After a spell with a communications company in Kuala Lumpur, he subsequently emigrated to Canada where he began a second successful career in the real estate business. ■