Jonathan Thatcher leaves praising 'reporters who did the real work and faced the danger'

Reuters lost another of its long-serving senior correspondents on Thursday with the retirement of Jakarta bureau chief Jonathan Thatcher (photo).

In a career that spanned more than 35 years he worked in London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Jakarta (where he was bureau chief three times), as bureau chief in Manila, Moscow and Seoul, and Singapore.

“Jonathan won the respect and admiration of his colleagues throughout his career with his polished professionalism, calmness under pressure, and engagement with correspondents and editors," Simon Webb, acting southeast Asia bureau chief, told colleagues in a note. "His leadership and his ability to nurture our talented young journalists have endeared him to the reporters he guided, and he will be sorely missed.” 

Thatcher himself said “It was the teams of reporters who did the real work and faced the danger, and, on several occasions, the horror. My luck was to work with them and they are quite simply my best memories of working at Reuters.”

Among his favourite assignments was interviewing a reformed cannibal called Derek in the highlands of Papua and spending a few days hounding the UK finance minister on the beaches in Bermuda.

“A winner throughout, Jonathan retires after chalking up yet another triumph in Indonesia this year with outstanding coverage of the presidential election. Reuters has beaten the competition soundly on speed, breadth and depth of coverage in the closest race yet for the Indonesian presidency,” Webb added. ■