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Africa's Dark Heart
Tim Butcher,
An unnavigable river, barbarous treatment of the natives by Belgian colonists and despotic rule have
There are few place names as darkly tantalising as The Congo. It’s not just that the name wears an aura of mystery. It is much more portentous than that. more++
Congolese Cliches
Fred Robarts,
Victorian era cliches about Africa are all-too-often the mainstay for reporters and writers
Always use the word ‘Africa or ‘Darkness’ or ‘Safari’ in your title. Subtitles may include the words ‘Zanzibar’, ‘Masai’, ‘Zulu’, ‘Zambezi’, ‘Congo’, ‘Nile’, ‘Big’, ‘Sky, ‘Shadow’, ‘Drum’, ‘Sun’ or ‘Bygone’. Also useful are words such as ‘Guerrillas’, ‘Timeless’, ‘Primordial’ and ‘Tribal’. Binyavanga Wainaina, How to Write About Africa (Granta 92) more++- Far from over for FARC: Despite the killing of two top leaders, the Colombian revolutionary movement is still going strong -
- Change? What change?: Diaries of pioneering Crimean War correspondent William Russell show how little the life has changed -
- The Talib who turned: The tale of the Taliban turncoat underpinning British strategy in Helmand -
- The new Falklands war: The discovery of huge mineral wealth in the south Atlantic has old enemies at odds again -
- The Revolution Fades: With Fidel Castro's days coming to an end, the Cuban opposition is divided over what kind of future -
tools and tips
Citizen Cameramen
Graham Holliday,
Cheaper cameras and the power of the internet is driving a revolution in the world of video-journali
By the time the members of the original Frontline TV agency hit Grozny in the mid-90s to report on the Chechen war, it became clear that the market for pictures and video was changing. more++Kitbag: John Coghill
John Coghill,
Zimababwe and Uganda
John Coghill started the Radios for Africa charity in 2003 that distributes Freeplay Lifeline wind-up/solar-powered radios to Africa’s rural poor and has recently started operations in Northern Uganda. more++
Kitbag: Jane Kokan
Jane Kokan,
Herat, Afghanistan
Jane Kokan is an independent news and documentary director/ reporter/ camera woman specialising in the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Iran, SE Asia and Africa working for a variety of international broadcasters. Often her films were made in extremely difficult circumstances and Jane often worked alone in the field doing her own camera work and sound. more++inside out
Inside Out - January 2008
John Owen,
When we began recruiting members to the Frontline Club, we were often told that it would never work. After all, the sceptics said, why would you want to become part of a club that catered to war journalists and ex-hacks who would bore you with their tales of near death experiences? more++Inside Out - November 07
John Owen,
One of the most important debates in journalism is far from over at the Frontline Club. It’s about whether the war in Iraq and the dangerous conflicts in Somalia and Gaza and elsewhere have made it nearly impossible for correspondents and news teams working for “western” news media to do their jobs. more++Inside Out - October 07
John Owen,
There’s something startling about passing by the most hallowed Serbian monument in Kosovo en route to a bold new journalism school in Kosovo. more++reviews
Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Global Nuclear Weapons Conspiracy
Tariq Ali,
Book by Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark
Nuclear weapons and weapons-systems are never politically-neutral. Nor have they ever been developed openly or debated in democratically-elected parliaments. more++
Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism
Christopher Harper,
Book by George Weigel
In this provocative analysis of the West and its relationship, or lack thereof, with Islam, George Weigel, the biographer of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, drafts what he describes as a call to action to address jihadism. more++
The Age of Assassins: The Rise and Rise of Vladimir Putin
Alan Cowell,
Book by Yuri Felshtinsky and Vladimir Pribylovsky
Since Dimitri Medvedev’s predictable triumph in Russia’s presidential elections, the future of the Kremlin’s internal power balance has fascinated those who scrutinize events in Moscow. As ever, questions outstrip answers. more++new media
Reporting on the forbidden
Graham Holliday,
RSS feeds and news aggregators are powerful new tools that offer journalists a way around news black
When Georg Blume of Germany and Kristin Kupfer of Austria left from Lhasa train station in the early hours of Thursday March 20 they were the last two foreign journalists to leave Tibet after being forced out by the Chinese authorities. more++
Public or Private?
Graham Holliday,
Social networking sites have brought new opportunities for journalists, and new problems
Social networking sites like Facebook and Bebo are awash with video and pictures uploaded by the general public. News organisations are grappling with what they can and can’t use from the sites, but there is no agreed standard and recent months have seen them make a litany of mistakes. more++