Activities

Frontline Awards 2009

2010-10-18T15:17:33Z

Ahead of this year’s Frontline Awards on 25 November here is a quick recap of last year's winners.

Lasantha Wickrematunge, the editor in chief of the Sri Lankan newspaper The Sunday Leader who was murdered on 8 January 2009 was posthumous awarded the Frontline Memorial Award. Wickrematunge was one of Sri Lanka’s most courageous and provocative independent journalists who paid the ultimate price for his dedication to his profession. Anticipating his own death, he wrote an editorial, which was published three days after he was shot dead, blaming the government and predicting accurately the horrific events in his country. He wrote, “Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories and now especially the last”.

Emilio Morenatti was awarded the Frontline Club Award for Journalism. Morenatti began his career as a photojournalist in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain working for a local newspaper. In 1992 he joined Agencia EFE, the leading Spanish news agency where he covered national and international events. In 2003 he travelled to Afghanistan as a correspondent for AP to cover the war and the fall of the Taliban. He was sent to the Middle East in 2005 to cover the conflict, whilst in Gaza City he was kidnapped by gunmen before being released unharmed a day later. He is currently based in Pakistan and covers Central Asia for AP.

About the Fixers' Fund

2009-11-12T15:40:10Z

Ajmal, a 24-year old journalist from Kabul, was taken hostage by the Taliban in Helmand province on March 4, 2007. He was working with the La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo and their driver Sayed Agha. Jon Lee Anderson wrote about the murder for the Frontline Club Magazine and his article inspired the creation of the Fixers' Fund,

"Agha was beheaded shortly after the group was abducted... On March 19, the Italian was freed in exchange for five senior Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government...

After Mastrogiacomo's release, Ajmal remained in Taliban hands. Supposedly, he was being held until the government handed over two more Taliban prisoners. But then, two days before the expiration date they executed him...

There can be no better moment than this one to establish a special compensation fund for the indispensable, underpaid and often unnamed Ajmals and Sayeds who pull us through and help us get our stories around the world, and who, increasingly, are paying the ultimate price for doing so."

Frontline donated £5,000 to the families of Ajmal and Sayed in 2008.

You can make a tax free donation here. Thank you.

Going live... Frontline Club Journalism Awards 2008

2008-11-28T19:34:02Z

Click To Play

We're just going live right now with the Frontline Club Journalism Awards and the annual party. The club is now five years old. And it looks like Vaughan is relating the history of the club right now. Hope you come and join us...

UPDATE: In the video above you can see Frontline Club founder, Vaughan Smith giving a speech during the awards - apologies, it's a bit jolty but the best quality I have just now. And in the video below you can see some of the images that helped Yuri Kozyrev win this year's award.

What is the Fixer's Fund?

2008-10-23T09:50:56Z

Prompted by the murder of Ajmal Naqshbandi in Afghanistan in 2007, the Frontline Club has initiated the Fixer’s Fund - a special project to raise money for the families of fixers killed or injured around the world while working with the international media.

Please support this worthy cause. The death of fixers and support staff in the field are all too often swiftly forgotten but foreign reporters could not operate in the field without them. To try and help these unsung heroes of the industry, the Frontline Club has set up this fund and pledges to pass on 100 percent of all the contributions it receives to the families involved.

All cheques should be made out to The Frontline Club Charitable Trust or donate to the fund on the Charity Giving website.

If you've nipped into the Frontline Club recently you might have noticed the Fixers Fund gift donation envelopes, on the stairs, at the bar and in the forum. We've also put together a short video explaining more about the fund and how it was started following the murder of Ajmal Naqshbandi. Afghan journalist and fixer Najibullah Razzaq discusses the importance of their job along with BBC journalists Alan Little, Jeremy Bowen and Martin Bell.

Frontline Journalism Awards tonight

2008-06-20T14:45:46Z

Webcam chat at Ustream

John D. McHugh will talk about his work as he accepts the inaugural Frontline Journalism Award at the Frontline Club tonight. Brent Stirton will also receive the inaugural Frontline Memorial Tribute. Please tune in to our live stream channel to watch and listen to John in conversation with Jon Lee Anderson and club members. More info here,

Freelance photojournalist John D. McHugh wins the Frontline Club Award for his work in Afghanistan in 2007. McHugh financed his own trip and worked as a freelance for AFP, the Sunday Times, Newsweek as well as filing to his personal blog. He later sold images to FHM magazine and other outlets. McHugh was shot by a Taliban fighter on May 14, 2007 after spending five weeks in country embedded with the 10th Mountain Division in northeastern Afghanistan.

And if you're a blogger, please feel free to grab the embed code from beneath the video pane and broadcast the event on your blog. UPDATE: Here's the recording of the evening in full. Photo this & that has some pictures from the evening.

Frontline Club Journalism Awards 2007

2008-05-09T21:07:23Z

Right from the very beginning the Frontline Club broke all conventions. From cameraman Vaughan Smith's late 80's visions of flying over the Afghan frontline in a Microlite to shacking up in Osama Bin Laden's residence in Kabul. The founders of the Frontline Club didn't just shirk convention, they booted it out the door. With those ideals firmly in mind, and this being a Friday night, we choose this moment to announce the winners of the inaugural Frontline Club Journalism Awards. There are two awards, there are no finalists, there are only winners. The Frontline Club Award will be given annually and the Frontline Memorial Tribute occasionally. The Frontline Memorial Tribute is dedicated to the memory of Frontline Club members killed in the course of their work. The judges are drawn from the club's 1000+ membership and currently comprise of Jon Lee Anderson, Patrick Cockburn, Carlotta Gall, Gary Knight, Christina Lamb, Allan Little, Anthony Loyd, Seamus Murphy and Vaughan Smith (Chair) The winner of the 2007 Frontline Club Award is currently in Afghanistan for The Guardian newspaper,

2007 Frontline Club Award Freelance photojournalist John D. McHugh wins the Frontline Club Award for his work in Afghanistan in 2007. McHugh financed his own trip and worked as a freelance for AFP, the Sunday Times, Newsweek as well as filing to his personal blog. He later sold images to FHM magazine and other outlets. McHugh was shot by a Taliban fighter on May 14, 2007 after spending five weeks in country embedded with the 10th Mountain Division in northeastern Afghanistan. He very nearly died. He has returned to Afghanistan on two occasions most recently on a multimedia commission for The Guardian newspaper.

The winner of The Frontline Memorial Tribute is Brent Stirton,

2007 Frontline Memorial Tribute Brent Stirton wins the inaugural Frontline Memorial Tribute Award for his photographic essay on gorillas in the eastern part of The Democratic Republic of Congo. The judges focussed on one image in particular (no. 33 from this series link http://www.brentstirton.com/feature-gorillas.php). The image is of a dead male gorilla, one of four found in the forests in Virunga and transported by around 16 rangers.

The awards ceremony will take place at the Frontline Club in London on 20 June. All proceeds from the event will go to the Fixers Fund - set up by the Frontline Club Charitable Trust to promote responsibility in the news industry for the welfare of fixers and translators. The Fixers Fund was inspired by the story of Ajmal Naqshbandi.