From the Frontline: June 2008 Archives
Sean Langan talks after Taliban ordeal
Sean Langan drops by in the comments to say thanks to all those who worried about him during his kidnap ordeal at the hands of the Taliban in the borders area between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Just wanted to pass on my deep gratitude to all those in the foreign...more
Getting ready for Beirut
Ana Maria Luca, a journalist based in Bucharest working for the Antena 3 TV network, is about to become Beirut correspondent for the channel. She's just back from her 'war reporter training' in Romania, Seriously speaking, it was a hell of an experience. Doing the physical exercises, and trying...more
Mohammed Omer beaten unconscious
The People's Voice reports that Mohammed Omer, the Gaza-based journalist and winner of a BAFTA award, was allegedly beaten unconscious by Israeli troops on his way back home to Gaza, My dear friend and brother Mohammed Omer returned to his native Gaza Strip on Thursday… literally unconscious and unable to...more
AP hacks win Award for cyclone coverage
The Associated Press Managing Editors Association have honoured the journalists who covered the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in Burma with its deadline reporting award, "Neither the danger nor the difficulty stopped [Aye Aye Win, the AP's correspondent in Yangon] or her colleagues from telling the world what happened," the judges...more
Cullen comes up a thousand deutsche marks short
Kevin Cullen, columnist on the Boston Globe, remembers an incident in Montenegro with Dave Lynch, a reporter for USA Today, and how the BBC hoodwinked them out of a seat on the plane to Serbia, We found ourselves in a seedy bar in Podgorica, the gray capital of Montenegro, asking...more
Lara Logan and the death of foreign news coverage
It's desperately ironic that one week Lara Logan bemoans the abysmal state of the US media coverage of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. While, one week later, she finds herself the target of more media coverage than both wars combined. But Why? She didn't start another war, did she? No,...more
Breaking Burma
nargis77_g, originally uploaded by TZA. When Cyclone Nargis hit Burma on May 2 the BBC managed to get a succession of journalists into the country despite a ban on the broadcasting corporation from entering the country. The BBC World Service talk to the journalists who made it into the...more
Frontline Club live - Making it pay
Live tonight from the Frontline Club, 7.30pm UK time. A debate about the economic model for online newspapers. Follow the livestream here. More information below, UPDATE: Here's the recording of this event. And here are some images. As the internet fast becomes the dominant medium for news delivery, we...more
New job for Lara Logan
Lara Logan, CBS Chief foreign correspondent, is set to switch jobs and location. She will move from London to Washington D.C. Her new role will be Chief foreign affairs correspondent. However, she will still cover the war in Iraq and cover stories elsewhere, “She will still travel all over the...more
David Axe on Radio 5 Live
Chris Vallance, presenter of BBC Radio 5 Live's Pods and Blogs show, interviews David Axe in Chad. You can hear the report here and you can follow David's trip on the border of Sudan on his Frontline blog. To listen direct click here - I think this link is good...more
Insight with Alan Rusbridger LIVE
Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, will be livestreaming from the Frontline Club tonight. Stephen Sackur, BBC TVs HardTalk presenter, will be interviewing the editor about the highs and lows of a career as one of the longest standing Fleet Street editors, What have been the high and low...more
More trouble in Chad
Finbarr O'Reilly, Reuters snapper and World Press photo 2006 winner, is currently in Chad. He found himself in a spot of bother as he haretails it through the desert of the eastern part of the country. Harsh light and shifting shadows in the windblown desert of eastern Chad can...more
Surprise find in Baghdad
Somewhat startling news that Lee Abrams, chief innovation officer at the Tribune company, is surprised to find the Tribune group - which includes some 11 newspapers and various broadcast outlets - has a reporter in Iraq for the LA Times. In an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic he...more
Zimbabwe in slides
TIME publish a slideshow of images from Zimbabwe on the eve of the "run off election" set for tomorrow. Click the image above to see 15 images from Zimbabwe in recent days....more
The Inquirer Award 2008
Richard Makepeace, the British Consul General in Jerusalem, today launched The Inquirer Award 2008 which aims to celebrate the very best in investigative reporting from the Middle East. The award will be managed by Thomson Foundation, Print and television journalists will compete for The Inquirer Award 2008 which aims to...more
Reporting Zimbabwe
The Committee to Protect Journalists produce an audio slideshow of journalists discussing the difficulties of reporting from Zimbabwe and the great risks involved for little or even no money. The slideshow is an accompaniment to a larger article entitled Bad to worse published today ahead of the June 27...more
Sean Langan freed
Sean Langan, regular at the Frontline Club and an award winning Channel 4 reporter who works on Dispatches, was freed yesterday after a three month kidnap ordeal in a deal forged by his family, "We are absolutely thrilled that Sean is back in the UK and free," they said....more
Trouble in Abeche
Frontline blogger David Axe and photographer Anne Holmes think they're onto a story when they hear gunfire in the Chadian city Abeche. The story appears to have been little more than a misunderstanding that finds David in the wrong place at the wrong time, We’d seen plenty of shooting and...more
War reporting is too expensive
[video:youtube:CT-Hq117w8s] Following on from Lara Logan's broadside on the American media coverage of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars - the CBS Chief Foreign Correspondent said she would "blow her brains out" if she had to watch what passed for news in the US - The New York Times follows up...more
Mohammed Omer makes it to London
BAFTA award winner Mohammed Omer, journalist and Gaza Correspondent for the Washington Report accepted his award in London at the weekend. To say Mohammed had a difficult journey out of Gaza to the awards is something of an understatement. Click the image above to watch Mohammed's acceptance speech introduced...more
Shooting the messenger
Shooting the Messenger, Al Jazeera's documentary on the deliberate killing and intimidation of journalists in conflict zones, investigates how international reporters became targets. In the past, members of the media were considered to be neutral in time of war. They were much like paramedics in the sense that their...more
Mapping media deaths
MSN have created an interactive map of journalists killed in 2008, Plotted according to where they were killed, the map shows 31 deaths this year, according to figures from the International News Safety Institute. link via journalism.co.uk...more
Frontline Journalism Awards tonight
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...more
Tribute to Nasteh Dahir Farah
Media workers from across Somalia paid tribute today to Nasteh Dahir Farah at a Safety awareness training course organised by National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) and the International News Safety Institute. Nasteh Dahir Farah was the Vice president of the NUSOJ, before he was murdered in Kismayu on 7...more
Video diary from Burma
Dr Chris van Tulleken, from the aid agency Merlin and a Frontline Club member, reports from Burma on the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. Chris is the first aid worker allowed free access to film wherever he wanted in the Irrawaddy Delta since the cyclone wrecked this region, Finally we...more
Mona Alami on Lebanese media
Mona Alami, a Beirut based French-Lebanese journalist, writing for the Inter Press Service describes the failings of Lebanese media outlets. Assassinations, physical threats, political pressure, biased reporting, lack of professionalism, rampant corruption and self-censorship are what she calls the seven deadly sins of Lebanese newsrooms, The most severe [sin] is...more
Australian journalist shot in Kandahar
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that an Australian journalist was shot in the arm near Kandahar. The journalist is believed to be 36-year-old Jamie Kidston, a former cameraman for SBS Television, A [Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade] spokesman said the Australian, from NSW, was being treated at medical...more
Scottish war reporter serialised
All Media Scotland begin publishing a series of extracts from the memoirs of Scottish war correspondent, Paul Harris today. The book, ‘More Thrills than Skills: A Half-life in Journalism’, is scheduled for publication in 2009, I’d always wanted to be a journalist. I can remember exactly what inspired this bizarre...more
Journalists in Sri Lanka under threat
The International Herald Tribune reports on the increasing threats to the journalists working in Sri Lanka. At least 100 reporters have been attacked, 25 journalists have fled the country and several others have gone underground, said [Sunanda] Deshapriya of the Free Media Movement... Iqbal Athas, a high-profile defense columnist for...more
Mushtaq Yusufzai collects Kate Webb Award
Mushtaq Yusufzai, the Pakistani journalist who was announced the inaugural winner of the Kate Webb Award last month, picked up his award at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong last night. He won the award for his reports from Pakistan's tribal belt, "It is very difficult now to...more
Four charged for Politkovskaya murder
"Three suspects have been charged with the murder of [Anna Politkovskaya]: Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov," the Investigations Committee said in a statement announcing the end of the high-profile murder inquiry. A fourth man, Pavel Ryaguzov, an officer in Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), the former KGB, has been...more
Amnesty International Media Awards 2008
Deborah Haynes, Baghdad based foreign correspondent for The Times, was announced the winner of the National Newspaper reporting award at the Amnesty International Media Awards last night. Deborah is a regular on this blog with highlights from her Inside Iraq blog. The Press Gazette reports that among the winners was...more
Are we just numb?
[video:youtube:zh2A_SYuhls] That's the question Jon Stewart, presenter of the Daily Show, asked Lara Logan, chief correspondent for CBS News, on the show he presents last night, I mean, there were 51 people killed today in a Shia neighborhood in Iraq. Are we just numb? Have we lost our humanity with...more
From Broadway to Baghdad
Campbell Robertson, New York Times Broadway gossip columnist, is heading to Iraq - "once the Tony's are over" - for the United States leading broadsheet. Explaining the decision James Glanz, Baghdad Bureau Chief, says the paper could do with some fresh ideas, “Look, he’s an untraditional war correspondent the way...more
Live tonight: Philip Gourevitch on Iraq
Philip Gourevitch, author, journalist and longtime staff writer of the New Yorker will be talking about Iraq, Abu Ghraib and his most recent book, Standard Operating Procedure, with the journalist Nick Fielding at the Frontline Club tonight. More details on the event can be found here. And don't forget,...more
Misha Glenny wants less pressure, more informed hacks
Blogging from the International Press Institute world congress in Belgrade, Roy Greenslade reports on a talk by former BBC correspondent Misha Glenny on the changing work pattern for BBC foreign correspondents. Misha calls for more informed journalists and less pressure to report on multiple platforms, "When I started at BBC,...more
War reporting cost me my marriage
Richard Engel talks to VOA News about his work as a war reporter for NBC and the toll it has taken on his personal life. Engel says his job cost him his marriage. He was recently promoted to the position of NBC Chief Foreign correspondent and he is based...more
Interview with Lara Marlowe
Lara Marlowe, Irish Times foreign correspondent, has reported from Algeria, Serbia, Iraq and the wider Middle East. She talks to the Media Channel about how she became a foreign correspondent and about that dreaded 21st century term "embedding", The only embedded journalists I came across were in the accreditation...more
Cameras not guns
David Schlesinger, Reuters editor-in-chief, writes on the Reuters Editors blog about journalism safety and the case of Fadel Shana - the Reuters cameraman who was killed by an Israeli tank shell, A military that has sophisticated intelligence and identification methods can learn to tell a camera from a gun....more
Reuters killing justified
The Press Gazette reports that a US government inquiry into the killing of Reuters soundman Waleed Khaled and the wounding of cameraman Haider Kadhem in Iraq 2005 was justified, The Office of the Inspector General of the US Department of Defense report into the killing of soundman Waleed Khaled...more
Iraqi TV reporter killed
A Iraqi TV reporter in the northern city of Mosul has been shot and killed according to reports just coming in from AP, An Iraqi policeman says gunmen emerged from a car Tuesday and opened fire on Muhieddin Abdul-Hamid near his apartment in eastern Mosul. An official with Iraqiya state...more
In the frame with Véronique de Viguerie
Véronique de Viguerie's image on Afghan men in Kandahar is profiled on the excellent Verve Photo blog, “I took this picture in Kandahar. I was doing a story on the growing influence of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. I was told that the Taliban were using poor people to...more
Broadcasting House memorial
The BBC New Broadcasting House Memorial web page accompanies the unveiling of the Breathing sculpture built to commemorate the deaths of journalists killed in the line of work. Three of the names mentioned on the memorial page will be familiar to Frontline Club members. Former Frontline TV agency journalists Nick...more
In memoriam
BBC Radio 4 newsreader Harriet Cass reads a poem in honour of murdered journalists. Click the image above to listen. For more on the memorial to murdered journalists see this post. via sambrook UPDATE: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon gives a speech at the opening ceremony....more
Live tonight: Sorious Samura screening & discussion
African journalist and film maker Sorious Samura will screen his latest film at the Frontline Club tonight and you can watch the live stream of the film and the discussion afterwards on our ustream channel. The event starts at 7.30pm UK time. There's more information on the event here....more
Michael Norton dies age 66
Michael Norton worked as the AP Haiti correspondent. He spent the best part of 20 years covering the Caribbean republic. He died in Caguas, Puerto Rico on Sunday after a long battle with cancer, Unlike many who covered Haiti from hotels, Norton lived like many Haitians - struggling through...more
Dozier receives Peabody tonight
Kimberley Dozier will recieve her Peabody award for journalism tonight. She talks to David Bauder of the Associated Press about her work, the award, her desire to go overseas again and getting recognised in the supermarket, "When people recognize me in a grocery store or something, it's like, 'Oh,...more
Bags of journalism
Frontline bloggers, Rob Crilly and Alex Strich are on the move today. Rob is off to the DRC and Alex is on his way back to Kabul before moving on to Kandahar. They've both blogged what's in their kitbag. For Rob, it's back to the future, Sony Tape Recorder -...more
Who exactly were the detainees at Guantánamo?
That's the question a small band of journalists at The Miami Herald set themselves the task of answering in what the newspaper calls "one of the most methodical and challenging reporting projects anyone has undertaken this year." The story took over eight months and involved travel to eleven countries. The...more
Flying into Baghdad
New York Times photographer Michael Kamber describes his most recent flight into Baghdad, Circling over Baghdad, the pilot corkscrews down to avoid ground fire. Landing here, your imagination does the work, scanning the ground for the flash of something being launched, as if you could do anything anyway. But...more
A year on
Alan Johnston talks to The Times about his life just over a year since he was kidnapped in Gaza. July will mark one year since his release, "I tried to make it a normal day, but I could remember everything that was happening to me that day a year ago,â€...more
James Nachtwey on hyperawareness
James Nachtwey, the multi-award winning war photographer, talked about his work at the LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville at the weekend. Photo District News has more, "People have asked me many times how I've survived so many battles," [said Nachtwey]. "It's really a matter of being mindful of...more
This is Mike India in North Kivu
Goma flyktninger 18, originally uploaded by cyclopsr. Michel Sibilondire runs a radio station in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After a decade of war the UN hired him to run the radio show which is broadcast in four languages. The show has run for four years...more
Pilger scoops media award
[video:youtube:to6uNUTf8g4] John Pilger's War on Democracy fought off competition from the BBC Storyville documentaries Taxi to the Dark Side and Please Vote for Me to take the award for best TV Documentary at last night's One World Media Awards. link...more
All have their story here
From 10pm tonight a shaft of light will light up the sky above BBC Broadcasting House in London. Every evening at the same time, the ten metre high glass and steel structure will be turned on as a memorial to journalists who have died doing their job. Relatives of...more
Joseph E. Stiglitz interviewed live tonight
Live tonight from the Frontline club in London: Joseph E. Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics, and author of The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict, talks to Stephanie Flanders, BBC Economic Editor, about the real cost of the Iraq war....more
Zoriah in the red zone
Latest shots from Zoriah inside the red zone in Baghdad are on Flickr. Click the image above to watch the slideshow. His blog is here....more
Alex heads back to Afghanistan
Live from the streets of London via Twitterpower. Alex begins the process of heading back to Afghanistan....more
Peace not war
In Jakarta, Indonesia the government is trying to encourage the national press to put the focus on peace journalism and not war journalism, "It would be better for the national press not merely to develop war journalism such as communal violence or clashes," Henry Subiakto, assistant for mass media to...more
David Axe heading to Chad
Frontline blogger David Axe is heading to Chad and Sudan tomorrow. He'll be blogging when he can. He'll also be the second Frontline blogger to experiment with the mobile phone live streaming video tool called Qik. Kyle is already a big fan, but David will see how (and if) the...more
Reporting the red zone
The New York Observer begins a week of reports, called Reporting the Red Zone, focussing on the lives of journalists stationed in Baghdad, "It’s the oft-stated phrase that truth is the first casualty of war,†said Michael Ware, CNN’s Baghdad correspondent, on the telephone from Iraq. “In this war,...more
Silent mourning for Abdul Samad Rohani
TV and radio stations across Britain mourned the loss of Abdul Samad Rohani with a two minute silence. Meanwhile a memorial to the young reporter, who worked for the BBC in Helmand province, has been organised, The memorial had been organised by Afghan journalist unions for their murdered colleague....more
No sleep in Stockholm
Mohammed Omer, winner of the 2008 Martha Gellhorn prize, talks to Menassat in Stockholm. The biggest problem for the Rafah resident in the Swedish capital? He can't sleep, it's too quiet. No bombs, "It's strange. I can hardly sleep here. Where I come from, quietness represents the calm before...more
The China Guide for snappers
Photo District News Online talked to ten photographers who have photographed in mainland China and asks their advice on how best to work in this heavily censored country, "Sometimes the political situation is dominant (anti-NATO riots 1999, the annual party congress), and sometimes it fades. But during the Olympics you...more
What's the economic model for news?
[video:youtube:a3n6qMGvpw8] We're watching the Roman Empire fall apparently and we're in the era of barbarian thieftans. Can't argue with that. Josh Marshall, founder of Talking Points Memo blog, paints a paperless picture for the future of news at a conference last month at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society...more
Films from the frontline
John D. McHugh's latest video report from Afghanistan is live on The Guardian website. John also has another film, "Captain McChrystal's Thanksgiving" and a new audio slideshow called "Not fit for task" up on the site too. Both are part of a "flash" presentation. John dropped me an email...more
Banned from Afghanistan?
Sir Max Hastings says he's been banned from the battlefields of Afghanistan by Defence Secretary Des Browne. Hastings has been a regular visitor to war zones for more than 20 years. Talking to The First Post he explains further, "I asked to go, as I've so often gone to British...more
Are the Taliban winning?
Live streaming video from the Frontline Club events room tonight. Just click the image above to go to the live channel page at 7.30pm UK time, 11 June. Taking part will be Alastair Leithead (BBC), James Fergusson (journalist and author), James Appathurai (NATO), John D McHugh (photojournalist) and Mawlavi...more
Ziv Koren and the finger camera
Annaliza Savage, Wired.com's multimedia editor, writes about how photographer Ziv Koren used a "finger camera" on top of his camera while photographing conflict zones. Film director Solo Avital later used a mix of stills and video to produce the More than 1000 Words documentary, In order to film Koren...more
How much violence can we show?
The New Times in the Rwandan capital Kigali ponders whether or not BBC World should have shown the picture of a man whose right ear had been chopped off in violence in the run up to the Zimbabwe election "run off" later this month, Such pictures quite often pose a...more
Guardian announces head of international news
Harriet Sherwood was appointed as head of international news at The Guardian today. Sherwood joined the paper in 1989 rising from sub to the position of Foreign editor five years ago. She is one of five new heads announced at the newspaper....more
Algeria withdraws press credentials
Two journalists, one working for Reuters the other for AFP, have had their press credentials withdrawn according to The Media Line, The Reuters journalist reported an explosion in Algeria earlier this week, in which it said 20 people were killed. The government said the bombing never occurred. The Reuters journalist...more
Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani sentenced to six years
Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani, a veteran journalist and one of Yemen's most prominent democracy advocates, has been sentenced to six years in jail with hard labour for supporting an alleged terrorist group. He spoke with Amnesty shortly before he was imprisoned, "The authorities in Yemen are trying to silence me and...more
Philippine TV crew abducted
Three journalists from the Philippine network ABS-CBN in the southern Philippine province of Sulu were abducted on Sunday. They are journalist Ces Drilon, cameraman Jimmy Encarnacion, and assistant cameraman Angelo Valderama, Armed men seized the three journalists from a car in Maimbung town on Jolo island on Sunday morning, according...more
Snappers speak
The British Journal of Photography is holding a series of lectures this month. Among the snappers set to speak is Sean Smith. Sean works for The Guardian and previously spoke at the Frontline Club. He is currently in Iraq, Among the [speakers] will be two of Britain’s top portrait photographers,...more
Ahmad Rafat wins press freedom award
Ahmad Rafat, deputy director of Adnkronos International (AKI) has won the Ilaria Alpi Television Journalism Award for Freedom of the Press. The Italo-Iranian journalist hit the headlines last week when he was barred access to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization's global food summit, Rafat, who has spent years...more
Human rights and the Olympics
Reporters Without Borders urges the leaders of the Olympic Movement to consider the respect for human rights and freedom of expression in awarding future Olympic Games to avoid the controversy around the Beijing Olympics and torch procession, "Discussion of the criteria for assigning future Olympics must begin now if a...more
Know your DBIEDs from your HBIEDs
Deborah Haynes, Baghdad Correspondent for The Times, navigates the world of military acronymns, As a journalist, I spend a fair amount of time asking someone to translate into real English (or at least real American English) what is being said when on an embed with soldiers. link Even so,...more
In a Perfect world...
I'm an avid user of Google News, but I'm not sure I'll ever see a day when the front page looks like this. via cyberjournalist...more
From Gaza to London
Mohammed Omar, in an article republished by the International Middle East Media Center, tries to work out a way to get from Gaza to collect the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in London next week, How can I get out at a time when Israel is not allowing even...more
Reporting from Sarajevo
Vildana Selimbegovic recalls her baptism into the world of war reporting in an interview with Transitions Online today. She talks about reporting in Sarajevo, present day threats to journalists in Bosnia and the future for the country, “My university professors used to tell us, ‘Do you really think that you...more
Lebanon - Civil War or Ceasefire?
[video:brightcove:1593347291] Lebanon was debated at the Frontline Club last week. And we have the video of the event above. Taking part are; Ian Black, The Guardian's Middle East editor, Alistair Harris, an independent security consultant, former UK diplomat and UN staff member based in Lebanon, Dr. Jonathan Spyer is a...more
BBC on journalist deaths
Jon Williams, BBC World News Editor, blogs about the deaths of Abdul Samad Rohani and Nasteh Dahir, the two BBC journalists killed this past weekend, Last year, the International News Safety Institute reported that two journalists had been killed every week over the past ten years - a thousand media...more
Dinner with Mugabe
[video:brightcove:1593363797] The Zimbabwe election runoff vote is set for June 27. Last week author Heidi Holland was at the Frontline Club to talk about her book, Dinner with Mugabe. The book attempts to unravel the mind behind the man who runs the corrupt regime of Zimbabwe. Adam Roberts from The...more
How the soldier repairs the gramophone
BBC journalist Allan Little talks to Sasa Stanisic, author of How the soldier repairs the gramophone - the English translation of which arrives in bookshops tomorrow - and remembers the day the war arrived in the town of Visegrad, on the River Drina, which separates Bosnia from Serbia, I...more
Murdered BBC journalist buried
Abdul Samad Rohani, the 25 year old BBC journalist murdered in Helmand province on Sunday, was buried in his home cemetery in the district of Marja today, "Unknown armed men had abducted Rohani and his body was found yesterday. He had four bullets shot at his chest. We are...more
John Moore on Pakistan
[video:brightcove:1593364051] John Moore talks about his work at the Frontline Club. The photographer has worked in Pakistan for over two years and was present when Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. He is interviewed by Frontline Club member Christina Lamb....more
Abdul Samad Rohani killed in Lashkar Gah
BBC journalist Abdul Samad Rohani was found shot dead in Lashkar Gah in southern Helmand province, Afghanistan today, A BBC statement said Rohani's "bravery - and that of his colleagues - have allowed us to tell a key story for audiences in the UK, in Afghanistan and around the world"....more
Nasteh Dahir killed in Somalia
Nasteh Dahir was killed in Somalia yesterday. The local journalist worked for the BBC and the AP. The National Union of Somali Journalists called it a "targeted assasination". Our man Rob Crilly has more, Those of us who flit in and out of Somalia owe a heck of a lot...more
Foreign minister's memorial
Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland's Foreign minister, is in Afghanistan agreeing aid deals with Hamid Karzai's government. He also unveiled a plaque in honour of his friend, Andy Skrzypkowiak, a British war correspondent who was killed in 1987. Back then Sikorski was himself a war correspondent, 'I have the feeling I'm paying...more
Wadah Khanfar to deliver Guardian keynote
Wadah Khanfar, the director general of al-Jazeera, will be giving the keynote speech at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival in August. He'll be focussing on the superficial, immediate and unfiltered reporting that plagues what is called news coverage today, He will expand on his belief that international journalism is...more
Refugee status for Iraqi journalists
The Iraqi staff of McClatchy Newspapers in the Baghdad bureau ponder the news that Iraqis working for US media organisations will be considered for a refugee programme, But one question kept coming up again and again. "How will we be treated there?" "Do they discriminate against Muslims?" "Will my wife...more
dispatches set for launch
Dispatches, the new current affairs journal, launches at the Frontline Club tomorrow night - Friday 6 June at 8pm. It's a quarterly publication focussing on global issues, in-depth reportage and superb photography. You are all invited to the launch, so come along if you can make it, Gary Knight,...more
Cowboy defence analysts
Media watchers in Sri Lanka were on the ragged end of some severe criticism from the government's Ministry of Defence today. The Khaleej Times has more, ‘We do not mind any person trying to make his living by writing whatever crap to the newspapers. Yet, we too have our right...more
Fighting for peace
zoriah_graffiti_latrine_toilette_soldier_war_iraq_diary, originally uploaded by Zoriah. Zoriah is a photojournalist reporting from Kuwait and into Iraq. He's using a blog to document his work and some of the quirkier sights he encounters. For example, the toilets stalls on Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, Photography in Ali Al Salem...more
Open Tibet to journalists
Reporters without borders calls on China to extend the apparent openness following the recent earthquake in Sichuan province to reporters working in Tibet, "The government is allowing the foreign media a remarkable and unprecedented level of freedom in Sichuan," Reporters Without Borders said. "It should be extended to the Tibetan...more
Doug Schmidt outside the wire
Doug Schmidt will spend six weeks filing stories from the frontline in Afghanistan. He'll be reporting for the Canadian newspaper, The Windsor Star, and blogging on his Outside the Wire blog....more
Give the man a dime...
Frontline blogger David Axe is cap in hand as he heads out to Chad and Sudan in the coming days. The Guerilla News Network is helping him raise $5,000 to make the trip to report on the European peacekeeping force and the U.N. refugee camps out there, I believe that...more
Are you constantly worried?
Just how do you report from a country under the control of a dictatorial regime? That's the question posed in this half hour NPR programme, “This is a dangerous job,†[Ethan Bronner, New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief] said, citing the kidnapping and murder of the late Wall Street Journal...more
From Baghdad to Brixton
Colin Freeman, the Daily Telegraph's chief foreign correspondent, compares living and working in Baghdad to life back on the streets of London, Britain's streets may be cleaner than those in war zones, but in the past couple of years they have acquired something of a similar aura of random violence:...more
The thin line
Peter Calamai from the Toronto Star reflects upon reporting from war zones and how 25 years ago newspapers were far more reluctant to use the photographs they publish today. At the end of it all, what was the point? What was the purpose of all this journalistic effort? We...more
Hostile environment training for student journalists
[video:youtube:FxinugZalOA] Student Steve Lestrange reports from a Hostile Environment training course undertaken by University College Falmouth MA International Journalism students. Doesn't sound quite as hair-raising as the Reuters equivalent, but the weather looks worse....more
Inside Burma
[video:brightcove:1579853638] Discussion about Burma from the Frontline Club this week. The questions on the table, What is the situation in the worst affected areas and how much aid is actually getting through? And what is the relationship between the military junta and the international community? link Taking part are; Ashley...more
Ian Parry Scholarship deadline June 20
The deadline for the Ian Parry Scholarship is June 20. Entrants need to upload a digitial portfolio of their work to the Ian Parry website before the deadline, Ian Parry was a photojournalist who died while on assignment for The Sunday Times during the Romanian revolution in 1989. He...more
Three 'Sky' journalists arrested in Zimbabwe
Three South Africans arrested last weekend in Esigodini, Matabeleland South, in alleged possession of broadcasting equipment belonging to television network Sky News, appeared in court yesterday facing charges of contravening provisions of the Post and Telecommunications Act. The three, Bennet Hassen Sono, Resemate Chauke, and Simon Maodi, jointly charged with...more
Christiane Amanpour wins Fourth Estate Award
CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour will receive the National Press Club’s Fourth Estate Award. The award is given annually to an "individual who has achieved distinction for a lifetime of contributions to American journalism", “I have always believed this to be a noble profession, and I am passionate...more
Portrait of a fixer - Daoud Hari in Darfur
Daoud Hari, author of The Translator, is profiled in the Daily Telegraph during a book promotion trip to New York. After his village in Darfur was attacked by Janjaweed militia he took to helping NGOs and foreign journalists get the story out. He became a fixer. 'The journalists were...more
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