From the Frontline: January 2009 Archives
LIVE - Sean Langan and the Taliban
Click To Play Sean Langan will be talking about his Taliban kidnap experiences with award-winning foreign correspondent Sam Kiley at the Frontline Club tonight. Sean, a Frontline Club member and Channel 4 Dispatches journalist, was kidnapped in early 2008 and held hostage for three months. We start at 7pm...more
Meanwhile... in other shoes
Al Zeidi, the now infamous journalist who threw his shoes at outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush, is honoured in artistic fibreglass and copper in Tikrit this week. Artist Laith al Amari has created a giant shoe in honour of Al Zeidi and the Iraqi people. The sculpture is...more
Reporting the Mexico border
Angela Kocherga talks to Poynter about the dangers of reporting from Mexico, particularly around the border cities of Juárez where drug crime and killing are rife, How difficult is it for you, as a journalist, to do your job in Mexico? I assume journalists feel constantly threatened as they cover...more
The Fixers Fund
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...more
The ultimate frontline camera
You've got until February 3rd to bid for the above on eBay. The 'Paillard Bolex H8 Military Gun outfit' is possibly the most bizarre camera you're ever likely to come across. The blurb on the online auction site says it's a "Very interesting and Rare military Gun outfit delivered...more
Live Obama Middle East talk tonight
How will President Barack Obama tackle the Middle East and the United States relationship with the region? That's the question up for debate tonight at the Frontline Club. We start at 7pm GMT / 11am PST tonight Tues 27 Januray. The event is sold out. If you can't make...more
Spoiled crybabies
So, all those Foreign correspondents who couldn't get into Gaza despite the Israeli Supreme court ruling and many, many attempts are nothing but a bunch of "spoiled crybabies". That's the word according to Daniel Seaman, director of Israel's Government Press Office in a statement issued on Sunday, "Israel did...more
The most dangerous profession
At least eight prominent journalists have left Sri Lanka since the assassination of Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunga on the 8th January, "Journalism has perhaps become the most dangerous profession in this country," the privately run [Sunday Leader] said in a front-page editorial on Saturday. "It is riskier than...more
Somalia ransom now $100,000
From $2.5 million to $100,000 - that's the reduction in the ransom demand for the release of Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan according to Canwest today. The duo were kidnapped in Somalia in August, 2008, "Now they want $100,000," [said Dad Abdi Daud, executive...more
Burma VJ
Burma VJ is a documentary film by Danish director Anders Østergaard about the Burmese reporters who risked their lives covering the Saffron revolution in Burma in September 2007. Østergaard assembled the film almost entirely from handheld footage shot during the protests. A journalist, using the pseudonym Joshua and with...more
The Decline of the Foreign Correspondent
Princeton University recently held a panel discussion on the Decline of the Foreign Correspondent. They talk about the "dramatic shift of traditional media away from foreign reporting and the growth of web-based citizen journalists and the effect on coverage of international news and human rights issues" Taking part are,Loren...more
Seven journalists flee Sri Lanka
Following the killing of Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunge seven "prominent" Sri Lankan journalists have left the country, according to Tamil.net. In addition, another journalist and his wife have been attacked in the district of Gampha, Media reports said an editor of a pro-government Sinhala weekly 'Rivira', Upali Tennakoon, and...more
Guns for Russian reporters
Alexander Lebedev, co-owner of Russia's Novaya Gazeta newspaper, has requested the Federal Security Service (FSB) issue firearms to journalists at the paper. The highly unusual request comes after Anastasia Baburova, a 25 years old journalist with the Gazeta, was murdered earlier this week. The paper previously employed Anna Politkovskaya...more
Undercover Zimbabwe film wins award
An undercover film shot in Zimbabwe by Shepherd Yuda, a prison officer, and smuggled out of the country has won the best news programme category in the Broadcast Awards announced last night. The film followed the story of vote rigging during the 2008 election, Zimbabwe: The Stolen Ballots, a...more
Who killed Hrant Dink?
Hrant Dink was shot dead on January 17, 2007 outside the Istanbul offices of Agos, the bilingual Armenian weekly where he worked as editor-in-chief. 20 suspects have been arrested for the killing of the Turkish-Armenian journalist. Eight remain in custody, but none have been charged. To mark the anniversary of...more
Reporter
Reporter is a film about the work of New York Times foreign correspondent Nicholas Kristof. The film, produced by Ben Affleck, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival last week, "As journalism of all kinds becomes more desperate to make money, then there is a tendency to focus more on...more
Anastasia Baburova shot dead in Moscow
Anastasia Baburova was shot dead in Moscow in broad daylight today along with Russian human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov. Baburova was killed as she tried to intervene when Markelov was attacked. The freelance journalist in her mid-20's worked for Novaya Gazeta newspaper, the same newspaper as Anna Politkovskaya who was...more
Journalist and driver released in Somalia
Abdifatah Mohamed Elmi, who was kidnapped along with Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan in August 2008, has been released along with, Marwali, the driver, "We have been released and we are free now after 177 days of ordeal, but our two foreign journalists are still...more
CNN vs. Joe the War Correspondent
I said I wouldn't say anything more about Joe the War Correspondent. And I won't. But, CNN's Rick Sanchez does have something to say to the war correspondent who thinks "media should be abolished from reporting"....more
Reuters bureau hit in Gaza
Reuters journalists in Gaza report that an Israeli missile or shell hit the 13th floor of the Al-Shurouq Tower in Gaza city this morning. A journalist working for an Abu Dhabi television channel on the 14th floor was injured. Reuters evacuated the bureau which is located on the 12th...more
Finbarr O' Reilly discusses Congo LIVE
Reuters snapper Finbarr O' Reilly will be discussing his experience in the Democratic Republic of Congo and what first took him to Africa live online today, Wednesday, Jan. 14. Finbarr will use the excellent mobile phone video broadcast tool Qik to broadcast live at 17.00 GMT / 1200 ET....more
LIVE event: Insight with Tariq Ali on Pakistan
Tariq Ali, the writer, filmmaker and political activist, will be in conversation with journalist Charles Glass at the Frontline Club in London tonight. Ali's latest book, The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power, weighs the prospects of those contending for power in the aftermath of Benazir...more
And then they came for me
Lasantha Wickrematunge, the editor of the Sri Lanka newspaper The Sunday Leader who was murdered on Sunday, wrote his own farewell letter days before he was murdered. I blogged about his brutal murder on 8 January, but I am posting his final editorial in full here, No other profession calls...more
Inside the Gaza tunnels
Two journalists, one living in Gaza and one living in Israel, work together to produce a report on the tunnels that link Egypt and Gaza, Zouheir Alnajjar, a Collective Journalism contributor who lives in Gaza, and Jaron Gilinsky, a CJ Contributor living in Israel, show us two inside perspectives...more
Uma Singh hacked to death in Nepal
Uma Singh, a 26 year old Nepalese journalist who worked for a local radio station in Janakpur in western Nepal, was hacked to death when a group of 15 men entered the room she rented in a house on Sunday night. The attack happened in full view of other...more
Media should be abolished from reporting
I really do not know what to say about this guy... Why don't we all just give up and go home? Joe the plumber/war correspondent/all round idiot says War is no place for journalists. You've got to admit, this is probably the first, the last and the only time...more
Beverly Giesbrecht ransom deal reported
According to unnamed sources in English-language Pakistani News International, a ransom demand of $150,000 has been made for the release of Canadian journalist Beverly Giesbrecht, also known as Khadija Abdul Qahaar, who was kidnapped in Pakistan in November 2008....more
Ala Mortaji killed in Gaza as media outlets targetted
Ala Mortaji, a radio journalist in Gaza, has died on Friday from wounds sustained when Israeli tanks fired at his home in Zaitoun district of Gaza City, Mortaji is the third journalist to be killed in the Israeli violence in Gaza, he worked as a radio broadcast personality in...more
Palestinian camerman Ihab Al-Wahidi killed in Gaza
Ihab Al-Wahidi, a Palestinian journalist based in Gaza, was reportedly killed on Thursday after two tank shells hit his apartment in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood south of Gaza City. Wahidi was employed by Palestine TV and has previously worked as Yasser Arrafat's cameraman. His mother and wife were also...more
Lasantha Wickramatunga shot dead in Colombo
Lasantha Wickramatunga, editor of popular Sri Lankan newspaper The Sunday Leader, has been shot dead as he drove to work in the capital Colombo. The editor, whose newspaper sub header reads "Unbowed And Unafraid", had often been critical of the government. In his last editorial he said, Winning the...more
Global Post looks to engage bloggers
Global Post, a new online news agency, is set to launch on Monday, January 12. The site claims it has 60+ foreign correspondents ready to report from 40+ countries in text, pictures and video. They plan to begin by trying to answer the question: "What does Obama mean to...more
Joe the War Correspondent
Joe the Plumber, who shot to fame when he questioned President elect barrack Obama about his tax plans, is heading to Israel. Yes, Joe the plumber is embarking upon a new career as... a war correspondent with the conservative website pjtv.com. Don't believe me, watch the video above and...more
Live: Viva la Revolucion - Cuba at 50
Click To Play Tonight we'll be discussing Cuba as it celebrates 50 years since the revolution and one year on since Raul Castro officially took power from his brother, Fidel. With a new US president about to take office, the change that has inevitably been creeping up on Cuba...more
For the truth to get out, journalists have to get in
Journalists still can't get into Gaza. The Israeli government have banned media access to the war torn strip. The result for foreign reporters, on the 11th day of this war, is that hundreds of them sit at border points waiting to be granted access by Israeli authorities. The ban...more
The Gaza fixer
Raed Atharmneh works as a fixer in the Gaza strip. Al Jazeera put together a documentary about him in 2007. It's a timely reminder of the work of fixers and journalists in Gaza at a time when many media outlets can't even access Gaza to report on the war....more
The cost of reporting Zimbabwe
Fifty Billion Dollars, originally uploaded by ZeroOne. The Zimbabwe government has announced new restrictive measures for media workers working with foreign news organisations. It will cost up to US$4 000 to practice journalism in Zimbabwe for one year, according to a report in The Zimbabwe Times. Here is a...more
Colin Freeman on being free
Colin Freeman talks on the Daily Telegraph today about his kidnap experience in Somalia. He sounds in good spirits as he discusses being a free man again after his six week ordeal. He's looking forward to a decent pint and trying to give up the smoking habit he picked...more
Telegraph slashes foreign correspondent stringer rates
The Daily Telegraph have slashed their stringer rates by around 40% for freelance foreign correspondents to £60 for news stories up to 400 words. Longer articles have a different rate. In addition, regular stringers will find their monthly retainers either reduced or cut entirely. Others will receive an annual...more
Two journalists killed in Pakistan
Two journalists were among seven killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Government Polytechnic College in Dera Ismail Khan in northern Pakistan yesterday,The suicide bomber struck when police and forensic experts were collecting evidence after cordoning off the area around the teashop. Officials said the head...more
Somalia kidnap victims Colin Freeman and José Cendón are free
Colin Freeman, a journalist with the Daily Telegraph (on the right on the picture below), and Jose Cendon, a freelance photographer, were set free today after being kidnapped in Somalia some six weeks ago on November 26, 2008 while reporting on piracy in Bosasso,"The two journalists are free after their...more
Hassan Mayow killed in Somalia
Hassan Mayow, a Shabelle radio correspondent in Somalia, was shot dead when he was caught in the crossfire between two groups armed with AK-47s in Afgoi some 30km west of Mogadishu on New Year's Day,"Hassan was one of the nimble correspondents of Shabelle radio and was very sincere for...more
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Stories and analysis from journalists around the world and insight into the world of foreign correspondents, war reporters, life on...