From the Frontline: April 2009 Archives
10 worst countries to be a blogger
On the eve of World Press Freedom Day, the Committee to Protect Journalists puts together a list of the 10 worst countries to be a blogger. Visit their site to find out more about the 10 countries and the justification for inclusion. The list, in order, is below and Burma...more
Frontline bloggers - from Syria to Swine Flu
Our ever growing band of Frontline bloggers were busy this past week. Mexico City based Deborah Bonello reports from the unusually empty streets of the Mexican capital, the hospital wards and the restaurants as she follows the swine flu story, Over the course of the last three days I have...more
Frontline Club on Twitter
If you use the increasingly popular microblogging service Twitter, you might be interested to know who is on Twitter from the Frontline blogs, how often they tweet and how to follow them. First up, you'll need an account, Second, find and follow the bloggers that interest you most. Here's a...more
Live tonight - Madagascar with Stephen Ellis
Tonight we discuss the roots of the situation in Madagascar and ask what the future holds for this troubled island nation? Joining us will be Stephen Ellis, an expert on the country and author of Madagascar: A short history and Richard Dowden, Director of the Royal African Society. As...more
Peter Beaumont's secret life of war
Peter Beaumont, Observer journalist who has reported from war zones for twenty years, talks about his experiences on the Guardian website with Tracy McVeigh today. The newspaper runs an excerpt from his latest book, The Secret Life Of War today. Peter will be at the Frontline Club on May 12...more
Taking the flak
Original Frontline TV agency camera woman Tira Shubart recently finished filming and producing a TV comedy series called Taking the Flak about the world of war reporters, stringers and fixers all set in a fictional African country called Karibu. Tira produced the film with Jon Rolph and it draws on...more
Reporting from Gaza
Was it liberating to find themselves without the BBC working alongside? Was it a daunting resonsibility? linkJust two of the questions Judith Townend at journalism.co.uk proposes to ask Al Jazeera journalists Sherine Tadros and Ayman Mohyeldin at 2pm GMT today. The reporters were the only English language reporters in Gaza...more
Doing journalism in Sri Lanka
They live in fear. A dozen have been assassinated. Such is the fate of journalists trying to cover the war in the north of Sri Lanka. linkA report from CBC about journalists working in Sri Lanka. The sub-7 minute feature takes us inside the offices of The Sunday Leader, the...more
Journalists face North Korea trial
Euna Lee and Laura Ling, the two US journalists arrested on the border between North Korea and China in March, are to face trial in Pyongyang according to North Korean state media, Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency said in a short dispatch Friday that the North decided to indict...more
Live tonight - Paul Mason on the financial meltdown
Tonight we'll be in discussion with Paul Mason, BBC Newsnight's Economics Editor, about the financial crisis as we ask the question - Is this the end of the age of greed? Paul will be talking with Michael Wilson, Business Editor of Sky News. As usual, we'll be livestreaming the...more
A world without foreign correspondents
Andrew Stroehlein, Communications Director for the International Crisis Group, wrote a great piece on his Covering Crisis blog on the Reuters AlertNet site. He has very kindly agreed to let us post it on the Frontline blog. He raises a lot of points about under-reported stories, things we regularly cover...more
Live tonight - David Gardner on Obama and the Middle East
David Gardner will be discussing Obama and the Middle East with Channel 4's Jon Snow at the Frontline Club tonight. David is a Financial Times Associate Editor and the Chief Leader Writer. He recently published Last Chance: The Middle East in the balance. We start at the slightly later time...more
How not to read a newspaper
Writing on the Foreign Policy blog Thomas E. Ricks suggests we should start reading newspapers like reporters. His simple, but misguided, point is that we should simply follow the writers we like, look for the bylines we know and love, read those articles and pretty much ignore the rest of...more
The case of Roxana Saberi
The parents of Roxana Saberi, the freelance journalist sentenced to eights years for espionage in Tehran, have visited their daughter in the Iranian capital for the first time since the verdict was dished out at the weekend. The 31 year old was originally arrested for buying a bottle of...more
Not getting into Sri Lanka
Jeremy Page had a surprise wating for him upon arrival at Colombo's Bandaranaike International airport in Sri Lanka. After multiple rejected visa applications to enter the country, The Times South Asia Correspondent decided to go the tried and trusted tourist visa route...A message flashed up on his screen: “DO NOT...more
Reporting Zimbabwe
Writing in The Indypendent Alaina Varvaloucas and Jerry Guo describe the day to day work of journalists in the Zimbabwean capital Harare.Magwenya himself secretly works as a stringer for CNN and has approximately 20 colleagues in Harare who do the same work for other major Western media outlets. Not only...more
Kidnapped in Somalia
Colin Freeman, the Chief foreign correspondent with the Daily Telegraph, talks to ABC News about what it's like to be kidnapped in Somalia. I've posted a snippet of the discussion below. You can see Colin's initial reaction upon release in the news report above. For a longer analysis of...more
Live tonight: Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army
Live Broadcast by Ustream.TV We'll be discussing whether it's the end for Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army at the Frontline Club tonight, 16 April, at 7pm GMT/11am PST. As usual, if you can't make it to the Club in person, we'll be streaming the event live on the...more
I have loved every day and every assignment
The Gulf Breeze News runs a portrait of Fred Waters, a WWII serviceman who later became a war reporter. He worked for the International News Service, which morphed into United Press International, before starting a 34 year career as a foreign correspondent with the Associated Press. There are some interesting...more
Call to lift Sri Lanka media ban
Reporters without borders (RSF) called on the Sri Lankan government to lift the ban on media outlets from entering the war zone in the north east of the country. "It is a disgrace that this war is being waged without independent journalists present," Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said....more
Flak jackets for Somali journalists
The National Union of Somali Journalists issued journalists with flack jackets and helmets at a ceremony at the Hotel Sahafi in the capital Mogadishu on Thursday. 20 journalists, both independent freelancers and staff reporters, were kitted out with the gear donated by the Doha Centre for Media Freedom, “These...more
Live tonight - Is it too late for the local papers?
Live Video streaming by Ustream We'll be discussing the fate of the regional press at the Frontline Club tonight. Taking part will be Roy Greenslade, Commentator and Columnist, Jon Slattery, Freelance journalist, William Yarker, Director in Deloitte's Media Consulting Practice and others. We get started at 7pm GMT /11am...more
The Day of Killed Journalists
Turkey commemorated the 13th Day of Killed Journalists on Monday. 62 journalists have been killed in the country to date. To mark the day, journalists gathered at the grave of the first victim, Hasan Fehmi, the editor of Serbesti newspaper, who was killed in 1909,“We expect the facilities for journalists...more
Slain Sri Lankan editor wins World Press Freedom Prize 2009
Lasantha Wickrematunge, the editor of the Sunday Leader newspaper in Sri Lanka who was assassinated in January 2009, has been named laureate of the 2009 UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize,“Jury members were moved to an almost unanimous choice by a man who was clearly conscious of the dangers he faced...more
Live tonight: John D McHugh - War in Multimedia
Live Streaming by Ustream.TV Multimedia journalist and Frontline Club Journalism Award winner John D. McHugh will be talking at the Frontline Club tonight about reporting war across a range of media for The Guardian newspaper. We start at 7pm GMT/11am PST and as usual we will be streaming the...more
Live tonight: Stephen Grey on investigative journalism in Helmand
<a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&task=viewaltcast&altcast_code=480be8a296" >Stephen Grey on investigative journalism in Helmand</a> Stephen Grey will be at the Frontline Club tonight to discuss his investigative journalism work in Helmand province, Afghanistan. As usual, if you can't make it to the club in person, we'll be streaming the event live on the Frontline...more
Sri Lanka government to investigate journalists
The Sri Lankan government has appointed a Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate the work of journalists "who have been contributing articles detrimental to the interests of Sri Lanka to foreign Non Governmental Organizations", according to Sri Lanka Defence Spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella. Government will reveal names of those Sri Lankan...more
Freelance journalist missing in Zimbabwe
Kudzai Musengi, a freelance journalist based in Gweru, is missing according to an alert issued by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Zimbabwe) today. Musengi failed to return home after normal working hours on 31 March and family and colleagues have not been able to contact him.MISA-Zimbabwe strongly appeals to...more
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