By Pete Ford
Director Tobias Lindner brought his fascinating documentary Orania to a packed Frontline Club on Monday 20 May.
Described as “a remote village in the barren centre of South Africa – an ‘intentional community’ where only white Afrikaans people live”, Orania is relatively unknown globally. But Lindner, a German who has spent long enough in the country to be fluent in Afrikaans, explained that “in South Africa, it is inevitable that you will hear about the place.”
By George Symonds
On Friday 17th May, a series of short films curated by the Frontline Club took the audience on a cinematic journey from Sarajevo to Prague, to Kabul, Aleppo and Moscow.
We started in Sarajevo with The Fuse: or How I Burned Simon Bolivar, directed by Igor Drljača.
“Dear God, I don’t know if you exist. My parents say you don’t, but Grandma says you do.”
So began a prayer by a nine year-old boy who wanted a way to avoid going to school, afraid of his mark in art class. The Bosnian War begins the very next day. School is cancelled, but the boy is left wondering if it was not his request that started the war. Drljača uses home video footage to craft a powerful, personal story of youthful innocence, fear and confusion within the cataclysmic effects of conflict.
By Sally Ashley-Cound
Bangkok-based photographer Nic Dunlop, in conversation with BBC foreign correspondent Fergal Keane, previewed his new book Brave New Burma at the Frontline Club on Wednesday 15th May. Twenty years in the making, Brave New Burma explores the country from the ongoing civil war to its deceptively tranquil cities, using both photographs and words by Dunlop.
Fergal Keane (L) and Nic Dunlop. Photo credit: Sally Ashley-Cound
by Anna Reitman
Cold war politics have never seemed more relevant in the 21st century. Relations between the US and Russia are reaching new lows over geopolitical hot spots while the White House dodges questions about the detainment in Moscow of an alleged CIA recruiting agent.
These might seem like old stories, but a decidedly hi-tech twist is emerging as Russia’s surveillance state comes into the spotlight. On 14 May, panelists at the Frontline Club discussed the advancement of internet censorship, monitoring technologies and potential impacts on individual freedoms in Russia.
L-R: Misha Glenny, Andrei Soldatov, Irina Borogan and Edward Lucas. Photo credit: Millicent Teasdale
By Jim Treadway
In 2010 U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning committed the largest security breach in US history, handing the classified Afghan War Diary, Iraq War Logs, and 250,000 State Department cables to Wikileaks. Imagery like that of an American helicopter team gunning down citizens and journalists on a Baghdad street in 2007 has been lodged in the global consciousness.
With Manning standing trial before a military court in June, the Frontline Club engaged an expert panel on Monday 15 May to ask what lies ahead for the whistleblower, along with what his experience might mean to governments and the media.
(L-R): Naomi Colvin, Chase Madar, Richard Gizbert and David Leigh. Photo credit: Jim Treadway
By Alex Glynn
Stark facts and personal tales of attacks on the press took the centre stage at the Frontline Club on Wednesday 8th May, in a session chaired by BBC Global News director Peter Horrocks
Elizabeth Witchel from CPJ details the findings from their current report on press freedom. Photo: Alex Glynn
One World Echoes in London is a series of human rights film screenings supported by by the Czech Centre London. Celebrating the 15th anniversary of One World, Europe´s largest human rights film festival established in Prague in 1998 by the Czech NGO People in Need. This series offers a selection of extraordinary documentary films exploring societies and individual lives from a human rights perspective. Representing various countries where People in Need, the biggest NGO in Eastern Europe, runs its human rights, relief and development projects.
One World Echoes are co-organised by the Czech Centre London, Open City Docs Fest London 20-23 June 2013 and the Frontline Club.
Mobile networks in even the most benign democracies are required by law to build monitoring systems into their infrastructure. The powers that be can then use this data in a number of ways, ranging from disclosure, where historical records are released under a government request, to real time interception of location, numbers called and when you called them.
The risk of being tracked through your mobile phone usage is clearly heightened in less stable states. There are a number of practical solutions which can be used to minimise your footprint on a network.
1. Don’t turn on a phone until you are away from an airport or point of entry. Border control is where your phone and number can be most easily attributed to you and flagged for interception. Some border posts may also use an IMSI-Catcher which forces all mobile phones passing through to authenticate to a false network, which then attaches the mobile number in use to your identity.
By Jasper Wenban-Smith, International Editor, Foresight News
Monday 6 May
The high-profile trial in Germany of Beate Zschäpe, an alleged member of a group called the National Socialist Underground (NSU), is due to open on Monday in Munich. Zschäpe and four others face charges in connection with the deaths of ten people, eight of whom were Turkish.
By Nishat Ahmed
As Pakistan gears up for crucial general elections in just over a week, on 1 May the Frontline Club hosted a panel discussion, First Wednesday: Pakistan goes to the polls, to consider the country’s prospects.
The panelists on the evening were journalist and author Irfan Husain, Pir Zubair Shah of the Council on Foreign Relations, Umber Khairi, a producer and radio broadcaster with BBC Urdu at the BBC World Service and the High Commissioner of Pakistan to the UK, Wajid Shamsul Hasan.
L-R: Irfan Husain, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Umber Khairi, Pir Zubair Shah Photo credit: Adil Shahzeb
Chaired by Paddy O’Connell of BBC Radio 4′s Broadcasting House, the debate aimed to give an overview of the main political parties contesting in the election – to be held on 11 May – marking their distinctions along religious and political lines. They also discussed their electioneering pledges as well as the ensuing threats and violence at rallies.
Read more →
Speak Justice: Voices Against Impunity is a global campaign powered by Committee to Protect Journalists to tackle impunity. Find out more about the campaign HERE.
Elisabeth Witchel from CPJ and others will be joining us on Wednesday 8 May to discuss the level of the problem and the work being done to combat it. Details HERE.
By Lizzie Kendal
On Monday 29 April, the Frontline Club hosted a screening of The Village at the End of the World, followed by a Q&A with director Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane, 2007). “They say in Greenland that they’re holding their breath about their future,” she explained as she introduced the film, which explores the challenges faced by the small community of Niaqornat.
Situated in Northern Greenland, in one of the remotest spots on earth and with less than 60 residents, the village of Niaqornat is literally teetering on the brink of extinction. Read more →
Reporters Without Borders has released the World Press Freedom Index for 2013. Download the report HERE.
On Wednesday 8 May following World Press Freedom Day we will be discussing the challenges to press freedom we have seen in the past year and in particular the problem of impunity. Details HERE.
By Alex Glynn
Analysts and experts treated the audience to rare accounts and informed insight into the North Korean regime’s mindset on Tuesday 15th April at the Frontline Club.
BBC East Asia Editor Charles Scanlon hosted the discussion on the hot topic of North Korea’s threat – is it imminent, or is it overstated? – with former British Ambassador to North Korea John Everard, Cambridge lecturer Dr. John Swenson-Wright and Andrea Berger, a Research Fellow in Nuclear Analysis at the Royal United Services Institute.
(L-R) John Swenson-Wright, Charles Scanlon, Andrea Berger and John Everard. Photo: Alex Glynn
By Laura Hughes
On 24th April 2013, the Frontline Club hosted a discussion on Iran’s political system in the lead up to the country’s elections in June. Azadeh Moaveni, former Middle East correspondent for Time magazine, hosted the panel of Iranian experts.
