All photographs by Katie Palmer for the Frontline Club.

The Frontline Club Awards for excellence in journalism were presented at the Frontline Club in London last night. Judged by seasoned journalism practitioners, the Presenter of the Awards, Channel 4 News’ Jon Snow, described the Frontline Club Awards as “given by the best, to the best”.

The Frontline Club is grateful to its generous sponsors Vodafone, Canon and Chivas Regal for supporting the Frontline Club Awards.

Throughout the Leveson Inquiry, news executives have consistently vilified freelance journalists, who provide a means to assign blame for a paper's illegal activities without indicting any of its full-time staff. If newspaper owners are to be believed, any unlawful means to procure information for a story are used by "people outside the company", with no collusion with any staff journalists at all. Even when a senior reporter was actually found guilty and incarcerated - Clive Goodman, the former News of the World (NOTW) royal editor and reporter who was jailed in 2007 - it was his co-conspirator, private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who was made to take the brunt of the punishment for hacking into voice messages relating to the three Princes. Mulcaire - a non-permanent member of NOTW staff - received a six month sentence compared to Goodman's four. This was despite the fact that out of the 609 calls made to access the voice messages, 478 were made by Goodman and 122 by Mulcaire, according to Prosecutor David Perry QC*. 

The disclosure that Goodman conducted almost four times as many hackings as Mulcaire insinuates the use of illegal tactics was much more internalised than NI previously led the public to believe; it was the permanent employees, not the outside investigators, who were doing the majority of the dirty work. Conveniently however, the two men pled guilty, and so were unable to be called to give evidence at Leveson. The way in which both Goodman and Mulcaire were disowned from the newspaper was the beginning of a sustained agenda of using freelancers as scapegoats in the British news industry.

It is absurd to have to associate Mulcaire with the larger family of freelance journalists. Granted, it is difficult to define what makes one a journalist; a university degree is not necessarily required to become one, and today anyone with a computer and an opinion could contribute to journalism in some way. However, to link private investigators and paparazzi (the two most frequent offenders in the Leveson evidence) with published purveyors of news who just so happen to not be in the full time employ of a newspaper is highly fallacious. 

Yet it is precisely this group that will be subject to censure (possibly total censure) if plans to license journalists, such as those proposed by Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail, come to fruition. The proposal would limit access to press briefings solely to those journalists whose employers have signed up to a code of practice of a revamped Press Complaints Commission (PCC). These journalists would be provided with press cards, which would be the only manner in which to access official press briefings. Freelancers' lack of a permanent employer would mean that they would be largely ineligible, while the cost of licensing would alienate smaller papers and blogs as well. The idea has been given credence by figures as senior as the Prime Minister, who said, "we have to see is there a way of saying 'If you're not part of [the new PCC], you're not in the lobby, you don't get any information from government, you don't get this or that.**'" Cameron's comments make clear that in this new landscape, participating in independent journalism is effectively treated as a breach of the rules, deserving of sanction. Unlike newspaper owners such as Richard Desmond, who have financial motivations behind not being part of the PCC (avoiding the possibility of fines, for example), freelancers do not have the ability to opt in at all. Their exclusion from such a plan would be by default.

The threat that this card could be revoked if a journalist was caught behaving illegally is meant to eliminate the danger posed by unregulated members of the press, but will accomplish just the opposite. The aforementioned private investigators and paparazzi would be wholly unaffected by such a change, as they do not rely on press briefings for their journalistic output. Similarly, the countless undiscovered rogue reporters still in the full-time employ of news organisations would not be disturbed by the plans, but rather licensed and legitimized further.

The only possible entry point for freelancers to become licensed would be through a "gatekeeper", such as the NUJ (National Union for Journalists). The proposal is flawed for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it requires the NUJ to implement "an appropriate ethical code and the processes to handle complaints", effectively treating the union as a giant newsroom employing 38,000 journalists, which misrepresents its function. As the NUJ does not publish or have any input into their members' articles, it is not their job to police their members' ethical practices either. 

More critically, it is unjust to make a code of ethics and internal complaints systems a precursor to the NUJ being able to license journalists, when the major news organisations would be able to license their employees by default. Based on the fact that it was the news organisations that were under investigation during the Leveson Inquiry, it is unclear why they are "innocent until proven guilty," and their judgement when distributing press cards is unquestioned. For the NUJ to get licensing powers, it would have to prove that it possessed the aforementioned ethical code and complaint handling mechanisms, a contradiction not lost on the NUJ's General Secretary Michelle Stanistreet. "Why would the industry, why would the newspaper owners, be in a position to somehow guarantee things don't happen as a result of the press card gatekeepers?" she asked. "I think this is yet another example of how as an editor - a very high-profile influential member of the industry - is trying to pin the blame on ... individual journalists***". 

Furthermore, the licensing proposal is made weaker by the sheer unlikelihood that a journalist would actually have his or her card revoked. If the news organisations are the ones who self-regulate their employees, issuing and revoking press cards as they see fit, punishing one of their employees could very well lead to him or her revealing that their orders came from a senior member of permanent staff. According to Stanistreet, the plan "doesn't account for the fact that journalists operate in a culture that is imposed upon them from above, from the likes of Mr Dacre and others within the industry, and yet under his model he would have all the power and none of the responsibility for that." Even the Leveson inquiry, which has heard evidence from 470 witnesses and cost over £5.5 million, has so far led to only eight people being criminally charged, all of whom were "big fish" in the news industry. There seems to be no interest in prosecuting the regular full-time journalists who were likely complicit in some capacity with the illegal actions of their superiors.

The fact that the vast majority of freelance journalists are not hired to hack into phones and wiretap should not come as a surprise to anyone. To punish them as a group, especially in the name of a better and more accurate press, is highly contradictory. Putting aside the obvious losers in the licensing plan - freelance journalists working in print media - the plans could have the added effect of curtailing Internet political bloggers. The advent of the Internet has allowed freelance journalists to establish followings without being in the full-time employ of a newspaper. Currently, they can attend press conferences, and through their online presence, still express their opinion on issues despite not being published. This freedom of expression is vital in cultivating a vibrant press, where not having a contract with a newspaper does not preclude a journalist from contributing to the public discourse. 

In a larger sense, the Internet is increasingly becoming a vital player in the news industry. This is not because of its purported audience; the average newspaper reader spends 40 minutes with a print newspaper per day, in contrast to 15 minutes per month spent with its online version. Rather, the Internet acts as a check and balance to the traditional print media; granted, not effective enough to the point that it replaces the need for PCC reform, but it provides a venue where the traditional news media can be challenged on crucial facts in their stories. 

For example, the New Statesman's blog - comprising largely of freelance bloggers - recently highlighted how the BBC was effectively acting as a "stenographer" for the police. Despite having contradictory evidence at hand, the BBC blindly repeated the police's (fraudulent) statement of events verbatim. After the NS blog's article****, the police statement (as well as the BBC's reporting of it) changed to reflect the true version of affairs. Thus, while one of the largest news organisations in the world was reduced to practicing the most minimal form of journalism possible - just sharing an official statement - some relatively easy investigative journalism by a online blog led to both the BBC and the police admitting the truth, underscoring the real world importance of political blogging. Under the Dacre plan, content aggregation and the "passing-on" of other people's information would be the maximum extent of bloggers' influence, extinguishing a vital voice in the journalistic discussion. 

The scope of the problem becomes apparent when one realizes that even full-time reporters have no other option when told to employ morally dubious tactics in chasing a scoop. In her evidence to Leveson, NUJ's Michelle Stanistreet cited journalists complaining about "endemic bullying, huge pressure to deliver stories, overwhelming commercial pressures." Similarly, former NOTW editor Ian Edmondson said the culture was "a case of you will do as you are told and you live in that environment." When these complaints were put to Rupert Murdoch in the inquiry, attributed to an anonymous employee, he asked, "Why didn't she resign?" Leveson replied that the journalist probably needed a job. It was an accurate summation of the major obstacle to eliminating illegal journalistic techniques; if one reporter is not willing to do something, there are many more that are, making the reporter a hindrance who will likely be let go. 

The degree to which bullied journalists are largely left on their own can be seen most clearly in cases involving the so-called "NISA clause". This clause derives its name from the News International Staff Association (NISA), a trade union that was set up by Rupert Murdoch's titular company, and makes a mockery of independent unions and the aid they could give to journalists. Under current law, there is a loophole that prevents a trade union from representing a worker if said worker is already represented by another, employer-recognised union. The recognised union does not even have to be independent (NISA was refused a certificate of independence, as its funding comes wholly from the employer). Thus, when asked to do something immoral, a journalist's only recourse is to ask for help from the very company that they are complaining against. 

It has been suggested by figures such as the Chair of the Institute of Employment Rights (IER), John Hendy QC, that Murdoch himself exerted pressure onto Tony Blair's Labour government to ensure that such a loophole was allowed to remain as law. The charge is denied, but the fact remains that the NISA clause is a state-sanctioned obstacle for any journalist wishing to expose wrongdoing, demonstrating how deep the problem runs. In a climate where the UK narrowly avoided having the lion's share of its media owned by one company after News International's failed BskyB bid, disobeying a superior's orders could having huge ramifications on finding a job elsewhere. If anything, this should be seen as evidence that there is less incentive for freelancers to resort to illegal tactics when writing their stories; they are detached from the bullying culture, and do not have in-house politicking with superiors to wade through. 

At the current time, Dacre's proposal remains just that: a proposal. Although highly worrying, it is an unlikely that Leveson will recommend such action, especially considering his recent comments distancing himself from any radical "Ofcom-style" regulation through a PCC-like body. The more pressing issue is what is becoming an increasingly broad and simplistic definition of what it is to be a freelance journalist in the UK today. In the simplest terms, people who write for a living are being artificially compounded with people who take candid pictures of celebrities and conduct covert investigations into their private lives. There must be greater efforts to avoid letting "freelancers" become a homogeneous scapegoat for all the illegalities in the newspaper industry. Statutory underpinning of press regulation is necessary to ensure an excessive invasion of privacy by the press, but a crude curtailing of independent journalism will only accomplish the opposite.

References:

*http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6301243.stm

**http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jun/18/journalists-pcc-press-cards 

***http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/09/paul-dacre-press-card-nuj-boss 

****http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/broadcast/2012/07/met-police-statement-contradicted-video 

Tickets for the Prize Draw will be available to purchase on the night for £15 each, or one per person can be bought online when making a booking to attend the awards. Good luck! 

Thanks to:

The shortlist for the Frontline Club Awards has been selected from nominations put forward by Frontline Club members, which included some excellent work from the past year in three categories: Broadcast, Photojournalism and Print. Five nominees, not listed here, are also being considered for the Frontline Club Tribute Award for their contribution to journalism and lifetime achievements.

The shortlist for the Frontline Club Awards is as follows:

Broadcast:

Colombia: caught in the crossfire by Romeo Langlois for France 24

The horror in Homs by "Mani" for Channel 4 News

Homs: Journey into Hell by Fred Scott and Paul Wood for BBC Panorama

Photojournalism:

The Price of Gold by Robin Hammond

Afghanistan: moment Private Stephen Bainbridge stepped on an IED by Jason P. Howe in The Telegraph

18 days with Syrian Rebels by Goran Tomasevic for Reuters

Print:

Inside Syria: rebels and regime trapped in a cycle of destruction by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in The Guardian

Computer files link TV dirty tricks to favourite for Mexico presidency by Jo Tuckman in The Guardian

Final dispatch from Homs, the battered city by Marie Colvin in The Sunday Times

The Frontline Club Awards for excellence in journalism aim to recognise journalistic integrity, courage and independence of spirit, and include the work of freelances. Now that the final shortlist has been decided, the judges for the Frontline Club Awards have a difficult task ahead of them. The panel of judges includes:

Jon Lee Anderson, Jeremy Bowen, Patrick Cockburn, Carlotta Gall, Gary Knight, Allan Little, Seamus Murphy and Vaughan Smith.

The Frontline Club Awards will be presented by Jon Snow at the Frontline Club on 25th October. More information on how to book to attend the Awards can be found here.

The Frontline Club Awards 2012 are sponsored by Vodafone and Canon. 

The Frontline Club Awards for excellence in journalism aim to recognise recognise journalistic integrity, courage and independence of spirit, and include the work of freelances. 

RISC trains freelance journalists in battlefield medicine and in April they completed their first training session. Their near-term goal is to train 125 freelance combat journalists by the end of next year, and hope to eventually provide medical training to the entire freelance community.

We hope to soon welcome them to London, but RISC is a non-profit that does not charge for training so in order for this to happen they need donations. The money you donate will help pay for medical kits, lodging and a three day intensive course for our students.

DONATE HERE

View a sample of the work in the exhibition below:

As Frontline Club founder and independent video journalist Vaughan Smith prepares to embed with the Grenadier Guards in Afghanistan he talks through what he will be taking with him and why.

By Nicole Hunt

Three members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot go on trial in Moscow on Monday charged with aggressive hooliganism. The charges relate to a ‘punk prayer’ protest against President Vladimir Putin, which took place at the altar of a Moscow cathedral in February. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich all deny the charges, which supporters from around the world have called politically motivated and spurious.

Following the announcement last week that Spanish unemployment has risen to 24.6% and an IMF report warning that the country’s recession would last until 2014, Madrid releases its second quarter GDP figures. Poor results will likely fuel rumours that Spain is preparing to request a full IMF/EU bailout once the European Stability Mechanism is operational.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff hosts an extraordinary summit for MERCOSUR heads of state in Brasilia on Tuesday. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been invited to attend as the leaders of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay are expected to formally approve Venezuela’s membership in the regional trading bloc. MERCOSUR’s fourth member, Paraguay, had previously blocked Venezuelan accession, but with Paraguay suspended until April due to the impeachment of President Fernando Lugo on 22 June, the path has been cleared for Venezuela to join.

At the African Union summit earlier this month, leaders agreed to set a 31 July deadline for the formation of a national unity government in Mali. Mali has been in political limbo since President Amadou Tourmani Toure was overthrown in a military coup on 21 March, but interim Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra has already said he won’t resign, despite criticism that he has failed to tackle Islamic extremists in the country’s north.

Wednesday marks Army Day, a national holiday in Syria celebrating the end of French control over the Syrian armed forces and the creation of the Syrian Army under President Shukri al Quwatli in 1945. The holiday comes amid (at time of writing) a continuing battle between regime and rebel forces in the second city of Aleppo, while international diplomats have expressed fears that a massacre is about to take place.

Syria in general and Aleppo in particular are likely to top the agenda when Russian President Vladimir Putin visits London on Thursday to meet with Prime Minister David Cameron (and to check out some Olympic events, too, of course). While Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on Friday that a ‘tragedy was looming’ in Aleppo, Moscow’s stance on Syria didn’t appear to soften much, as Lavrov also said it was ‘unrealistic’ to expect the Assad regime to stand by as rebels occupied its cities.

UN Security Council resolution 2046 (2012), adopted on 2 May, sets Thursday as the deadline for the conclusion of negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan under the auspices of the African Union High Level Panel (AUHIP). Khartoum and Juba were given three months to resume and wrap up discussions on oil payments, residency statuses, border claims and the status of Abyei, but spent most of that period cancelling meetings and trading blame over border skirmishes; they did finally resume negotiations on 26 July in a bid to avoid UN sanctions.

The latest US unemployment figures are out on Friday, with forecasters expecting them to show that slow economic growth has held unemployment around 8%. As the presidential election edges nearer, Barack Obama will be hoping for good news to help boost his ratings, while Mitt Romney will be hoping for something he can use to detract attention from his embarrassing comments during his visit to London last week.

The Republic of Congo holds the second round of its parliamentary elections on Sunday, following first round voting on 15 July, but the rest of the world is likely to be a bit too distracted to see who wins the remaining 66 seats.

That’s because Friday is also the day of the men’s 100m finals at the Olympic Games, when everyone will be waiting to see whether Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt can overcome injury problems and defend his Olympic title – and perhaps even beat his own record – against training partner Yohan Blake.

The Nation magazine asked friends and colleagues who worked with Cockburn during his prolific career to share their memories.

Among them were his CounterPunch co-editor Jeffrey St Clair who wrote of him on the site that “His body was deteriorating, but his prose remained as sharp, lucid and deadly as ever”.

Alex lived a huge life and he lived it his way. He hated compromise in politics and he didn’t tolerate it in his own life. Alex was my pal, my mentor, my comrade. We joked, gossiped, argued and worked together nearly every day for the last twenty years. He leaves a huge void in our lives. But he taught at least two generations how to think, how to look at the world, how to live a life of joyful and creative resistance. So, the struggle continues and we’re going to remain engaged. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

The brother of journalists Patrick and Andrew, Cockburn wrote a regular column for the Nation. In his last, published on 11 July, Cockburn lamented the "culture of rabid criminality" in the international banking system and predicted that even reform and tough enforcement wouldn't save it from eventual collapse.

By Nicole Hunt

Following the horrific shooting at the Dark Knight Premiere in Aurora, Colorado on Friday that killed at least 12 people and injured 58, suspect James Holmes appears in court on Monday morning. Police spent much of the weekend disabling explosives in Holmes’ apartment, and are still trying to piece together a motive for the attack.

EU Foreign Ministers meet in Brussels to discuss a host of issues, from energy policy to South Sudan. But the real focus will be on Syria – French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius confirmed last week that ministers would seek to impose new, stronger sanctions on the Assad regime, a move which gained renewed importance after China and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on 19 July that would have authorised stronger global sanctions.

Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is in Moscow to hold his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Syria is on the top of their agenda, too. Given Russia’s recent stance, though, it’s unlikely that Monti will be able to persuade Putin to change his mind, so their time might be better spent discussing bilateral issues.

Officials from the IMF, EU and ECB make their quarterly-ish visit to Greece on Tuesday to check on how economic plans are progressing. The mission is the first since Greece’s new government under Prime Minister Antonis Samaras took over after elections last month, and was delayed from June due to Samaras’ health problems. Discussion will reportedly focus on securing a ‘bridging loan’ for Greece while the new government tries to find nearly €12bn in further spending cuts.

Tuesday also sees the latest hearing in Baghdad in the trial of Iraqi Vice President Tareq al Hashemi, who is accused of operating a death squad. The trial was postponed earlier in the month to allow an appeals court to review the case and rule on the conduct of the trial, including a request by Hashemi’s lawyers to call senior government figures as witnesses, which was denied by the trial court.

The Pakistani Supreme Court has given new Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf until Wednesday to issue a letter to Swiss authorities asking them to re-open graft investigations against President Asif Ali Zardari. Ashraf’s predecessor Yousuf Raza Gilani declined to submit the same request to Switzerland; he was subsequently found to be in contempt of court and disqualified from standing as Prime Minister, so it’s a deadline Ashraf will be looking at with some consideration.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is in London on Thursday. In addition to attending the Olympic opening ceremony and reportedly meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Chancellor George Osborne, Labour Leader Ed Miliband, and former Prime Minister Tony Blair, Romney is also playing host to two fundraisers for wealthy American ex-pats. Those whose wallets can only spare $2,500 will attend an evening reception with Romney, while donors who can dig up $75,000 will find themselves sitting down to dinner with the man himself.

Friday…Friday…Well there must be something going on Friday. Oh yes, the small matter of the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games. The Queen officially opens the Games, and in return she and other attendees can enjoy Danny Boyle’s ‘Isles of Wonder’ spectacle, a concert with Paolo Nutini, Stereophonics, Snow Patrol, Duran Duran and Paul McCartney, and a Red Arrows flypast.

Meanwhile, the mood may be a bit less celebratory in Spain, where the latest quarterly unemployment figures are released. Despite relatively positive figures recently, including a drop in unemployment of 100,000 last month, figures still hover near the 25 per cent mark, and hundreds of people took part in demonstrations in Madrid last week to protest against unemployment and austerity.

Former US President Bill Clinton delivers the closing address at the AIDS 2012 Conference in Washington on Friday. He caps off a week of speakers that have included his wife (otherwise known as Secretary of State) Hillary, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, former First Lady Laura Bush, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Elton John, Whoopi Goldberg, and Sharon Stone.

Romney continues his international jaunt on Saturday with a three-day trip to Israel, where he’s planning to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, and US Ambassador Dan Shapiro. In addition to bolstering his international credentials – and probably making much of the fact that his Democratic rival hasn’t made the trip to the holy land during his presidency – Romney is also hosting another of his ex-pat fundraisers on Sunday.

Romanians go to the polls on Sunday to decide whether or not President Traian Basescu should be impeached. Basescu was suspended from his post in a 6 July parliamentary vote, after Prime Minister Victor Ponta accused him of exceeding his authority and acting in a partisan manner. Basescu and his supporters have in turn accused Ponta of trying to oust the president in order to consolidate his own power.

By Nicole Hunt

UN-Arab League Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan is back in Moscow on Monday for a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Despite a Russian-backed agreement signed in Geneva at the end of June, international action on Syria has been slow-moving ever since, despite the US and the UK taking a strong stance against Syria and China just a week later at the Friends of Syria meeting. Annan’s meeting with Lavrov comes on the heels of a reported massacre in Treimsa on 12 July, in which at least 200 Syrians were killed.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton begins a two-day trip to Israel, where she’ll discuss the Middle East peace process with Israeli and Palestinian officials. The visit is Clinton’s first in two years, and comes ahead of a trip by Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney next week; in addition to the diplomatic meetings, Clinton will surely be hoping to shore up some support for the Democrats from wealthy ex-pat Americans in Israel.

Monday also marks the 70th anniversary of the Vel d’Hiv roundup, which saw over 13,000 of France’s Jews deported to Germany, where most ended up at Auschwitz. Paris is marking the anniversary with a Day of Commemoration and the release and exhibition of meticulously kept records related to the roundup. The documents had previously been kept secret to hide the extent of the collaboration between French police and the Germans under the Vichy regime during World War II.

Abd al Rahim Hussayn Muhammad al Nashiri, the Guantanamo Bay detainee charged with the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, appears for a three-day motions hearing on Tuesday. Fifteen motions due to be heard, including one requesting that Judge James Pohl recuses himself or is disqualified from the case, one to dismiss the charges, and one requesting that the proceedings are broadcast via traditional media, rather than the military’s current closed circuit system.

Former US President George W. Bush is a contributor to a new book published Tuesday called The 4% Solution: Unleashing the Economic Growth America Needs. The idea of Bush Jr. sharing his thoughts on economic growth has raised some eyebrows among those who remember that the economy wasn’t exactly the strongpoint of his presidency.

The UN Security Council is due to adopt a resolution on the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) in New York on Wednesday, two days before the mission’s three-month mandate expires. Given that the mission has been suspended since 16 June, and in the wake of ongoing violence and the Houla and Treimsa massacres, any renewal is likely to be dependent on a change in the form the mission takes or tougher sanctions on the Syrian regime.

Indians go to the polls on Thursday to elect their president for a five-year term. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee resigned from his post last month in order to run for the UPA party, and now looks likely to win. Mukherjee has been campaigning hard to convince the electorate to follow tradition and vote for whichever candidate their party leaders back, and indeed to make sure he’s the one smaller parties are throwing their support behind.

The month-long Muslim festival of Ramadan is likely to officially start on Friday, though Muslims will begin to observe it from sundown on Thursday. The exact date for the festival’s beginning is still a bit up in the air, as the beginning of the lunar month is dependent on the sighting of the new moon.

Apple’s iPad goes on sale in China on Friday, the launch having been delayed due to a naming dispute with Chinese firm Proview. China is Apple’s second-strongest market (after its home ground in the US), but while the release of the iPhone 4s last year caused havoc, Chinese analysts are predicting the new iPad won’t fare as well, as cheaper, ‘gray market’ versions have been available from Hong Kong for months.

Francesco Schettino, the skipper of the Costa Concordia who has been nicknamed ‘Captain Coward’ after he allegedly fled the ship as it went down in January, is scheduled to be back in front of the court in Grosseto, Italy on Saturday. The court is expected to be presented with the results of the analysis of data from the ship’s Voyage Data Recorders (or ‘black boxes’). Schettino has recently appeared in several TV interviews, most recently apologising for the disaster and admitting to being ‘distracted’ at the time.

The 19th biennial International AIDS Conference kicks off in Washington on Sunday. Bill Clinton, Elton John, Bill Gates, Whoopi Goldberg and Aung San Suu Kyi (via videolink) are among those attending to discus

s the major challenges facing the global response to AIDS and to preview new scientific research. Norway marks the first anniversary of the 22 July attacks, which saw 77 people killed in a bombing in Oslo and a mass shooting at a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoya. Right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik , who has admitted carrying out the attacks but claimed they were justified, recently stood trial for the killings; the verdict in his case is expected on 24 August.

By Nicole Hunt

Following the Syria Action Group conference in Geneva on Saturday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and head of UN peacekeeping Herve Ladsous are due to address the UN Security Council in Geneva on Monday, where they are scheduled to deliver their recommendations for the future of the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS). The report comes on the same day that Syrian opposition members hold their long-delayed unity conference at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo.

The UN Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty kicks off in New York and is scheduled to last until 27 July. Conference delegates are meant to agree on the terms of a new international treaty which would regulate the global arms trade, a timely topic given recent concern over the flow of arms to Syria and Sudan.

France’s Court of Auditors presents its annual report on the state of the country’s public finances in Paris, which should give President François Hollande a better idea of what he’s dealing with – though, in a week packed with French economic news, it doesn’t give him much time to do anything about it.

The French Parliament opens an extraordinary, month-long summer session on Tuesday in order to push through some of the reforms promised by Hollande during his election campaign, including a pledge for a 75% income tax on earnings above €1m. Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault opens the session with a policy statement outlining the government’s priorities for the session.

After such a long gap between previous P5+1 (E3+3) talks, discussions seem to be taking place almost weekly these days. However, while Tuesday’s discussions in Istanbul are in fact the fourth in as many months, they’re being held at technical-level only, as previous higher-level discussions failed to garner any significant progress or results.

The trial of over 40 NGO workers in Egypt – including 19 Americans, among them the son of US Transport Secretary Ray LaHood – resumes in Cairo on Wednesday. The accused are charged with failure to secure licenses to operate in the country and receiving foreign funding, and has threatened to create a rift in US-Egyptian relations. Two Americans returned to Egypt to participate in the last hearing, on 5 June.

Back in Paris, Ayrault is scheduled to present the government’s supplementary budget for 2012 to the President’s weekly cabinet meeting. The budget is rumoured to include over €7bn in tax hikes and job cuts in government ministries as the government tries to meet deficit targets without imposing severe austerity measures on the French population.

On Thursday, French civil aviation authorities publish their final report on the June 2009 Air France 447 disaster, which killed all 228 people on board when the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on its way back to Paris from Rio de Janeiro. An interim report published last year suggested that pilots were not adequately trained to control the plane, a finding that was rejected by victims’ families.

Thursday also marks the climax of the annual Shia pilgrimage to the holy city of Karbala, Iraq, during which Shia Muslims celebrate the ninth century birth of Imam Muhammad al Madhi. In past years, the pilgrimage has been a target for extremist sectarian violence.

In Friday’s French news of the day, Paris is hosting the latest instalment of the Friends of Syria group, a meeting which was announced by President Hollande and Prime Minister David Cameron in the wake of the Houla massacre. As the names suggest, the meeting takes place under different auspices than the Syria Action Group, so it’s currently unclear how the outcome of Saturday’s meeting will affect discussions in Paris.

A court in Stuttgart, Germany is scheduled to deliver its verdict for former Baader-Meinhof Gang member Verena Becker, who has been o ntrial for the 1977 murder of Chief Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback, judicial office Georg Wurster and their driver Wolfgang Gobel. Becker previously served 12 years in prison for her involvement with the Red Army Faction.

Libyans go to the polls on Saturday to elect a Public National Conference, which will be tasked with forming an interim government and appointing a Constituent Authority to draft a constitution – a process that has not gone so well in neighbouring Egypt. The vote was delayed from 19 June after the electoral commission said it needed more time to complete voter registration and ensure that candidates had no links with Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

Considerably less controversial elections are also taking place in Timor-Leste, where Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao’s CNRT and opposition leader Francisco ‘Lu Olo’ Guterres battle over 20 other parties for their share of the 65 seats in the National Parliament. The two parties attempted to create a coalition government after inconclusive 2007 elections, but failed to come to an agreement.

Tokyo hosts an international conference on Afghanistan on Sunday, with officials from over 70 countries and international organisations expected to attend. The conference, which was announced at the NATO Summit in Chicago, focuses on economic development and investment in the country.

We couldn’t end the week without another French story – Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of Franco-German reconciliation. In 1962, President Charles de Gaulle and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer attended a mass together in Reims, which signalled the end of hostilities between the countries after World War II. President Hollande and Chancellor Angela Merkel are expected to participate in events in Reims to mark the occasion.

By Nicole Hunt

Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Israel on Monday, where he’s scheduled to attend the unveiling of a national memorial to Red Army soldiers killed during World War II. Putin is also due to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is likely to raise concerns over Russia’s relationship with Syria. Putin also visits the West Bank and Jordan on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton will be hosting a joint ministerial council of the EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council in Luxembourg, with talks focusing, once again, on Syria and Iran.

Monday may or may not be a momentous day in the US. The Supreme Court is due to sit for the final time this term, which means it should issue judgements on the cases it’s currently considering – namely, the two cases challenging Arizona’s controversial immigration law and President Barack Obama’s health care reform bill. However, if the Court has too many remaining cases to wrap up, it could opt to extend the sitting to later in the week (likely Wednesday or Thursday), with the health care judgement likely to be the last one issued.

The African National Congress opens its National Policy Congress on Tuesday, a conference held every five years ahead of its December electoral conference. Controversial proposals for the nationalisation of mines are due to be discussed, but following the expulsion of ANC Youth Leader Julius Malema, a major proponent of nationalisation, the proposals have lost a bit of their momentum. Of greater interest will be how President Jacob Zuma fares at the conference, with his reception seen as an indicator of whether he’ll be selected to run for a second term at the December conference.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) publishes its annual World Drug Report, looking at consumption, production and trafficking across the world. The 2011 report found that cannabis remained by far the most widely-consumed drug.

The OECD has several high-profile reports on the agenda this week, beginning with the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2011-2020, a joint publication with the Food and Agriculture Organization looking at the market forces driving volatility in commodity prices. The Economic Survey of the United States, the OECD’s regular assessment of the US economy, is launched in Washington on Tuesday, followed by the OECD International Migration Outlook in Brussels on Wednesday.

The District Court of Assen in the Netherlands is scheduled to rule on an application by the Public Prosecutor on Wednesday to dissolve and ban the Martijn organisation, which lobbies for the social acceptance of paedophilia and sexual relationships between adults and children.

The UN Human Rights Council receives an update from the Commission of Inquiry on Syria in Geneva. The COI was set up following the Council’s emergency session on 1 June specifically to look into the 25 May Houla massacre.

The report comes the day before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton begins a three-day visit to Russia on Thursday. While the trip has been scheduled for some time around the APEC Women and The Economy Forum, Clinton also has the opportunity to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss Syria. The meeting will be the first since Clinton publicly accused Syria of sending helicopters to the Assad regime, which Lavrov countered by accusing Washington of arming the opposition rebels.

Mongolians go to the polls to elect members to the State Great Khural, in an election which has been most notable for who’s not running. Former President Mambaryn Enkhabyar had been planning to head up a new party, but he was instead arrested, charged with corruption, and banned from standing for parliament. His 25-year-old son Batshugar Enkhbayar was also ruled inelgibile because he hasn’t yet served his two years of compulsory military service.

US financial sanctions on the Iranian oil trade, which were introduced as part of the National Defense Authorization Act in December, come into effect, meaning that banks in countries which have failed to ‘significantly reduce’ the volume of purchases of crude Iranian oil can be barred from doing business in the US financial market. The US has granted waivers to several countries, including India, Turkey, and South Korea, allowing them to continue imports for another six months because they’ve already reduced the amount of crude they’re importing.

Thursday also marks the deadline for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to apply to the European Court of Human Rights for an interim order to halt his extradition from the UK to Sweden to face questioning for alleged sexual assaults. If Assange has not applied by Thursday, his extradition window in the UK opens, giving authorities 10 days to arrange extradition. Of course, the whole matter is further complicated by Assange’s current residency at the Ecuadorian embassy, where he’s asked for asylum.

Keeping with the legal theme, Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire is expected to find out on Friday whether she’s been found guilty or acquitted on charges of association with a terrorist group, propagating genocide ideology, revisionism, and ethnic division, for which prosecutors have requested a life sentence. Ingabire’s supporters say the charges, which she denies, are politically motivated.

George Zimmerman, the man accused of second degree murder in the 26 February shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, appears for a bail hearing in Sanford. Zimmerman had his bail revoked earlier this month when it emerged that he was in possession of a passport and had access to more funds than had been established at his initial bond hearing.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick’s five-year term expires on Saturday. Holding with the tradition that usually sees an American head the Bank while a European leads the IMF, Korean-American doctor and former Dartmouth College president Jim Yong Kim assumes the role on Sunday.

Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson is looking to win a fifth term in presidential elections, though the vote will not be as comfortable as he’s accustomed to – incumbents traditionally run unopposed, but six other candidates have put their hats in the ring this time around. His toughest competition is journalist Thora Arnorsdottir, whose popularity in the polls slipped after she took some time off from the campaign to give birth to her third child.

Saturday has also been bandied about as the favoured date for a meeting of the Syria Contact Group – if the members of the group can actually agree on its existence. The UN (per its Special Envoy Kofi Annan), the UK, the US, Russia and France have all been generally supportive of the idea of a meeting, but have failed to agree on the sticking point of Iranian participation. Russia insists that Iran must be present and part of any international solution, while the UK and the US have said Iranian involvement is ‘unworkable’ due to Tehran’s support for the Syrian regime.

Traditionally quiet Sunday is anything but this week, with presidential and legislative elections in Mexico, parliamentary polls in Senegal, and the introduction of Australia’s landmark carbon tax just the beginning.

Sunday is the deadline for Israel to demolish five apartment blocks in Givat Ulpana, which the Supreme Court ruled on 7 May had been built illegally on private Palestinian land. While the residents and the government came to an agreement last week that should see them leave voluntarily, reports that some settlers have been barricading the area mean a peaceful departure is not guaranteed.

The EU’s embargo on Iranian oil, which was approved by Foreign Ministers in January, comes into effect. The sanctions prohibit the import, purchase and transport of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products, and come just days before technical teams are due to resume discussions on Iran’s nuclear programme in Istanbul.