media
Journalists killed as CPJ’s ‘Attacks on the Press’ is released
By Helena Williams No one who attended last night’s discussion at the Frontline Club on the safety of journalists was under any illusion that the issue was not an important one, but few there could have anticipated that it would be so topical. News of the death of Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin, a regular at the […]
Reporting under fire: covering a new world of political unrest
Join us for the launch of a series of events, screenings and workshops at which we will be examining the challenges to safety faced by journalists around the world.
The event will also mark the launch of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Attacks on the Press report which will be presented by CPJ executive director Joel Simon.
Part 2: Frontline Club discusses Italian press after Berlusconi
By Charlene Rodrigues Interestingly, condemnation of Berlusconi’s media involvement was not wholesale. Paolo Mancini, professor at the University of Perugia said: “Everyone here will expect me to say one thing but I don’t think Berlusconi is controlling the media. It’s overstated.” “Berlusconi tried to limit freedom of journalists but he did not succeed because there […]
Part 1: Frontline Club discusses Italian press after Berlusconi
Watch the event here. By Will Turvill The Frontline Club last night hosted a lively and informative discussion on what the future might hold for Italian media in the post-Berlusconi era. The event was hosted by BBC Radio 4 presenter Steve Hewlett who was joined on the panel by four Italians and an Anglo-Italian lecturer […]
Italy after Berlusconi: What now for media freedom?
On 12 November the longest-serving post-war Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi resigned after losing his majority and public support.
While no longer Prime Minister, he continues to control one half of the countries terrestrial TV market and his company Media Set is a big player in the print and advertising sectors. Will Berlusconi continue to wield influence and manipulate the government through his party and media ownership?
MSF aid workers shot in Somalia
Associated Press is reporting that two people working for the aid group, Médecins Sans Frontières, have been shot in Mogadishu. At least one person is believed to have been killed. The incident is reportedly related to an internal staffing issue – AP quoted MSF worker Ahmed Ali, who claimed that a recently fired employee was responsible […]
General Richards: The media “frequently draw the wrong conclusion” on Afghanistan
The Chief of the Defence Staff gave an annual lecture to the Royal United Services Institute last night. General Sir David Richards spoke broadly about the global environment, the response of the armed forces and particular strategic challenges. He argued that Britain’s main challenge was economic and emphasised the cultivation of strategic alliances to compensate […]
Five links from 2011: ‘Twitter’
I am picking out a few of the more interesting links from my 2011 delicious bookmarks. On Monday, I selected five from my ‘war reporting’ tag. Today, I’ve selected another five from among the bookmarks I labelled ‘Twitter’ in my delicious account. Enjoy! 1. ‘Visualising the New Arab Mind‘ Computational historian Kovas Boguta visualises the Twitter influence […]
Five links from 2011: ‘War Reporting’
This year I bookmarked at least 530 links on delicious. I know that because I try to tag each bookmark by year – I’m three hundred or so links down on last year’s total of 854. Seeing as we’re coming to the end of the year I thought I’d pick out a few of the […]
Russian blogger arrested after post-election protests
Russian blogger and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny has been arrested after participating in post-election protests in Moscow against the Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The BBC has a good profile of Navalny which explains how his Livejournal blog gained traction for exposing corruption: "The popularity of his blog allowed him to start mobilising internet users to take an active part in […]
What’s coming up at the Frontline Club
Tonight’s event with Nawal El Saadawi, the veteran Egyptian feminist campaigner who yesterday recieved the Women of the Year Outstanding Achievement Award is sold out, but you can watch it online from 7pm. Next week we will be joined by the Guardian’s Luke Harding and the BBC’s Angus Roxburgh to discuss their experiences reporting from Russia and whether the country is a Mafia […]
BBC Editor says he was advised to pull journalists from Libya by Foreign Office
On the eve of the fall of Sirte, the BBC’s World News Editor has revealed that the Foreign Office “strongly recommended” to broadcasters that they pull their journalists out of Libya prior to the start of NATO’s bombing campaign. Speaking at yesterday evening’s Frontline Club event on the pressures of reporting conflict, Jon Williams said […]
Notes on ‘Libya and the Arab Spring’ at the Media Society
So yesterday I tried to fit too many things at too many different places into one day and ended up being late for the Media Society event on reporting Libya and the ‘Arab Spring’. But here are a few incomplete notes on the panel discussion… 1. BBC vs Sky News reporting of Tripoli I think […]
Reporting the Arab Spring: the mirage of the ‘authentic voice’
I’m breaking the radio silence on the blog to post the introduction to my latest book chapter for Mirage in the Desert: Reporting the Arab Spring. (Not to be confused with Mirage in the Dessert…that is something entirely different.) My chapter uses the case of the Gay Girl in Damascus blog, (a hoax which purported […]
Libya: Reporting the advance on Tripoli
Rebel forces have jubilantly entered the Libyan capital Tripoli, although fighting still continues in several parts of the city. For a round up of the latest news check out this list on the Small Wars Journal website. Here are a few articles that have caught my eye relevant to the reporting of the rebel advance. […]
The role of social media in the UK riots
"The ability to communicate to groups of people easily and on a regular basis is more powerful than previous incarnations of ‘word of mouth’ technologies." Click here for more on the BBC College of Journalism website…
ForesightNews world briefing: upcoming events 8-14 August
A weekly round up of world events from Monday, 8 August to Sunday, 14 August from ForesightNews Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav is back in court in Jerusalem on Monday, appealing his April conviction and seven year sentence for indecent assault and sexual harassment of two female employees. In Dharamsala, Lobsang Sangay is sworn in as the […]
BBC journalist detained in Egypt
The BBC’s Shaimaa Khalil has been arrested in Egypt while reporting from Cairo. She had travelled to Tahrir Square after Egyptian security forces had moved in to clear the area of protesters. The demonstrators have been demanding swifter political change from Egypt’s military generals amid concerns that the revolution which brought down President Hosni Mubarak […]
BBC journalists reflect on the nature of war reporting
BBC World Affairs Producer Stuart Hughes recently gave a talk on war reporting to a summer school at the London School of Economics. He has uploaded his slides and videos onto YouTube. Inevitably there are a few slides which won’t mean much without the benefit of Hughes’s words overlaid but he has included several interviews […]
Fictional ‘Gay Girl in Damascus’ blog disappears
The ‘Gay Girl in Damascus’ blog, which was believed to have provided an authentic voice documenting the Syrian chapter of the Arab Spring, has "vanished". The author of the blog, Tom MacMaster, apparently decided to delete the contents of the blog after it reached more than a million "separate views". The blog had claimed to […]
Terror in Mumbai and the evolution of crisis communications
Several hours ago, three explosions hit the Indian city of Mumbai. At the current time (18h00 GMT), reports suggest seventeen people have been killed and 81 injured. Less than three years after the siege of 26/11, the citizens of Mumbai are facing the consequences of another terror attack. It is hardly a surprise that people […]
The iPhone for war photographers
For many journalists, the iPhone has become a standard part of the toolset. But it’s also being tested to the limit by war reporters. A couple of interesting experiments from Afghanistan caught my eye this morning documenting ventures in the photographic potential of the iPhone. First, this piece in The Guardian highlighting its use by Teru […]
Julian Assange: ‘Cablegate’ needed for the New York Times
A “cablegate” is needed to expose the truth of what goes on inside the New York Times, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange claimed on Saturday. Speaking at a special Frontline Club event on Saturday alongside renowned philosopher Slavoj Žižek and investigative journalist Amy Goodman, Assange claimed a Cablegate was needed not only for US and Russian intelligence services […]
John Pilger and The Wars We Don’t See
By Christopher Czechowicz As a daring and impassioned journalist with a decades-long career, John Pilger has inspired and motivated many to ensure human rights and preserve unfiltered truth. From films such as Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia (1979) to The New Rulers of the World (2001), he has unrelentingly made this his commitment. […]
Ministry of Defence reviewing communication strategy for a networked world
The Ministry of Defence is considering proposals that would empower more members of their staff to communicate so it can compete more effectively in a networked information environment. In particular, the MoD will decide whether to free deployed commanders from aspects of existing constraints which mean their operations are usually communicated through spokespeople. A more […]
Media coverage of Osama bin Laden’s death on Storify
I’ve been collecting some interesting articles and tweets on media coverage of the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on Sunday evening. Rather than a usual ’round up’ style blog post, I thought I’d experiment with Storify to bring some of the strands together. I was impressed; it’s very easy to use and update. […]
Egypt’s digital revolutionaries: It’s not about the technology
The special joint event organised by the Frontline Club and the BBC Arabic Service brought together some of the key players, journalists and experts to discuss what has taken place in Egypt over the last few months. The first half of the evening at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, considered the role of technology […]
Five years since the first tweet: a Twitter revolution in breaking news
Today, Twitter is celebrating its birthday. Five years after the first tweet was published, its impact on the field of Internet communication and many others beyond has been much debated. Recent events in Tunisia and Egypt re-ignited the debate over Twitter’s role in the political process and whether the world has seen its first Twitter […]
Visualising the Egyptian revolution through Twitter
"I was very lucky to get this data", André Panisson tells us. He made the serendipitous decision to perform a test run of a Python server that would collect Twitter statuses around a particular hashtag on 11 February – the day that President Mubarak announced he would step down in Egypt. The following video documents […]
Exploring the role of Twitter and social media in revolutions
I’m afraid I haven’t been able to follow events in Tunisia and Egypt as closely as I would have liked as I was determined to enjoy an overdue holiday and a break from computer screens. And my mission was largely accomplished. As part of an attempt to catch up, I’ve just been reading Jeff Jarvis, […]