Getting the story
John Hemming hitches a Humvee to Kandahar
Jon Hemming Reuters chief correspondent in Afghanistan, heads to Kandahar with a convoy of U.S. troops, Normally as a reporter driving around Kabul, I take great care to avoid being anywhere near a foreign military convoy as they are the Taliban’s favorite target. But when you’re inside a Humvee, the tables are turned and you […]
Getting the story out of South Ossetia
The Press Gazette does a good job of telling us how the British press got the story out of South Ossetia at the same time most of them were heavily focussed on what was going on in Beijing. Listed in among the ranks of foreign correspondents who were first on the scene are Frontline Club […]
The glamorous life of a foreign correspondent
Bed sharing, fried ants, yak’s milk and dodged bullets… Carol J. Williams writes in the Los Angeles Times about her time as a foreign correspondent. It isn’t always this grim, is it? Only weeks into the Bosnian war that began in 1992, shellfire had blasted out the windows at the Sarajevo Holiday Inn. We referred […]
Getting into Zimbabwe
Andrew Geoghegan, an ABC News journalist, marvels at how he has been allowed to enter Zimbabwe four times without arrest, It’s easy to develop a false sense of security in Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe’s notorious thugs work behind the scenes. It’s the police roadblocks that make me nervous. Most of the time the cops just want […]
Corkscrew into Camp Bastion
Liz Perkins, Health reporter on the South Wales Evening Post, is heading to Afghanistan for one week to report on the soldiers stationed at Camp Bastion. After arriving in Kandahar, it’s on to another plane, a “corkscrew” landing and… cricket, I was warned beforehand to be prepared that it would descend to the ground in […]
James Brabazon on the Wonga coup
James Brabazon, documentary film maker, talks about his part in the downfall of Simon Mann and Mark Thatcher in the so-called Wonga coup in The Independent today. Brabazon was asked to film a private army as it tried and failed to seize power in the small west African nation of Equatorial Guinea in 2004, A […]
Breaking Burma
nargis77_g, originally uploaded by TZA. When Cyclone Nargis hit Burma on May 2 the BBC managed to get a succession of journalists into the country despite a ban on the broadcasting corporation from entering the country. The BBC World Service talk to the journalists who made it into the country and asks them how they […]
Reporting Zimbabwe
The Committee to Protect Journalists produce an audio slideshow of journalists discussing the difficulties of reporting from Zimbabwe and the great risks involved for little or even no money. The slideshow is an accompaniment to a larger article entitled Bad to worse published today ahead of the June 27 “run-off” election, “We can’t go to […]
In the frame with Véronique de Viguerie
Véronique de Viguerie‘s image on Afghan men in Kandahar is profiled on the excellent Verve Photo blog, “I took this picture in Kandahar. I was doing a story on the growing influence of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. I was told that the Taliban were using poor people to work for them. So early morning […]
James Nachtwey on hyperawareness
James Nachtwey, the multi-award winning war photographer, talked about his work at the LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville at the weekend. Photo District News has more, “People have asked me many times how I’ve survived so many battles,” [said Nachtwey]. “It’s really a matter of being mindful of what’s going on around you, […]
Kimberley Dozier breathing fire
Kimberley Dozier is interviewed on the Bob Rivers show. She recalls the day she almost died when a roadside bomb exploded in Baghdad. Kimberley took part in the recent Frontline Club event in New York. Her book, “Breathing the Fire: Fighting to Report and Survive the War in Iraq”, has just been published.
James Whitlow Delano in Burma
Digital Journalist publishes pictures and words from contributing photographer James Whitlow Delano. He was in Burma working on another assignment when Cyclone Nargis hit. For ten days he was able to travel the Irrawaddy River Delta and photograph what he found, Few western journalists managed to get in to the country, and those who did […]
Blowing it
David Viggars continues his tale of how he became a news photographer on the Reuters photographers blog. He was working as a newbie in Rome when he went to report on the aftermath of an earthquake in southern Italy and how ‘missing the story’ taught him not to miss it again, I blew it. I […]
From propaganda to the press
The story of Haider Hamza, an Iraqi Ministry of Information teenage propaganda stooge, who eventually became a Reuters reporter soon after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. This American Life produce this fascinating story, well worth a listen, When he was a teenager, Haider Hamza worked in the Iraqi Ministry of Information. He was specially trained […]
Flying low
John D. McHugh’s latest installment in The Guardian today details his move to an outpost of Speray in Khowst province about 900 metres from the Pakistan border I managed to get the back seat, the one that photographers always want. This is because in a Chinook there is a rear ramp, and as the pilots […]
Making a one man documentary
Filmmaker Matt Clift talks about how he went about making a one man documentary film about an orphanage in Uganda in 2007. He details the problems he had, the equipment he used and offers a number of tips for wannabe filmmakers working in difficult environments, Where I was going there was no option for going […]
Getting into Burma
Saigon based photographer Kevin German was in Bangkok hanging outside the Myanmar Embassy with some other… tourists waiting to see whether their visas would arrive or not. Obviously there are jour——s there. Brave jour——s. It is becoming more and more dangerous for them to work there. The imagery is finally beginning to show the desperate […]
Bangladesh boat project bags Sony
The BBC Bangladesh Boat Project has won the Sony Multiplatorm Radio journalism award. Ben Sutherland, one of the reporters on the project, writes about the experience for the BBC Editor’s Blog. He says it wasn’t just the amazing stories they helped tell, it was how they told them, Not only was the method of getting […]
Sun brush with Burmese police
Nick Parker and Peter Jordan from The Sun newspaper felt the long arm of the Burmese law this week. The reporter and snapper duo were stopped as they headed south into the Irrawaddy Delta, We were ushered into an office where an immigration officer was waiting with pen poised. He seized our passports and began […]
CNN man in Burmese chase
CNNs man in Myanmar, Dan Rivers, left the cyclone stricken country last Friday after being pursued by Burmese authorities. He credits his ability to evade capture upon the incompetence of those in hot pursuit. He defaced his passport, hid under a blanket and thinks he may have finally escaped due to the impatience of a […]
Jeremy Bowen comes under fire in Lebanon
“BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen has come under fire whilst reporting in Lebanon. Jeremy Bowen and his team are now safely back in Beirut.” link. Click the image above to see Jeremy in Lebanon
Reporting Cyclone Nargis
DSC05551, originally uploaded by Azmil77. Russell Boyce is in charge of the Asia picture desk at Reuters. Yesterday, he says, was a “tough day”. He is, of course, referring to Cyclone Nargis that ripped through Burma with a final death toll that could reach 100,000. Russell talks about the day on the Asia desk on […]
Kit to the future
Kevin Sites filed text, video, images and audio from twenty wars for the duration of one year between 2005-2006 for the Yahoo HotZone project. Pictured above is the equipment he took with him. It all fitted inside one rucsac. Just a couple of years later and I think it’d be even smaller than it was […]
The new live news
[video:youtube:nnffuBGNOfY] Josh Wolf has an interesting idea for a new live internet news network based – surprise surprise seeing as how it’s the internet we’re talking about – in San Francisco. He aims to harness live video broadcasting tools like Qik, Flixwagon and Ustream.tv – which Kyle MacRae has previously discussed around these parts – […]
“The ultimate reality show”
Hollywood agent turned war reporter Pat Dollard attempts to put the record straight in The Guardian today. Tony Scott, director of Top Gun, is working with Dollard to put together a TV series from the 700+ hours of film he returned from Iraq with. Dollard’s unconventional, drug fuelled style appealed to movie maker Scott who […]
Johann Hari wins the Orwell
The Independent’s Johann Hari has won the Orwell Prize for journalism. One of the five stories the judges picked up on was his extraordinary piece about France’s role in the Central African Republic – if you haven’t already read it, do so – you won’t be disappointed. He thanked the stringers he has worked with […]
Back in Afghanistan
Frontline Club member John D. McHugh is back in Afghanistan. As revealed on this blog a wee while back, he is working for The Guardian. He’ll be producing six films, taking pictures, writing stories and updating his blog. To kick things off, the newspaper has published edited highlights from his blog, along with pictures and […]
Pulitzer prize winners 2008
The Pulitzer prizes were announced last night. Among the winners are Steve Fainaru, from the Washington Post, who receives the prize for International Reporting for his reports on private security contractors operating in Iraq. Also, Reuters Bangkok senior snapper Adrees Latif wins the prize for Breaking news photography for his images of Japanese video journalist […]
Back to Kurdistan
On the BBC World Service, Michael Goldfarb – author of Ahmad’s War, Ahmad’s Peace: Surviving Under Saddam and Dying in the New Iraq – writes and talks about returning to Kurdistan five years after the outbreak of war in Iraq, Erbil, Kurdistan, northern Iraq – every foreign correspondent has one place that gets under the […]
Getting the story – Kabul
Writing on the Reuters photographer’s blog Ahmad Masood gives a great wee bit of insight into the working life of a photographer on the Kabul beat and the process he goes through when responding to a suspected bomb, I always call another photographer, or the Reuters Television producer, to double check, and I hate to […]