Frontline Club bloggers
Zimbabwe inflation part two
Hmm. well, seems my clever bit of maths was wrong. The government announced today that inflation is actually over 66000 percent. Good work, lads.
Mexico still deadliest country in the Americas for journalists, says RWB
Mexico remains the deadliest country in the Americas for journalists with two murders in less than a month, and three disappearances, according to today’s annual report from Reporters Without Borders. Three journalists were murdered last year, and three media workers were shot dead. Those levels are an improvement on 2006, when nine journalists were killed, […]
Rob Crilly in Nairobi
Nairobi-based freelance journalist Rob Crilly is the latest addition to the blog stable at From the Frontline. Rob started blogging at South of West late last year. He’s been very busy with coverage from Kenya for The Times, Irish Times, Christian Science Monitor and The Daily Mail during the recent violence there. You can listen […]
Can You Give Me A Receipt – Oh and What’s Your Tribe?
Muindi is Kamba. Frank is Taita. And the two Johns are Kikuyu. The tribal identity of my taxi drivers in Nairobi never used to matter much. It would make for an interesting diversion to discuss stereotypes on long journeys: who is the faster out of Kamba and Kalenjin, or why exactly do Kikuyus confuse their […]
From the Frontline from Zimbabwe
Blogging from Zimbabwe is Zimbabaloola. This is latest addition to the From the Frontline stable of blogs. Zimbabaloola is an anonymous blog written by someone living in Zimbabwe. The blog will cover the elections in Zimbabwe, the reality for the people living there and what hyperinflation means on the streets of Harare and elsewhere. I’ll […]
Julius Strauss joins From the Frontline
Former war reporter, Julius Strauss is now blogging here at From the Frontline. Julius started his war reporting career as a freelance snapper during the Serbo-Croat and Bosnian wars. In 1996 he became the Daily Telegraph’s Balkans Correspondent. After covering the aftermath of the Bosnian war and the war in Kosovo he worked in Romania, […]
Inflation
Everybody seems to have a different figure for inflation in Zimbabwe. The most commonly used is 24000 percent, though occasionally one still sees the government figure of 8000 percent. That’s year ON year, of course. I’ve used the inflation calculator here to get an idea of what the numbers should be. Take the price of […]
The options as Zimbabwe heads to the polls
Everyone is talking about Simba Makoni. It’s a measure of how sclerotic Zimbabwean politics has become that this 57 year is considered a youthful challenger. But then our president is 84, and most of his closest colleagues are in their late 70’s and early 80’s, so by current standards Simba is indeed the Young Lion. […]
Violence against journalists surged this week
The developments in the Lydia Cacho case and her revelations yesterday come in a week when violence against journalists surged again. Last year four reporters were murdered and three disappeared, and 2008 is promising to be as equally violent for members of the profession.
Supreme Court Judges Were Bribed, says Cacho
The Supreme Court judges who voted that the rights of Lydia Cacho were not violated enough when she was arrested, detained and tortured by Puebla’s police under the orders of Governor Mario Marin were paid off by Marin’s lawyers, according to the journalist. Cacho made the accusation, which if true promises to scandalize Mexico’s Supreme […]
Video: tequila, gun-fire and dancing in the streets
The pueblo of Santa Maria Aztahuacan in the sprawling working class municipality of Iztapalapa, Mexico City, got Semana Santa off to a rousing start this Saturday afternoon with dancing in the streets, tacos, tequila – and random gunfire. The festival, which began this weekend, will run for the next month. MexicoReporter.com went along to get […]
NAFTA Protestors Bring the Country to the City: Video
Yesterday hundreds of tractors and thousands of people from rural Mexico came to Mexico City to protest against the lifting of trade restrictions on agricultural commodities like corn, rice and oats. The farmers say lifting these restrictions will put them out of work, because they won’t be able to compete with powerful U.S. agri-businesses, and […]
Filmstar Bárbara Mori gets Ugly: Video
Mexican actress Bárbara Mori wants to be more than a pretty face, and she has the fake buck teeth and fat suit to prove it. The Los Angeles Times covered her new movie launch, and we provided the video interview to match. Please see here for the story and here for the video.
Mexican Farmers Hit the Streets of Mexico City to Protest NAFTA
Pictures from yesterday’s protest in Mexico City – more details to come.
Colombians mobilize.
Millions of Colombians are expected to take to the streets on Monday in a protest march organized by several young Colombians on Facebook. The country’s main squares and thoroughfares will be filled with marchers dressed in white by midday. Joining Colombians, the march organizers say they have over 200,000 people signed up to simultaneously march […]
A night on the road
The truck’s ‘extrication kit’ included shovels and a jack to deal with the mud; tools and spares for the Japanese diesel engine; and documents, cigarettes and whisky to ease our way through military checkpoints. We flew an identifying flag and had called the relevant field commanders before leaving. We were carrying supplies for a hospital […]
Tlatelolco Memorial Exhibition – why now?
There is something odd about entering a modern, brilliantly choreographed and beautifully presented exhibition created in memory of one of the darkest episodes in a country’s modern history. Odd because the tragedy of Tlatelolco, depicted in such rich and excellently executed multi-media form here at at Mexico City’s Centro Cultural Universitario, has yet to be […]
Media independence in Mexico?
The concept of media independence in Mexico is complex. Much of the media is financially dependent on the Government, therefore those media that are considered ‘independent’ are those that do not rely on the state for the lion’s share of their income. The concept of independence in terms of editorial objectivity is another issue, but […]
A soldier in Helmand
I’m very pleased to announce the latest addition to the From the Frontline blog stable – the Soldier’s Blog. This is the blog of an anonymous Danish soldier about to deploy to Helmand province in Afghanistan. He’ll be blogging about the daily life of a soldier before and during deployment. He hopes to be able […]
Media Guardian Innovation Awards
Stepping in for Vaughan here…. and have crossposted on the Frontline blog…. Here’s some great news. Club founder and journalist whizz of the old school, Vaughan Smith, is up for a gong at the inaugural Media Guardian Innovation Awards, or MEGAs, for his live blogging, video reports, twittering and picture taking from the frontline on […]
Vaughan Smith up for a Guardian gong
OK. Here’s some great news. Club founder and journalist whizz of the old school, Vaughan Smith, is up for a gong at the inaugural Media Guardian Innovation Awards, or MEGAs, for his live blogging, video reports, twittering and picture taking from the frontline on this very blog. He is up against two other blogs in […]
Close up of a peace agreement
Choice observations upon examination of the recent peace agreement in eastern Congo: Percentage of signatories using green pens: 0.05 Missing from the multimedia archives: audio file of the collective sigh of relief by 1,200 delegates when they heard, after several hours of speculation-filled delay, that the document had been signed. Number of days from signature […]
Marcus on MediaStorm, Fred on the frontline
Marcus Bleasdale emails to tell us about a stunning new multimedia package he has produced for MediaStorm. It’s called Rape of a Nation. It includes Marcus’ incredible black and white photographs, interviews with the photographer and video footage. You can watch the 12 minute production by clicking the video above or visiting the MediaStorm site […]
Can compromises bring peace at last?
Did you know that eastern Congo gets struck by lightning more often than anywhere else in the world? It’s usually preferable to agree some sort of ceasefire before holding formal talks. Suspending hostilities – however temporarily – is the polite thing to do. It builds confidence, sets the tone, and helps the concentration. But no […]
You know you’re breaking new ground…
…when situations arise for which there are no rules. Whilst editing my latest video the Los Angeles Times last week, we contacted CNN Espanol for some footage of Carmen Aristegui, the focus of our video report. They agreed to send over some shots, but in return the producer wanted some of our material on the […]
A new kind of foreign coverage?
A year ago the Boston Globe newspaper closed its last three foreign bureaux. The closures followed the axing of four foreign correspondents from the Daily Telegraph in September 2006. Writing in the Washington Post, Pamela Constable summed up the misery: “Between 2002 and 2006, the number of foreign-based newspaper correspondents shrank from 188 to 141… […]
Arctic motoring – 19/01/08
The temperature hovered around minus twenty, and the roads were layered in ice. But even at two in the morning the car rental agent in the bowels of Ted Stevens international airport at Anchorage managed a pearly smile. Perhaps it had something to do with the financial knife he was holding at my neck. “Oh, […]
Loss of news talk show dismays Mexicans
Supporters of journalist Carmen Aristegui say the cancellation of her radio program poses a threat to the country’s move toward greater democracy. Please click here for the news story and its complementing video, courtesy of Mexico Reporter.com [video:bliptv:615272]
A Model American
A Model American, Elsie Burch Donald’s third novel, is a twist on the classic saga of “normal” westerners dumped in weird surroundings. How do they cope? The lead characters are two middle-aged American tourists: Bill Bolton, a rich, successful businessman; and his wife, Marjorie. With them are their guide, Anne Philips, a young Englishwoman of […]
Life imitating journalists
Rob Crilly in Kenya wins my vote for snap of the week. Rob, when you gonna start blogging at Fromthefrontline… ???