Frontline Club bloggers
China’s Twitter – inside Sina Weibo
I was reading a Foreign Policy article about the Chinese government’s "deep suspicion of social media and the Internet" which included a link to a very interesting presentation about Sina Weibo – one of several Chinese answers to Twitter. Founded in August 2009, Sina Weibo had 80-100 million users by the end of 2010. […]
Where does Yemen sit in the Middle East domino theory?
With the winds of change blowing across the Middle East, people are busy combing the region for their next favorite to fall. After the resignation of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt nearly two weeks ago, most of the world’s attention has shifted to Libya and Bahrain where tens of thousands are calling for change and violent […]
Armenia: An online revolution in the making?
Opposition Rally, Liberty Square, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian 2007 Recent events in Tunisia and Egypt have captured the attention of the world’s media and also encouraged and inspired other movements elsewhere, albeit in much bloodier ways as this week has shown in Bahrain and Libya. Not to be outdone, opposition groups in […]
The Minister formerly known as “Doktor” zu Guttenberg
Yes, Germany’s Minister of Defence, Dr. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, has been previously mentioned in Frontline blog dispatches. However the latest scandal to dog the defence minister is his doctorate, or more specifically, large slabs of his doctor of laws dissertation that he is accused of cutting and pasting. Minister zu Guttenberg has denied the claims […]
What WikiLeaks has told us
Since 2006, the whistleblowers’ website WikiLeaks has published a mass of information we would otherwise not have known. The leaks have exposed dubious procedures at Guantanamo Bay and detailed meticulously the Iraq War’s unprecedented civilian death-toll. They have highlighted the dumping of toxic waste in Africa as well as revealed America’s clandestine military actions in […]
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, […]
How the People Lost their Fear of the Pharaoh, but is the Regime Getting Away With Murder?
Hosni Mubarak is gone, ousted by a revolution. As someone who lived in Egypt and can testify to the brutality of the Mubarak regime, I celebrated with the millions of people who were glad to see the back of him. These picture galleries from the New York Times and photojournalist Matthew Cassell show powerful images of protesters in their pain during […]
Like father like son
I ended up at COP Spera for longer than I had anticipated. On arrival, Lieutenant Corcorain, explained that they had only been told to expect me hours ahead of time and when I replied “don’t worry, I’m only here over night” he shot straight back “I wouldn’t bet on it, that’s what the last reporter […]
International Crisis Group: Fears of a new Armenia-Azerbaijan war
16.7 kilometers south of Lachin, Armenian-controlled Azerbaijan. Photo © Onnik Krikorian While it didn’t come as much of a surprise, the latest report from the International Crisis Group (ICG) makes depressing reading. Locked in a bitter stalemate since the war over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh during which around 25,000 were killed and […]
The End of COP Spera?
Combat Outpost (COP) Spera is located 800 metres from the Pakistan border in Afghanistan’s Khost province. The platoon section that occupies the COP can only come and go by helicopter as they have no vehicles based here. As the Lieutenant in charge explains “all we’ve got here is our legs and as you can see […]
Deaths in the Military, Mutiny, Mail and the Minister
To put it mildly, Germany’s Minister of Defence, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, will be facing a hostile parliamentary and media environment this week. Three military episodes are dominating headlines following reports from the German parliamentary ombudsman to the military. – The treatment of officer-cadets onboard the German Navy tall ship Gorch Fock, including events surrounding the […]
Kabul street Photography
Some pictures that I took in Kabul. I tried posting this a week ago or so, hopefully it works this time . . . . . This is a rather big lady, I half suspect John Simpson is under that Burka! The […]
Guido’s Pakistan Road Trip and Afghan ‘Outdoor Look’
Journalists accompanying Germany’s Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, on his trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan this week had a few surprises. Thick fog prevented Mr Westerwelle’s plane from landing in Islamabad, forcing Germany’s top diplomat and journalists in tow to land 400 km away in Lahore. To keep to schedule, Plan B was to pile everyone […]
Happy New Year
Dear friends! My warmest regards and best wishes to you on the coming New Year! It has been a busy year for the Frontline Club, and I wish it to grow bigger and stronger – and to have even more interesting and fruitful events next year! From my "psycho" point, wish you all to be […]
Covering the Marines on Facebook: embedded journalism goes open source
Teru Kuwayama is embedded with the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, but he’s not there with a traditional media organisation. He and a team of photographers are using funds from a Knight Foundation grant as part of an experimental project covering 1/8 battalion’s deployment in Helmand province. The team’s photographs and material relating to the deployment […]
Somalis, Saracens and their Secret Donor
What do six Russians, two South Africans, the Ugandan President’s brother, a private security firm, a former CIA officer, and a senior ex-US diplomat all have in common? Somalia and its semi-autonomous regions of course! The British registered private security firm Saracen International is currently training over 1000 militia men in Somalia’s Puntland region as […]
Kabul, kaboom, kabubble or kabust
So I fell behind on these blog entries. Time permitting, I’ll hopefully fill in some of the gaps but for the moment I want to forge on. I’m in Kabul, where I’m moving around unilaterally. Having previously spent so long in the city under lock and key and after a solid month embedding, it’s refreshing […]
WikiLeaks causing a stir in Yemen
Yemen’s deputy prime minister, Rashad al-Alimi, is in trouble. A recent WikiLeaks cable documents a meeting with him and President Saleh in which he jokes about having just “lied” to the parliament, telling them that Yemeni (not American) forces had carried out air strikes which killed scores of civilians in December. Al-Alimi’s comments prompted 50 […]
A first batch of Pics
These are a few pictures that I took during my first week long embed in Nangarhar Province . . . . I’ll add a short selection like this once in a while. Meanwhile, I’m off to COP Wilderness and then COP Spera both in Khost Province . . . […]
Monkeys, demons and the dude
It wasn’t much of a surprise when the words “we’re taking indirect from the mountain” burst over the radio. The day had been long and so perhaps the threat had slipped to the back of my mind but as the message crackled over the interference I realised I’d spent the whole day anticipating it. Those […]
Virgin Territory
Day two in Lal Por and something more substantial was planned. Building on the same idea as the day before, the unit wanted to probe the area that they believed insurgents are regularly passing through. North of Lal Por is a village called Saray that coalition forces haven’t been to yet, which can hardly be unusual in […]
Wikileaks and the embassy cables: media coverage
I’m afraid I might not be able to look at the latest Wikileaks release of U.S. embassy cables in too much detail as I’m scrambling to finish up my PhD thesis. If, for some reason, you want my thoughts on Wikileaks I wrote a couple of blog posts on the organisation last month – ‘Some […]
Hill 911
Lal Por nestles up against the Pakistan border bounded by mountains to the north and the Kabul river to the south. It is the capital of the district of the same name, which is sparsely populated apart from along the banks of the river that forms its southern limits. Although a bridge is under construction […]
Little America
To be clear right from the start, this is the first time that I’ve officially embedded with military forces. I say officially, because I’ve traipsed around in various places with a bunch of militia, guerrillas, terrorists, freedom fighters or paramilitary of one kind or another depending on your opinion and even found myself caught up […]
Islam’s Billy Graham arrives in Yemen
Yemen have enlisted the help of Amr Khaled, a popular Egyptian TV preacher to help in its fight against Al-Qaeda. Khaled, known as the Arab world’s Billy Graham, will be teaming up with well-known clerics and youth leaders to launch a full-scale media blitz aimed at rebuffing religious extremism in Yemen. Today in Sana’a, the […]
Caucasus Conflict Voices
Although actually underway since June 2008, it’s especially been a labour of love for the past year, but now some of the essays solicited for a personal online project are available as a free e-book for reading online or downloading. Accompanied by colour photographs, the book contains opinions on Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and the conflict between the […]
And now, since I promised . . .
. . . Here’s that shooting incident. Well yes, I admit I may have used the cheapest of soap opera tactics to entice you to this second entry, and although it was hardly a cliff hanger, if you were expecting bullets ricocheting from walls as I ran for cover with a cacophony of explosions ringing […]
Report don’t dispatch
Rule number one for journalists starting a blog in a foreign land, pick the blog’s name carefully. Meskel Square = clever, good, local. South by South West = geographic, but not specific, nice. Noodlepie = genius. I’ve just picked a new name for a new website I’m planning. The name’s bloody brilliant. How did I […]
Book Review: Little Bunch of Madmen – Elements of Global Reporting
I got a copy of Little Bunch of Madmen to review for the Frontline Club amongst others on the 1st of October but have since found myself reading, and unable to put it down. It is quite compelling and ever so useful. It has since accompanied me everywhere and has become an indispensable part of […]