Journalism
So, what is the future for news?
I have no idea… Well, I have some ideas, but I’m not blogging about them just yet. However, our very own Daniel Bennett puts together a useful future of news primer on his personal blog Mediating Conflict. One of the folks Daniel highlights is Adam Timworth, ‘If you were to ask a group of people […]
From the sweet trolley part 1
Part 1 in an occasional series of posts live and direct from the bounteous Frontline Club restaurant sweet trolley. This is a chocolate brownie with some ice cream. It’s a cocosolids-sugarstacked slice of somewhere sweeter than planet earth. Tread carefully, one too many and you may turn…
Islamist insurgent warlords for dummies
Rob takes on a ride through the 21st century dictionary for confused journalists dumped into Middle eastern lexical hell. Don’t know your insurgents form your islamists? Your war lords from your al Qaeda operatives? You soon will with Rob’s handy tip sheet. And while we’re on the topic… Just when did the term insurgent become […]
Twitter’s quicker debate over
The BBCs Rory Cellan-Jones wonders whether Twitter has come of age with the earthquake that struck Sichuan province in China this morning, Let’s see, as this story unfolds, whether this is the moment when Twitter comes of age as a platform which can bring faster coverage of a major news event than traditional media, while […]
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 […]
Sunday Times article
You can read my article in yesterday’s Sunday Times here, although I’m not especially happy about parts of how it was edited. Can’t write too much about it now, but let me just say that the phrase, “with hatred in their hearts,” from the first paragraph is not mine.
Hostile environment training for hacks
Reuters photographer Vivek Prakash recently spent four days undergoing hostile environment training in Bangkok – although some might say a stroll down Soi Cowboy is hostile environment training enough. But this is Reuters and 14 innocent hacks endured all manner of fear in pursuit of realistic training at the hands of Australian ex-SAS soldiers, For […]
Mushtaq Yusufzai wins inaugural Kate Webb Award
Pakistani journalist Mushtaq Yusufzai has won the naugural Kate Webb Award for his reports from the Pakistans tribal belt areas home to a number of Al-Qaeda loyalists. The award was presented by Agence France-Presse and was announced today. the 32 year old reporter has previously been wounded by the Taliban and arrested during his work. […]
Why Darfur?
[video:youtube:3OWj1ZGn4uM] Charlie Beckett, from the London School of Economics, wonders why the conflict in Darfur, and not North Kivu, Somalia or Chad has so captured the imagination of western media (and to so little effect). Here’s his theory, My theory is that since March 2003 this has been a narrative given legs by a series […]
Fact check the media
Following on from the non-reaction that greeted the New York Times’ Pentagon media poodles story, Wired’s Danger Room suggests if journalists don’t fancy digging into the story, readers can do it themselves, You can launch your own investigation, right now. The Defense Department has released thousands of pages of documents related to this outreach effort. […]
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 dotty old lady school of foreign correspondents
Daily Mail foreign correspondent Dame Ann Leslie talks with the Guardian’s Vicky Frost about her path into life as a foreign correspondent and how playing a ‘dotty old woman’ or a ‘bird brain’ can help get the job done, “When I’m trying to assess a situation, I decide: am I going to be ‘daughter of […]
What no enquiry?
The New York Times published an 8,000-word, front-page article that seemed certain to generate attention. The story, written after the paper sued to gain access to Pentagon records, detailed the close relationship between the Defense Department and some military analysts commenting on the Iraq war for television networks… Despite these revelations, there was virtually no […]
The most dangerous places to work as a journalist
[video:youtube:-lOZtc9zXMA] Last week the Committee to Protect Journalists released a list of the most dangerous spots for journalists. Places where journalists are killed and the killers go free. The ranking was produced in advance of World Press Freedom Day on May 3. It is based on the Impunity Index. CNNs Christiane Amanpour talks about the […]
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 – […]
Demonstrations against the Dollar
11am Somali time: Central and southern Mogadishu are currently awash with demonstrators protesting the massive inflation of the Somali national currency (Somali shilling) as well as shopkeepers who have started only accepting dollars on account of the near worthlessness of Somali bank notes. Previously there were denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500 […]
Tipping Point
“Every individual Somali fights to stay himself, a person.” (Gerard Hanley in ‘Warriors’) The atmosphere can change in a matter of seconds while working in Somalia. Today we were traveling with a militia south of Mogadishu in part so that Philip could take some photos of a ‘technical’, the well-known battlewagon in Somalia popularized in […]
Al-Jazeera journalist Sami al-Haj released from Guantanamo
[video:youtube:qXLDtAYm6SI] Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj was finally released from Guantanamo Bay prison this week after seven years. He spoke with Al-Jazeera about his time in captivity. via Ethan
What I’m Reading…
Usually when traveling and working abroad I like to be reading about something completely off-topic. For this trip I brought with me Dick Davis’ translation/reworking of Abu al-Qasim Ferdowsi’s 10th century Persian epic, the Shahnameh or Book of Kings. I studied parts of it in classes at university, always perplexed by the complexity of the […]
Mogadishu Day Four
Today was a burst of activity following a very slow day yesterday – to ensure our security following the assassination of a senior al-Shabab leader (Aden Hashi ‘Ayrow) we spent most of the day inside the hotel conducting interviews there. This morning, however, we began with an interview with Somalia’s TFG (transitional federal government) deputy […]
Ayrow: UPDATE 2
UPDATE 2: Al-Shabab official website has issued a statement on the death of Ayrow in Somali. “Airplanes of the enemy of Allah”, the text reads, have caused the “martyrdom of the mujahid and leader” Aden Ayrow as well as Sheikh Muhiyuddin Mohammad Omar (former Health Minister for the Islamic Courts). The statement said that a […]
Ayrow: UPDATE 1
UPDATE 1: Death toll from the attack seems to be 10. We have been speaking to people in Dhusa Mareb, including people digging in the rubble, and haven’t been able to confirm or find information on the speculated death toll of 30. Bakara Market area – stronghold of sorts of al-Shabab these days – in […]
Demystifying the Congo
A video to promote a series of events at the Frontline Club. I wrote an article on the topic of Victorian-era clichés and the Congo for the current issue of the From the Frontline newsletter. I’m grateful to Tim Butcher and Rory MacLean for the friendly exchange that gave rise to the piece.
“Life and death are cheap”
In the words of Smith Hempstone, the former US ambassador to Kenya: “If you liked Beirut, you’ll love Mogadishu…” And so it is. Arriving in a delayed Daallo Airways plane, fellow travellers flying on to the north of the country wish us well. “Life and death are cheap in this city…take care,” said one, patting […]
Richard Butler on being held hostage
CBS News journalist Richard Butler discusses his ordeal at the hands of kidnappers in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. He was held for two months until the Iraqi Army rescued him. Butler talks with fellow CBS reporter Allen Pizzey, I am standing there, in front of these eight guys with AK-47s, and I am […]
Overseas Press Club Awards 2008
See what happens when you go away for a few days… Another award ceremony. This time the Overseas Press Club. The awards were announced last Friday. Journalists working in conflict zones dominate the winner’s rostrum. Getty Images snappers scooped three photography awards and reporters on The New York Times received a total of six awards. […]
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 […]
Psyops on steroids
[video:youtube:wmRUXkWBUd0] “Pentagon infiltrate media with pro-war propaganda” Cripes. I’m shocked…
Andrew Gilligan discusses journalism
Download this episode View in iTunes You can now watch the event here. Andrew Gilligan, former BBC Radio 4 Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent, Journalist of the year 2008 and the man at the centre of the Hutton Inquiry and the “sexing up” scandal, told his side of the story at the Frontline Club last […]
Jay Price and Dick Gordon talk war
News & Observer reporter Jay Price will be in conversation with WUNC‘s Dick Gordon tonight at UNC’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. It promises to be an informal chat between two reporters – one print, the latter radio – about their experiences reporting war zones. Gordon worked mostly as a foreign correspondent during the […]