News
First Wednesday: No going back for protesters in Syria
The month of Ramadan will be crucial for the Syrian uprising and the position of Bashar al-Assad and his regime on 29 August could determine the country’s future. The critical nature of coming weeks was acknowledged by the panelists who took part in the Frontline Club’s First Wednesday discussion on Syria on the night that […]
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 […]
The week ahead at the Frontline Club: From Syria to China’s energy pioneers
Tickets for tonight’s First Wednesday have sold out but you can watch the discussion live here. Chaired by the broadcaster Paddy O’Connell, the debate will focus on Syria as the crackdown continues, the death toll rises and the UN Security Council comes under increasing pressure to reach a resolution condemning the violence. Monday’s screening Children of the Revolution tells the […]
Paul Mason: journalism and the power of the network
He’s a self confessed “geek” who bought a Sinclair Spectrum computer with his first wage packet and says the arrival of the internet was "like Christmas". So it’s not suprising that BBC Newsnight‘s economics editor Paul Mason embraced social media with enthusiasm. One of the first BBC journalists to start a blog, Mason said during […]
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 […]
The effect social media is having on African newsgathering
Following on from my last blog post about how hand-held video cameras are transforming the way reporters in Africa are doing their jobs, I thought it’s also worth looking at the effect social media is having on African newsgathering. The picture is completely mixed across the continent. There are some countries, such as Nigeria, Kenya […]
Burnt out
Tomorrow marks 250 days since daily protests began in Yemen. I, along with just one other foreign journalist, Jeb Boone, have been here to see every day of them. This weekend, for the first time since January, I’ll be taking a break from Yemen. The past six months have been astonishing, exhilarating, sometimes terrifying, harrowing […]
Afghan transition: Just another word for nothing left to lose?
Afghanistan appears on the verge of collapse. The prospect of civil war looms. Political gridlock; the impending collapse of the banking system; falling currency and property values; endemic corruption; capital flight; frozen aid funding; escalating insurgent attacks; ethnic groups planning to re-arm; a power vacuum in the south; targeted assassinations… this is the landscape of […]
Paul Mason on the art of telling stories and capturing the “unadorned truth”
Watch live streaming video from frontlineclub at livestream.com By Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi Paul Mason, the music teacher turned Newsnight economics editor, shared some trade secrets at the Frontline Club last night as part of its Reflection series in association with the BBC College of Journalism. Mason, whose first live report for the BBC was on 9/11 […]
ForesightNews world briefing: upcoming events 1 – 7 August
A weekly round up of world events from Monday, 1 August to Sunday, 7 August from ForesightNews Monday is the beginning of a new month and the beginning of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. In Saudi Arabia, the date is doubly significant: following the 18 June beheading of Indonesian maid Ruyati binti Sapubi and […]
Phone hacking inquiry judge calls on journalists not to “close ranks”
The judge leading the phone hacking inquiry has called on journalists not to close ranks and instead help him "grapple with the length, width and depth of the problem" Reuters is reporting. The inquiry into the media’s relationship with the public, police and politicians was announced following revelations of phone hacking at News International’s News […]
The week ahead at the Frontline Club: Paul Mason, Syria and the New York Times
This evening we will be joined by BBC Newsnight’s economics editor Paul Mason, who won acclaim for his coverage of the financial crisis from the collapse in 2008 of Lehman Brothers and all that followed. He will be joining us to discuss a careet that ranges from covering gang violence on Merseyside to the rise of China […]
Phone hacking – ethics and tabloid journalism
View in iTunes Watch the event here. By Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi Rupert Murdoch’s positive contributions to the British press as well as the negative effects of his influence were discussed by a Frontline Club panel on phone hacking last night. Although some of the panelists concluded that the positives might even outweigh them, the negatives are “awfully […]
Up in Smoke: Solving a problem like the disappearing rainforests
By Antje Bormann Environmental problems are often spoken of in rather sweeping terms, perhaps none more so than issues related to the rainforests. ‘Up in Smoke’, a documentary screened at the Frontline Club last night clears up some of the confusion about the issue. Adam Wakeling’s film accompanies British tropical ecologist Mike Hands, who developed an alternative […]
Paul Mason: ‘Sling Michael Herr’s Dispatches in your bag and you’ll be OK’
Asked what piece of journalism he would pass recommend to an aspiring journalist, the BBC’s Paul Mason said: "Michael Herr’s Dispatches – just sling it in your bag and you’ll be OK". Michael Herr’s memoir of his time as a correspondent for Esquire magazine from 1967 to 1969, first published in 1977, was described as […]
Video-making made simpler!
Two years ago I made my first film (about a massacre in the Central African Republic) using a small Canon digital video camera and editing software borrowed from a friend. I didn’t have a tripod, so I had to ask my translator in the field to hold the camera steady while I attempted a piece […]
House of Lords launches inquiry into investigative journalism
A new inquiry into the future of investigative journalism has been announced by the House of Lords communication committee. Acknowledging that "these are difficult times for investigative journalism," which began before the closure of the News of the World and the phonehacking scandal, the call for evidence says the inquiry "will examine the future for […]
ForesightNews world briefing: upcoming events 25-31 July
A weekly round up of world events from Monday, 25 July to Sunday, 31 July from ForesightNews The week starts off with two high-profile court hearings on Monday. Former Egyptian Interior Minister Habib al Adly is scheduled to go on trial in Cairo on charges of ordering the deaths of protesters, but the hearing has been […]
News Corp rounds on New York Times and WikiLeaks as Murdochs face questions over phonehacking
A columnist at the Wall Street Journal has hit back at the New York Times for its critical coverage of its parent company News Corp, arguing that the damage caused by its publication of WikiLeaks’ documents "almost certainly exceeded" what was done by the News of the World. The performance of James and Rupert Murdoch before the […]
Phone hacking and networking for photographers: A look at the week ahead at the Frontline Club
The screens in the members bar will be showing today’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee hearing, with News Corporation’s Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks due to give evidence. Next week there will be an opportunity to discuss what the phone hacking scandal might mean for the future of British journalism […]
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 […]
Hunger in the Horn of Africa
I found this blog by Simon Levine at the Overseas Development Institute an interesting discussion on the politics of famine. http://blogs.odi.org.uk/blogs/main/archive/2011/07/06/horn_of_africa_famine_2011_humanitarian_system.aspx It focuses on the hunger ravaging the Horn of Africa, with thousands of Somalis turning up at the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya every day. His main argument is that famines only tend […]
ForesightNews world briefing: upcoming events 18 – 24 July
A weekly round up of world events from Monday, 18 July to Sunday, 24 July from ForesightNews A Budapest court is expected to deliver its verdict on Monday in the case of Sandor Kepiro, a 97-year-old charged with Nazi war crimes dating back to 1942. In Geneva, the biennial World Trade Organisation and OECD Aid for […]
Looking ahead to screenings and talks at Frontline Club in August
August kicks off our summer Change Season, with talks and screenings focusing on the people and events that are changing the world. The season begins with Goodbye Mubarak, a portrait of people in Egypt prior to protests that erupted on 25 January and resulted in the ousting of Hosni Mubarak. Our season of screenings goes […]
Air strikes against Nuba people denied during Frontline Club debate on Sudan
A Sudanese official who denied there had been air strikes against the people in the Nuba mountains was challenged by Channel 4 News’ Lindsey Hilsum who said she had spoken to people who had fled the attacks. Mohamed Abdalla Ali Eltom, deputy head of mission at the Republic of Sudan’s London embassy was speaking just […]
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 […]
For Afghan first nephews, US passports are ticket out of chaos
The assassination of Ahmad Wali Karzai, the Afghan president’s half-brother, has dealt a huge blow to transition plans and is likely to lead to major power struggles across the country’s south as rival clans fight to fill the power vacuum created by his death. What may effectively become a civil war could undermine the security […]
No more power cuts in Chad?
Chad’s new oil refinery at Djermaya has opened on schedule. Hopefully this should end the dark days (and nights) for N’Djamenois who are used to the city electricity supply going off for anything up to three months at a time. When I first arrived in Chad in 2008, I remember distinctly the eeriness of sunset, as […]
Mimi Chakarova and her film The Price of Sex
by Antje BormannPhotojournalist and filmmaker Mimi Chakarova introduced her film The Price of Sex about women sold into sex slavery with the plea to ‘stay with us’. She was keen, she said, to observe the audience’s reaction. The film follows three women from Bulgaria and Moldova who managed to escape from the vicious trap they had […]
