The Forum Blog
THE HEROES OF CHERNIHIV – A photo essay by Paul Conroy
In war, legends are born, and reputations made, no more so than in the case of the First Tank Brigade. The Brigade battled to repel Russian forces who failed in their attempt to besiege Chernihiv, and later the Brigade went on to secure the highway to Kyiv and prevent the Russian advance on the capital. […]
#FreeAlaa: ‘You Have Not Yet Been Defeated’
Day 54 of the hunger strike: British-Egyptian writer, blogger and political activist Alaa Abd-El-Fattah is, yet again, in prison.
Western Ukraine’s city of Lviv was struck by four Russian missiles 18th April 2022
Western Ukraine’s city of Lviv was struck by four Russian missiles in the early hours this morning. The death toll rose to seven early afternoon. Nina Kropotkine-Watson and Paul Conroy reporting from the the scene of a rocket attack in a city that has – until now – been thought of as relatively safe. The […]
Fixing Stories: The Fixer/Reporter Relationship
On 28 March, the Frontline Club hosted a panel, Fixing Stories, on local fixers, producers, and interpreters who assist foreign news organizations. Speakers with extensive experience on both sides of the fixer-reporter relationship in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and the Middle East included Ukrainian journalist and producer Anton Skyba, former foreign correspondent and novelist Charlotte […]
#StraightFromTheFrontline
Sunday March 20th, FC projected the Ukrainian flag onto the Russian embassy to launch its SFTF campaign, Nina Kropotkine-Watson Straight From The Frontline (#SFTF) is a new initiative aiming to provide urgent practical help to support freelance journalists on the frontline in Ukraine. It’s a development from the Frontline Club Freelance Registry ‘FFR’ which […]
A Moment of High Peril
Vladimir Putin appears to be running short of men and materiel in Ukraine. He may be about to play dirty… READ HERE
The Battle For Ukraine’s Cities
Almost exactly 30 years after Bosnian Serbs began shelling Sarajevo, large European cities are once again being besieged. Sarajevo survived – but can Kharkiv, Mariupol and Kyiv? READ HERE
World Press Freedom Day
World Press Freedom Day The Covid 19 pandemic gives a new twist and perhaps a new urgency to World Press Freedom Day. For 27 years the UN day of action has been a way of reminding the world about the importance of press freedom and the pressures on independent journalism around the world. For […]
A Revolution in Four Seasons
The film, first released in May this year, follows four years in the parallel political lives of Jawhara Ettis and Emna Ben Jemaa – two women at the centre of Tunisia’s radical turn to democracy during the 2011 Arab Spring.
Kleptoscope Two: The Alchemy of Making Money from Sand
The second evening in the Kleptoscope series explored the illicit wealth originating from the Middle East that flows through the capital’s economy.
Irregular War: The Future of Global Conflicts
‘If we’re trying to actually resolve conflict… then we have to think, how do we get into the mind of the other?’ Gabrielle Rifkind.
Breaking Point: The EU Referendum and its Aftermath
There are some things about Brexit that we simply can’t know. No amount of opinion pieces, panel discussions, or leaked memos will change that. As Iain Macwhirter, a political commentator for the Herald and Sunday Herald, quipped, ‘We all know that Brexit means Brexit, but nobody knows what Brexit means!’ So, what does Brexit mean?
A Country in Motion: Films from Burma
“The fact that we can even make these films is representative of the change in this country,” said Lamin Oo, speaking to a full Frontline Club from Burma. Oo is one of his nation’s predominant emerging filmmakers and of the many talents being showcased at the Frontline Club’s ‘A Country in Motion: Films From Burma’ […]
Drones: National Bird of USA
National Bird is a documentary about the effects of drone warfare conducted by the US in Afghanistan as part of its war against terrorism. It also incidentally became a documentary on whistleblowing. Drone pilots Lisa, Heather and Daniel reveal how drone warfare, presented as efficacious and selective, is much more liable to error than US officials are […]
Groundtruth: 0% of US TV coverage of the election had to do with policy
Just days before the result of the 2016 US Presidential Election, Boston-based foreign news organisation GroundTruth took part in a panel debate on the question of media credibility. In town for a team meeting, Charles Sennott and Gary Knight, founders of GroundTruth, shared their commitment to training up-and-coming talent in global correspondents in an age when […]
The blood flow of the global economy
‘These came by ship,’ journalist Rose George remarked in the opening minutes of the film, casting her eyes over her clothes, ‘my shoes probably came by ship, the microphone certainly…’ The device you’re using to read this blog probably did too: 90% of everything we consume arrives in a shipping container.
Unconstitutional abortion laws highlighted by documentary
Director Dawn Porter was a lawyer before she was a filmmaker. Her film, Trapped, is about the impact of abortion regulation on clinics in southern US states. It’s rare to have a story where the main plot is legislation, but it works, and it’s heart-breaking.
A conversation with Patrick Cockburn
Each conflict is nuanced, its history and its fanatics. We, as consumers of entertainment, are taught to laud our heroes and demonize our villains, forgetting that the real world breeds only people and their overlapping interests.
Violent Borders: Border Conflict, Security and the Refugee Crisis
In the absence of legitimate methods of travelling to safer lands, smugglers enjoy a booming trade with a huge supply of refugees willing to pay to escape their home country. Elinor Raikes discussed the irony of a system that refuses entry actually increases risk: “you’re pushing people into these illegal, uncontrolled, unmanaged routes, and actually it’s worse for our security.”
Displacement and demography: Colombia
“Not quite the evening we thought we were going to have”, began Ed Vulliamy, journalist for The Guardian and The Observer. A talk that was expected to celebrate the formal end to 52 years of civil war, ended up examinging why a much celebrated peace deal between the Farc and the Colombian government was rejected in a public referendum.
The Nauru files: changing the narrative of media coverage on refugee issues
“It is very hard for Muslim girls to live in Burma. For the boys it is not so dangerous. They just get killed,” said the first girl, 13. “I consumed washing detergents… poison… I’m so tired of everything,” said the second girl.
Kleptoscope: London’s Dirty Money
“Three quarters of money looted in Russia comes to the UK.” The audience sat in stunned silence. Roman Borisovich continued, “there is an army of UK bankers, accountants, lawyers, trustees, and other professionals assisting Russian corruption.”
In the Picture with Paula Bronstein: Afghanistan – Between Hope and Fear
‘Mob rule took over’ she said quietly, ‘and they killed her’. The grief and anger at Farkhunda Malikzada’s funeral is one of many harrowing events Paula Bronstein has documented. But her latest book, Afghanistan – Between Hope and Fear, captures not only the tragedy of a country ravaged by war: it also shows the joy.
The Hard Stop: portraying the people behind the London riots
Words and pictures by Heenali Patel One summer morning in 2011, London’s Metropolitan Police pulled over Mark Duggan– a young, black, British man– and shot him dead. His killing sparked what became known as the Tottenham riots, and set off a chain reaction of arson and looting across the country. Images of burning buildings and […]
City 40: film lifts veil on secretive nuclear town
On Tuesday 14 June, a packed-out Frontline Club hosted a screening of the acclaimed documentary City 40 followed by a Q&A with the film’s director Samira Goetschel and Guardian journalist Luke Harding.
Holy Lands: Sectarianism in the Middle East
On Thursday 19 May, the Frontline Club hosted a panel on sectarianism in the Middle East, the formation of secular nation-states and the roots of the conflicts of today.
He Named Me Malala: Education and the Refugee Crisis
“We learn so much from Malala, she tells us that we have a voice in the West but we take it for granted”, Guwali Passarlay.
“Times are Changing” But Little has Changed for Ordinary Cubans
Whilst institutional changes in Cuban foreign relations make headlines in global media, the daily-lives of ordinary people on the island are yet to see huge improvements.
After Brussels: Brexit and the Future of Europe
The Frontline Club played host to a heated and at times fractious debate on Brexit and the future of Europe on Thursday 24 March 2016.
Inside Obama’s White House
On Tuesday 15 March the Frontline Club hosted a screening of the first episode from new BBC Two series Inside Obama’s White House. It was followed by a Q&A with series producer Norma Percy and director Paul Mitchell, moderated by author and Guardian journalist Jonathan Freedland.