The Forum Blog
Narco Estado: an advertisement of terror
By Merryn Johnson Teun Voeten’s CV reads like a guide to some of the world’s most dangerous places. “For 25 years I’ve been working [as a photojournalist and anthropologist] and seeing pretty nasty things, to put it diplomatically, in Rwanda, Sierra Leon, Liberia, Congo, but this is savagery and depravity that I have not seen.” […]
Addicted in Afghanistan: Beautiful and bleak
By Merryn Johnson Jawed Taiman‘s award winning film, Addicted in Afghanistan, which screened at Frontline on 13 September, is beautiful and utterly bleak. The documentary follows the lives of two young boys, best friends Zahir and Jabar, through the streets of Kabul. The film moves between their sober, childish hilarity and the painful grips of […]
“Poetry on a deadline” – remembering Anthony Shadid
By Merryn Johnson A gathering at the Frontline Club was held in remembrance for Anthony Shadid, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, who died in February this year while crossing the border out of Syria. The room was filled with family, friends and colleagues, including his wife, Nada Bakri; Jonathan Rugman, foreign affairs correspondent at Channel 4 News […]
Whoever said that journalism should be safe?
By Merryn Johnson Last night’s talk was a whistle stop tour through the history of the Frontline News Television agency, with its two surviving founding members, Vaughan Smith and Peter Jouvenal, in conversation with long-time cohort, BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson. From FNTV’s origins over a Christmas dinner amid the chaos of the Romanian revolution […]
Reflections with John Pilger: “Journalism was an enormous privilege”
By Helena Williams Veteran investigative journalist John Pilger cannot explain what has driven him to travel the world and cover some of its most important stories for the past half century. From being the youngest journalist to be named Journalist of the Year – and winning the award twice – to witnessing numerous conflicts – Pilger’s […]
Fifteen months and 15,000 dead: Syria’s tipping point?
By Merryn Johnson In a bloody coincidence with Frontline’s First Wednesday talk about the divisive issue of international intervention in Syria, yet another massacre of women, children, civilians has been charged at the Assad regime. Less than a fortnight after the Houla massacre in the Homs province of Syria, in which 108 people were killed, opposition […]
Photo Week 2012 – Liberty and Justice: A tribute to Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros
By Helena Williams View event here. Download this episode View in iTunes On 20th April last year, accomplished journalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros were tragically killed while covering the civil war in Libya. In a fitting tribute, American literary magazine Alaska Quarterly Review has collated photographs from 68 of the world’s leading photographers to […]
VII’s Questions Without Answers: An evolving legacy
By Merryn Johnson Photography agency VII’s latest publication, Questions Without Answers, not only spans over two decades of world history, but it also spans the evolution of photojournalism and the photographers who have pioneered their own take on the industry. The book reflects the independence that the VII founders established for themselves when they set […]
Photo Week 2012 – Voices of the South Atlantic with Adriana Groisman
By Rosie Scammell
An intimate evening unfolded at the Frontline Club last night, as Argentine photojournalist Adriana Groisman talked through her photography commemorating the Falklands/Malvinas War.
Sri Lanka: reconciliation and justice
By Rosie Scammell View event here. View in iTunes Epitomising the troubled state of Sri Lanka post-conflict, an impassioned panel spent Wednesday night disputing the truth. Facing an equally ardent audience, they proved that the country has a long way to go before reconciliation will become a reality. Chaired by BBC Hardtalk’s Stephen Sackur – who […]
Is it time for a global conversation on free speech?
By Helena Williams Social media. Free speech. Democracy. These were the buzzwords of 2011, where international movements like the Arab Spring were said to have been fuelled by the power to communicate with one another without hindrance. The year of unrest has put the spotlight on the role of the internet and social media in challenging […]
Alan Cowell, ‘The Paris Correspondent’
How to send stories by carrier pigeon, when to run when you are under fire and the best way to brush off tweets were amongst titbits of information from Alan Cowell’s discussion of his new book ‘The Paris Correspondent.’
Exclusive Preview Screening: Europe’s Last Dictator
By Nicky Armstrong Europe’s Last Dictator is a thought-provoking film about Belarus and its president Aleksander Lukashenko. The panel gathered to discuss Lukashenko’s brutal authoritarian style of ruling and what the future holds for Belarusians under a state that actively carries out torture, state-sponsored murder and kidnap as part of a crackdown of the opposition. Stephen Sackur of […]
Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution
Rasha Qandeel, a presenter with BBC Arabic was joined last night by Lindsey Hilsum to discuss her experiences in Libya and her new book Sandstorm Libya in the time of Revolution.
Writing Libya’s revolution
By Richard Nield Speaking to a packed Frontline Club on 26th April, Channel 4 News’ International Editor Lindsey Hilsum shared a fascinating personal insight into the revolution in Libya last year that overthrew the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi after 42 years in power. In Hilsum’s words, Libya was the "only true revolution of last […]
25 years of Panos Pictures: “It’s about who you’re working with and why”
By Helena Williams
For 25 years photo agency Panos Pictures has been covering stories the mainstream media won’t. The commercial arm of the development NGO the Panos Institute (now Panos London) has had photographers documenting history as it unfolds, with a focus on social and development stories globally.
A criminal fate in North Korea
By Rosie Scammell Shin Dong-Hyuk is the only known person born in a North Korean prison camp to escape. On Tuesday night he told a packed audience that they must help the 200,000 remaining: “The first thing that I remember being told by the prison guard was that we were supposed to be dead a […]
Afghan Army Girls: Q&A with first-time director Lalage Snow
The screening of Afghan Army girls ended with a roaring sound of applause at the Frontline Club yesterday evening.
Bosnia 20 years on – Part 1
By Merryn Johnson Twenty years after the beginning of the Bosnian War, Ed Vulliamy still rages against the powers that failed to act, the perpetrators not held to account, and the international organisations continuing to profit from the fractured regions sufferings. “It’s not just about the war but about the peace after it… wars, and […]
Is Invisible Children’s KONY 2012 campaign baloney?
With over one hundred million ‘views’ the Kony 2012 video has started a far-reaching debate on the aims and value of a production seen by many as an over-simplification of complex situation.
Assad: Western idealism and Eastern autocracy
“I would be more pessimistic if I had to rewrite the last sentences,” said Christophe Ayad, co-director of Syria: Assad’s Twilight.
The Tenth Parallel: Africa’s fault line between Christianity and Islam
Download this episode View in iTunes By Nicky Armstrong Solomon Mugera, the BBC’s Africa editor began by describing the balance where Islam and Christianity collide as ‘a delicate pendulum’. For the past seven years award-winning journalist and poet Eliza Griswold has travelled 9,000 miles along this line of collision known as the Tenth Parallel, meeting […]
The Trouble With Girls – raising daughters as sons in Afghanistan
By Ivana Davidovic “Why do we need to give a girl a boy’s face to give her freedom?” That is the question asked by Azita Rafhat, a former member of the Afghan parliament, who opted for a radical decision to raise one of her four daughters as a boy, having succumbed to the still prevailing […]
What next for Putin’s Russia?
By Alan Selby Against a backdrop of growing discontent, and widespread allegations of fraud, Russia’s recent elections heralded Vladimir Putin’s re-election to the presidency. The man who many still saw as Russia’s de facto leader will now resume his tenure, four years after ostensibly ceding power to Dmitry Medvedev. In light of these developments a […]
Al Jazeera’s Indian Hospital series preview: Q&A
‘Indian Hospital’ is a new six part series that looks at a new style ‘super’ profit driven hospital that also cares for people with limited means.
Nine years on is the UN still failing Darfur?
View event here. Download this episode View in iTunes By Nicky Armstrong Last night’s event at the Frontline Club saw a heated debate between the expert panel and the audience on the UN’s presence in Darfur. Chaired by Patrick Smith, editor of Africa Confidential, the discussion bought up many of the tangled complexities surrounding the […]
Are cheap, local hires saving or ruining foreign reporting?
By Helena Williams Foreign reporting is changing. With news outlets’ budgets tightening, and competition, pressure and risks on the rise, foreign journalists working in conflict countries are abandoning traditional methods of reporting in favour of using cheap, local hires to get the story: “It used to be that you were a local journalist, and treated […]
Iran: dangerous or just misunderstood?
By Thomas Lowe International disagreement on the aims of the Iranian government was well represented on the discussion’s panel. Does Iran seek regional hegemony? Are its motivations aggressive or defensive? And the pointed question at the heart of the debate – what will Israel do next? Martin Fletcher, associate editor of The Times took the […]
Apps for the Paps
By Thomas Lowe It could have made no sense. But with a gently-gently approach to explaining new apps and why they exist, the gap between the journo geeks and the journo technophobes was momentarily bridged – with a little help from the BBC’s technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones. Empowerment: Former photographer for the dailies, Christian […]
Exclusive Preview Screening:Desert Riders
By Nicky Armstrong Camel racing is a sport for the wealthy and is a lucrative business throughout the UAE. Rich camel owners used to use trafficked young children as young as three for jockeys. Mainly from Pakistan, Sudan, Mauritania and Bangladesh they are used because of their light-weight to gain–an advantage in the races. The […]