Afghanistan
Insight with Zarghuna Kargar: The women of Afghanistan
Zarghuna Kargar will be at the Frontline Club in conversation with Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch, Rachel Reid to discuss the stories of the hidden lives of women of Afghanistan that she heard while working on the popular radio show, Afghan Woman’s Hour.
Have our leaders learned nothing from the war in Afghanistan?
Conversation among decision makers who gather in London’s private dining rooms has turned from Afghanistan to Libya. Over rare beef and fine wine, they voice concern that Western governments have again embarked on a rushed military adventure, in a far away place, on a vague premise, with no clearly defined goal, and no apparent […]
Armadillo: Janus Metz’s Fog of War
By Christopher Czechowicz “You have to be here to understand it. This place is screwed, after all. This is a fucked up country.” – ISAF Team Seven In the summer of 2009, marooned at military outpost “Armadillo” in Helmand Province, one of the most dangerous in Afghanistan and separated only by a kilometre from Taliban […]
The Afghan Peace Process: What is at stake?
View in iTunes At what stage are peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban and what role is the international community playing? Following recent reports of talks to discuss peace proposals aimed at ending the fighting in London we will be looking at the peace process and examining what the price will be […]
Preparation politeness and pauses.. the art of the interview
Streaming .TV shows by Ustream Listen to the podcast here or download from itunes. By Lucy Lacock A panel of journalists were at the Frontline Club last night to discuss "The Art of the Interview" and to pass on their knowledge about the way to get the most out of an interview and the interviewee. […]
Blood and Dust film
Vaughan’s new film, Blood and Dust, is below for those who didn’t catch it on Al Jazeera’s People and Power strand. If you want to see it on a large screen we will showing it at the Frontline Clubon 6 March. Followed by a discussion about how war is represented by the broadcast media. Vaughan writes: I have […]
‘I was concerned that I hadn’t filmed the suffering of war, just its machinery’ – Vaughan Smith on his new film showing the reality of war in Afghanistan
Vaughan Smith, founder of the Frontline Club, spent two weeks with the US Army’s 214th Aviation Regiment shooting Blood and Dust, a film being broadcast on Al Jazeera this week. The film will also be shown at the Club on 6 March and will be followed by a discussion about how war is represented by […]
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 […]
Vaughan Smith’s new film ‘Blood and Dust’ broadcasting on Al Jazeera
Above is a preview of Vaughan Smith’s dramatic new film BLOOD AND DUST recording life and death with an American helicopter medevac unit in Southern Afghanistan. ‘These Medivac teams, US military air ambulances, are amoungst the only soldiers that go to war to save lives and they are very good at it.’ See BLOOD AND […]
Friends show support for freelance photographer Giles Duley injured in Afghanistan
Photograph by David Bowering: Giles Duley has shown me the strength and depth the human spirit is capable of. I hope for a speedy recovery so that we may see more of your excellent work. Hats off to you sir. News that Frontline Club member Giles Duley was injured in a bomb blast while embedded […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Hardly an auspicious start – fired upon on the first day . . . . surely not!
Before I get onto the matter of the title, I should just explain a little about why I’m in Afghanistan and what brought me here. Over the next month(s) I’ll be writing stories and shooting pictures on a freelance basis, starting with commentary and articles for Executive Magazine, based in Beirut. If all goes well […]
Medal of Honor awarded to Korengal valley soldier
The video below describes the story of America’s first living recipient of the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam war. Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta was awarded the United States highest military honour for rescuing a captured colleague in the Korengal valley, Afghanistan. The Sal Giunta Story from Sebastian Junger on Vimeo. Meanwhile according to Militaryblogging.com, […]
In the Picture: a discussion with World Press Photo Winner Adam Ferguson
Adam Ferguson, one of the first prize winners of the World Press Photo Awards 2010, talked about being a war photographer and recent assignments in Afghanistan at the Frontline Club.
In The Picture: Afghanistan with Adam Ferguson
Adam Ferguson is an up and coming star in the world of photojournalism. His photograph of the aftermath of a suicide bombing in Kabul won him first prize in the Spot News category at the World Press Photo Awards this year. Ferguson will be speaking at the Frontline Club about his work in Afghanistan, his successes to date and his plans for the future.
Afghanistan in pictures- reminding us all of the price of war
On the eve of Remembrance Day, Afghanistan and the soldiers fighting there will be at the forefront of the minds of many. Adam Ferguson, a photojournalist who has covered the war in Afghanistan extensively, will be speaking at the Frontline Club on the 10th about his work there and beyond.
Reaction to the closure of Internet cafés in Kabul
Journalist Abbas Daiyar has an interesting blog post on this month’s decision by the Afghan Telecommunications Regulatory Authority to close 17 Internet cafés in the capital. The cafés had been warned not to allow their customers to view pornography or un-Islamic material. Daiyar argues that imposing such bans will not combat "moral corruption": "By shutting […]
BBC Newsnight says MoD refused to provide figures for Sangin attacks
British forces have handed over responsibility for security in Sangin, Afghanistan to their U.S. counterparts. More than a hundred British soldiers lost their lives in the district. As part of their research for last night’s coverage of this story, BBC Newsnight wanted the figures for "significant attacks on coalition forces in Sangin". They were trying […]
Afghanistan: the brittle compact between military and media
Vaughan Smith argues that news management by the military is a risky business. Smith founded the Frontline Club in London in 2003 and during the 1990s he ran Frontline Television News. He filmed the only uncontrolled footage of the Gulf War in 1991 after bluffing his way into an active-duty unit while disguised as a […]
Embedded in Afghanistan: “All you can do is give a snapshot”
Embedded journalism in Afghanistan is on the agenda at the Frontline Club this evening. Several journalists are on the panel including Caroline Wyatt, (BBC), Tim Marshall, (Sky News) and the Club’s founder Vaughan Smith. While they’ll be discussing Afghanistan and embedding tonight, The Independent‘s Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent, Kim Sengupta, will be heading back to […]
Embedded with the Taliban
Discussions around embedded journalism in Afghanistan tend to focus on journalists joining up with NATO or U.S. forces but what about the view we get from an embed with the Taliban? In the video below, Norwegian journalist Paul Refsdal risks his life to film Taliban operations with a commander in Eastern Afghanistan. There’s some intriguing […]
Tributes pour in for Frontline Club member Karen Woo, killed in Afghanistan trying to make a difference
There’s no more sad news for us at the Frontline than to hear that one of our own has died. So it is with a heavy heart we read that the surgeon Dr Karen Woo was shot and killed in a remote area of northern Afghanistan on Friday (there are many news reports, such as […]
At the centre of a media storm: The Frontline and WikiLeaks in links
It’s not every day that the world’s media descends on 13 Norfolk Place. But on Monday at noon the eyes of the British and international media were firmly fixed on our forum room as WikiLeaks editor and founder Julian Assange explained and defended the release of more than 90,000 confidential US military records on the […]
Hunting Men
Here is my director’s cut. 22 minutes from Operation Moshtarak, exciting stuff. Shows the war as it really is. First shown on Channel 4 News in February 2010. Vaughan