Africa
Algeria withdraws press credentials
Two journalists, one working for Reuters the other for AFP, have had their press credentials withdrawn according to The Media Line, The Reuters journalist reported an explosion in Algeria earlier this week, in which it said 20 people were killed. The government said the bombing never occurred. The Reuters journalist has meanwhile submitted his resignation. […]
Dinner with Mugabe
You can now watch the event here. The Zimbabwe election runoff vote is set for June 27. Last week author Heidi Holland was at the Frontline Club to talk about her book, Dinner with Mugabe. The book attempts to unravel the mind behind the man who runs the corrupt regime of Zimbabwe. Adam Roberts from […]
Nasteh Dahir killed in Somalia
Nasteh Dahir was killed in Somalia yesterday. The local journalist worked for the BBC and the AP. The National Union of Somali Journalists called it a “targeted assasination”. Our man Rob Crilly has more, Those of us who flit in and out of Somalia owe a heck of a lot to the courage of the […]
Give the man a dime…
Frontline blogger David Axe is cap in hand as he heads out to Chad and Sudan in the coming days. The Guerilla News Network is helping him raise $5,000 to make the trip to report on the European peacekeeping force and the U.N. refugee camps out there, I believe that vivid, courageous journalism, adequately resourced, […]
Portrait of a fixer – Daoud Hari in Darfur
Daoud Hari, author of The Translator, is profiled in the Daily Telegraph during a book promotion trip to New York. After his village in Darfur was attacked by Janjaweed militia he took to helping NGOs and foreign journalists get the story out. He became a fixer. ‘The journalists were very different from the NGO people,’ […]
Journalism award for Uganda film
[video:google:-7506651516025190367] The RFK Memorial Journalism Award goes to HDNet for their World Report programme, “A Silent War, A Violent Peace,” about Uganda’s civil war. The award will be presented at the Newseum tonight, according to TVNewser, “Kira Kay and Jason Maloney risked their lives to do the Uganda story, and to be recognized with an […]
Simon Kasyate wins Uganda journalism award
Simon Kasyate wins Uganda’s 2008 Investigative Journalist of the Year award. His winning TV feature focussed on a displaced family’s struggles to rebuild their life. Kasyate won from a field of 73 entries entered by 65 journalists. “My argument has always been that the biggest threat to media practice in Uganda is not so much […]
Alex de Waal on the Darfur crisis
You can now watch the event here. Alex de Waal, author of Darfur: a Short History of a Long War, talks about the history of Darfur, its conflicts, and what the future holds in store at the Frontline Club. In conversation with Nima Elbagir from More4 News and a reporter for Unreported World. She […]
Create your own media
Former CNN and AP news correspondent Peter Arnett said the dominance and influence of the international media is waning during a speech in the Ghanain capital Accra this week, He challenged the media to endeavour to tell the people what they need to know but not what the international media say. ‘You must not look […]
Congo Season: Media Talk -Lifting the Curse
You can now watch the event here. Are Congo’s natural resources to be found at the root of the nations problems or do they offer a key to its future development? Taking part in the debate at the Frontline Club are Muzong Kodi, a research fellow at the Royal Institute for International Affairs, Tricia […]
In the picture with Marcus Bleasdale
[video:brightcove:1557911521] Photographer Marcus Bleasdale talks about his work in the Democratic Republic of Congo at the Frontline Club during Congo Season. Marcus has worked in Congo over the past ten years so. He originally went there to see if the cliche was true. We’ve interviewed Marcus on the blog before.
Making a one man documentary
Filmmaker Matt Clift talks about how he went about making a one man documentary film about an orphanage in Uganda in 2007. He details the problems he had, the equipment he used and offers a number of tips for wannabe filmmakers working in difficult environments, Where I was going there was no option for going […]
CNN MultiChoice African Journalist 2008 finalists announced
The finalists in the CNN MultiChoice African Journalist 2008 Competition were announced today. The competition is in its 13th year. The winners will be anounced in Accra, Ghana on 19 July, Announcing the finalists, Azubuike Ishiekwene said: “”I have followed the CNN MultiChoice Awards for the past four years and watched them grow steadily to […]
Emily Holland heads to Liberia
Emily Holland heads to Liberia for the International Rescue Committee and she’ll be blogging her journey, I’ll be exploring and writing about the IRC’s efforts to assist Liberians who were displaced during the fifteen-year long civil war. I’ll visit a clinic, a school, a radio station, and an agricultural project, among other IRC initiatives. Whether […]
David Axe joins Frontline
David Axe joins the From the Frontline blog ranks this week. David is the author of Army 101 and War Fix. He also writes for the Wired Magazine Danger Room blog, keeps a personal blog called War is boring and uploads his cartoons to Flickr. Staying with the ‘boring’ theme, David has called his Frontline […]
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 […]
The real Africa
[video:brightcove:1534611483] The Real Africa was the topic of one of the debates at the Frontline Club last week. Africa, a continent made up of 53 independent nations, and yet as moderator Joel Kibazo points out, “If you look at it through the western media there aare the same issues and the same stories: Zimbabwe, the […]
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.
Sydney Saize on trial
Sydney Saize was arrested in the Zimbabwean town of Mutare in January 2006. He is charged under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act for reporting at a school where two teachers were assaulted by pro-government supporters, According to the police, Saize violated Chapter 10.27 of the draconian Access to Information and Protection […]
Kevin Sites sewing workshops
Kevin Sites is moving on from the Yahoo funded Hot Zone war reporting project he is most well known for. He is working on what sounds like a gimmicky show called People of the web. Sites believes war reporters need to focus on people and not combat, “The combat, which may only last a couple […]
Best of Photojournalism awards 2008
The results in the judging for Best of Photojournalism 2008 are now in. The winners in the International news category can be found here. Cedric Gerbehaye, working for Agence VU, and publsihed in Newsweek won second prize for the image from Congo above. For the full list of winners click through here.
See the world
It must be a remarkable thing to grow up in rural Nepal, join the army, fight a guerilla insurgency in your own Himalayan backyard, and then be given a blue hat and deployed to militia-ridden, gold-rich Ituri, north-east Congo. Since few Nepalese soldiers speak French, let alone Swahili, they have to rely on local interpreters. […]
Anita Coulson blogs from Zimbabwe
Now blogging with us at From the frontline is Anita Coulson. She’s ex-BBC and an Africa specialist. She is in Zimbabwe to cover the elections and blog what she sees and hears on the streets of Harare and beyond. It’s a fascinating read and blogged in difficult circumstances. The internet connection in Zimbabwe is too […]
Off to the frontline
This guy got his marching orders today and is setting off to join his unit in an operational zone near Rumangabo in North Kivu, eastern Congo. Transport is not provided, so he’ll probably flag down vehicles along the way. He won’t have to pay… Interesting that he’s taking the stereo too. The army is officially […]
Angola in the frame
War artist John Keane has covered war from the Falklands to the Gulf War. However, his latest work concentrates on peacetime Angola. In The Independent he talks about how he works using digital photography in the field before hammering out the canvases in his studio in London, Back in his London studio, Keane spent a […]
Will Mugabe win again?
With the elections just around the corner the discussion at the Frontline Club turns to Zimbabwe and the possibilities for change or not with Zimbabwean finance minister Simba Makoni challenging Robert Mugabe in the elections. The discussion is chaired by Adam Roberts, an Africa specialist with the Economist. Taking part are Sunday Times foreign affairs […]
The janjaweed are back
One of the 2006 George Polk Award winners, Lydia Polgreen, writes about a new scorched earth policy in the Darfur region of Sudan for the New York Times. The newspaper includes another excellent multimedia photoreport this time by Lynsey Addario.
Matthew Green talks Kony
[video:brightcove:1420186693] West Africa Correspondent for the Financial Times and former East Africa reporter for Reuters, Matthew Green talks at the Frontline Club about General Joseph Kony and unveils hidden and forgotten layers of the bloody conflict that plagues Northern Uganda. Matthew has been getting a lot of press lately for his book. Reuters has a […]
Not taking any flak yet
The BBC TV war reporter comedy series Taking the flak was supposed to start filming in Kenya this month. Due to the unrest there, the project has been shelved for now. Richard Kay in The Daily Mail has more, Alas the £1million series – called Taking The Flak and starring veteran actor Martin Jarvis as […]
Rob Crilly in Nairobi
Nairobi-based freelance journalist Rob Crilly is the latest addition to the blog stable at From the Frontline. Rob started blogging at South of West late last year. He’s been very busy with coverage from Kenya for The Times, Irish Times, Christian Science Monitor and The Daily Mail during the recent violence there. You can listen […]