BBC
Screening: Land Rush + Q&A
By Joëlle Pouliot On November 12, Land Rush was screened at The Frontline Club as part of a cross-media event entitled Why Poverty?, which uses films, online and TV, to get people talking about poverty. Land Rush explores the land appropriation debate in Mali. 75% of the population are small-scale traditional farmers who compete with […]
FULLY BOOKED Insight with Jeremy Bowen: The Arab Uprisings
BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen reflects on the past two years of game-changing moments in the history of the Middle East.
Kony: Hunt for the World’s Most Wanted
By Jonathan Couturier In the wake of the Kony 2012 campaign that went viral attracting more than 100 million viewers, for BBC Panorama, BAFTA-winning reporter Sorious Samura travelled to the frontline of the battle to bring Joseph Kony to justice. The result is an incisive and often shocking documentary that asks why, after more than two decades, has […]
FULLY BOOKED Stumbling Over Truth: The inside story of the sexed-up dossier, Hutton and the BBC
It has been ten years since the publication of the “September Dossier”, part of an ongoing investigation by the government into weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The following year, on 29 May, the then BBC defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan reported on Radio 4’s Today programme that he had been told by an unnamed source […]
Hitler, Stalin, and Mr. Jones
By Jim Treadway George Carey brought his Storyville documentary Hitler, Stalin and Mr. Jones to the Frontline Club on Friday night, exploring the life and tragic murder of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones (1905-1935). Jones grew up in Barry, south Wales, attended Cambridge University on a scholarship, became fluent in Russian and German, and showed a flair for […]
THIRD PARTY EVENT: The future of newsgathering and the changing media landscape
Moderated by BBC television and radio presenter Nikki Bedi, Paul Lewis (Guardian), Matthew Eltringham (BBC CoJo), Mark Evans (Sky News HD), Gavin Sheppard (Media Trust), Ravin Sampat (Blottr) will be debating the future of newsgathering and the changing media landscape in a live panel discussion, in partnership with Media Trust.
Reporting Somalia: Expanding the scope of the media’s eye?
When you think of Somalia, what comes to mind? Conflict? Pirates? Refugees? Poverty? Somalia is still a dangerous place for journalists to operate: according to the Committee to Protect Journalists five journalists have been killed there this year. But improvements in the security situation are offering new opportunities to access stories that may have been too risky to […]
POLIS 2012: Reporting Revolution
I’m at the POLIS Journalism Conference where we have been talking about Reporting Revolution with the BBC’s Lyse Doucet, Lindsey Hilsum from Channel 4 and Tom Coghlan at The Times. "An extraordinary time to be a journalist" All the panellists expressed their excitement at covering the Arab Spring. Tom Coghlan began by comparing the limitations […]
It’s the Military, Stupid
By Thomas Lowe ‘Memogate’, nuclear weapons, Bin Laden, Imran Khan, US foreign policy, Afghanistan – it seems that global issues are destined to pass through Pakistan. But it’s the vast military apparatus at the very centre of the state of Pakistan that took the attention of the Frontline panel – and demanded the mediation skills […]
Screening: An Arab Spring in Saudi?
By Charlene Rodrigues This time last year, when we witnessed uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, Shaimaa Khalil’s curiosity took her to the streets of Saudi Arabia to investigate what was happening in one of the world’s richest oil-producing countries. The resulting documentary, An Arab spring in Saudi?, is a study of the authoritarianism of the Saudi […]
Frei at The Frontline Club
By Alan Selby A packed house at The Frontline Club heard Matt Frei regale them with tales from his long and illustrious career. The former BBC Washington correspondent, recently poached by Channel 4 News, was on fine form as he spoke to former BBC executive Vin Ray about more than 20 years with the BBC: […]
Reflections: Matt Frei
In association with BBC College of Journalism
Newly-appointed to Channel 4 News as Washington correspondent, Matt Frei, will be in conversation with former BBC executive Vin Ray to look back over nearly two decades at the BBC before his move was announced in May last year.
Rebuilding Libya
View in iTunes Watch the event here. By Alan Selby Much has happened since this time last year. The 15th of February 2011 saw the first Libyans take to the streets of Benghazi against a brutal dictatorship which ruled over them for 42 years. The events that followed sent shockwaves around the world, led to a […]
BBC Screening:The Ayatollah’s Seal
by Rosie Scammell In the wake of intimidation of BBC Persian journalists by the Iranian authorities, last night saw the screening of ‘The Ayatollah’s Seal’ – the first documentary to be made about the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. Refused access to Iran by the Ministry of Culture (there were more important topics for the […]
Wael Ghonim in conversation with Ben Hammersley: Revolution 2.0
By Emily Wight A key element to the Arab Spring was the role of social media in giving momentum to the revolution. In countries such as Egypt, Facebook and Twitter have been used as a democratizing force, a platform for activists to share ideas. At last night’s #FCBBCA event Wired UK’s editor at large Ben […]
American Muslim: Freedom, Faith and Fear
By Alan Selby A lot has changed in the years since 9/11. The date itself has become emblematic of a change in attitudes towards Islam, perhaps most notably in the country which bore witness to the infamous attacks that day. Popular opinion has shifted, and the land of the free has become an increasingly […]
#FCBBCA Part 2: Women of the Revolution
by Ivana Davidovic Maryam Al-Khawaja from the Bahrain Center for Human Rights comes from a family of activists, many of whom have been on the receiving end of the police brutality in the Kingdom. So much so that she joked that “Bahrain should adopt family cells in prisons, so family members could spend some time […]
Five links from 2011: ‘War Reporting’
This year I bookmarked at least 530 links on delicious. I know that because I try to tag each bookmark by year – I’m three hundred or so links down on last year’s total of 854. Seeing as we’re coming to the end of the year I thought I’d pick out a few of the […]
BBC Editor says he was advised to pull journalists from Libya by Foreign Office
On the eve of the fall of Sirte, the BBC’s World News Editor has revealed that the Foreign Office “strongly recommended” to broadcasters that they pull their journalists out of Libya prior to the start of NATO’s bombing campaign. Speaking at yesterday evening’s Frontline Club event on the pressures of reporting conflict, Jon Williams said […]
Reporting conflict: competition, pressure and risks
View in iTunes Watch the event here. By Helena Williams In a year where 100 journalists have been killed so far while trying to tell the story, and as the media’s coverage of events rocking the Middle East have been brought into sharp relief, it seems high time to examine the delicate relationship between ensuring the […]
Notes on ‘Libya and the Arab Spring’ at the Media Society
So yesterday I tried to fit too many things at too many different places into one day and ended up being late for the Media Society event on reporting Libya and the ‘Arab Spring’. But here are a few incomplete notes on the panel discussion… 1. BBC vs Sky News reporting of Tripoli I think […]
Martin Bell: Neutrality, safety and how not to do television news
Watch the event here. By Millie Cartwright Veteran war correspondent Martin Bell was at the Frontline Club last night to look back on his long career as a journalist and share some pearls of wisdom for aspiring foreign correspondents. Bell, who later went on to become MP for Tatton, a UNICEF ambassador and prolific writer, […]
Changing world – conflict, culture and terrorism in the 21st century
To mark ten years since the terrorist attacks on the United States, the Frontline Club, in association with the BBC’s Arabic service, is holding a special event to look at how 11 September 2001 has defined our world today and will continue to shape our future. We will be discussing the "War on Terror" that […]
Afghanistan: the mistakes began on 12 September 2001
Watch event here. If you want to take part in further discussion about the impact of the War on Terror on our world today and how it might shape our future, come along to our FIRST WEDNESDAY SPECIAL: Changing world – conflict, culture and terrorism in the 21st century on Wednesday, 7 September. The […]
Libya: Reporting the advance on Tripoli
Rebel forces have jubilantly entered the Libyan capital Tripoli, although fighting still continues in several parts of the city. For a round up of the latest news check out this list on the Small Wars Journal website. Here are a few articles that have caught my eye relevant to the reporting of the rebel advance. […]
Humanising Iran: Insights with Kamin Mohammadi
By Helena Williams Iranian author and journalist Kamin Mohammadi explained her reasons for telling her family’s story without saturating her book The Cypress Tree in her homeland’s complex political history at the Frontline Club last night. “The greater truth I want to communicate about my country is a human truth – it’s not about politics,” said Mohammadi, adding: “the more […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
My life as a Somali pirate hostage
In late 2008, Daily Telegraph correspondent Colin Freeman travelled to Somalia to investigate a spate of piracy attacks that were terrorising shipping in the Gulf of Aden. Along with a Spanish photographer, Jose Cendon, his aim was to track down some of the pirates and secure an exclusive interview. But the pair were double crossed […]