journalism
THIRD PARTY EVENT: Are cheap, local hires saving or ruining foreign reporting?
How are the rules of reporting being rewritten by risk? What innovative methods are journalists using to report from some of the world’s most dangerous places?
Journalists working in areas of conflict reveal how they get information when traditional techniques are insufficient. The discussion will focus on the interaction between local hires and foreign journalists.
Defending collaboration, with A. A. Gill and Tom Craig
View event here. By Alan Selby The advent of new media has seen an increasing pressure placed upon journalists to become multidisciplinary, but often to the detriment of each medium. During an evening moderated by David Campany, reader in photography at Westminster University, writer A. A. Gill and photographer Tom Craig mounted an impassioned defence […]
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: […]
Matt Frei and the ‘light touch’ (five tips for journalists)
By Thomas Lowe In conversation with Vin Ray, Matt Frei let us into the deepest, darkest and funniest recesses of his journalistic mind. Here is his advice for putting together a good story for television. 1. Pictures Writing well for TV is quite simple, Frei says. The lesson is just to “get out of the way” of the […]
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.
Tributes to Marie Colvin, Sunday Times correspondent killed in Syria
The Sunday Times correspondent, Marie Colvin, was killed in Syria on Wednesday morning. She died after a makeshift media centre in Homs came under attack from Syrian forces. French photographer Rémi Ochlik was also killed. Colvin and Ochlik died the day after Syrian activist, Rami al-Sayed. His video footage, uploaded to YouTube and Bambuser, was […]
Journalists killed as CPJ’s ‘Attacks on the Press’ is released
By Helena Williams No one who attended last night’s discussion at the Frontline Club on the safety of journalists was under any illusion that the issue was not an important one, but few there could have anticipated that it would be so topical. News of the death of Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin, a regular at the […]
Reporting under fire: covering a new world of political unrest
Join us for the launch of a series of events, screenings and workshops at which we will be examining the challenges to safety faced by journalists around the world.
The event will also mark the launch of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Attacks on the Press report which will be presented by CPJ executive director Joel Simon.
“Welcome to Syria”: Embedding with ‘citizen journalists’
This Al Jazeera English report on Syria’s citizen journalists is interesting. When people in the media industry talk about "embedded journalists" they usually mean journalists embedding with military units. It is, of course, possible to ’embed’ with other people or organisations and it is perhaps a sign of the times that ‘journalists’ like Jane Ferguson are […]
FULLY BOOKED-UK Premiere – Under Fire: Journalists in Combat
A unique exploration of the psychological and emotional toll of covering wars and the risks journalists take in order to cover them. Dr. Anthony Feinstein, who works as a psychiatrist for CNN, CBS, BBC, Reuters was involved in the making of the film, which was Shortlisted for the Academy Award nomination for best documentary.
Social media from the front line
Major Paul Smyth is one of the people responsible for changing the Ministry of Defence’s approach to social media particularly in the context of front line operations. I’ve spoken to him previously for the Frontline Club about his Frontline bloggers project. In this interview with David Bailey, Maj. Smyth talks in some detail about how […]
‘Shooting vs. Shooting’ screening comes under fire
By Helena Williams A documentary on journalist casualties during the Iraq war came under fire last night as members of the audience questioned the director’s stance on the US military. Greek journalist Nikos Megrelis’ 2011 film, ‘Shooting vs. Shooting’, centres around the killing of Western journalists by American soldiers in Iraq and suggests that […]
Looking ahead to February at the Frontline Club
Our packed February programme kicks off with an opportunity to hear from former Google executive Wael Ghonim, who helped mobilise support for Egypt’s street protests with his ‘We are all Khaled Said’ Facebook page and was recently named one of Time magazine’s top 100 most influential people. The following week we will be launching a series of discussions, screenings and workshops examining the risks faced […]
How to become a freelance foreign correspondent
By Helena Williams Last year was the year of the freelance foreign correspondent. The tumultuous events of 2011 gave freelance journalists unprecedented access to breathless, breaking news stories in the Arab world – unlike Iraq and Afghanistan, where embedding restrictions applied, freelancers were free to travel and compete on the frontline. With the increasing attraction […]
FULLY BOOKED On the media: Becoming a freelance foreign correspondent
This event is now fully booked but you will be able to watch it live here and follow the discussion on #fcfreelance.
With uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa setting a relentless pace in this year’s news agenda, media outlets have frequently turned to freelances to cover events in countries where they are without staff bureaus and wire services.
The Frontline Club, in association with the BBC College of Journalism, will be bringing together a panel of freelances who will discuss the practicalities of life as a freelance foreign correspondent from setting up in a country to finding and pitching stories and dealing with the realities of conflict.
The Leveson Inquiry comes to Frontline – what have we learned?
By Thomas Lowe Passionate exchanges, heckling from the audience and caustic wit – that’s what you get when a panel of journalists sit down to discuss what Peter Wilby described as the media’s ‘truth and reconciliation commission’. Anne Diamond, who now hosts the Anne Diamond show on Berkshire radio believes she was ‘targeted’ by Rupert […]
FULLY BOOKED First Wednesday: The Leveson Inquiry – what have we learned?
Since the Leveson Inquiry hearings began on 14 November some of the worst of British journalism has been laid bare by the victims of phone hacking, politicians, journalists and editors who have spoken.
As revelations from the phone hacking investigation continue, join us for the first event of 2012 to discuss what has been revealed about the workings of the tabloid press and what the fall out will be for the journalism industry.
A lively public meeting hosted by Paddy O’Connell of BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House.
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 […]
Reflections: Alex Crawford
Download this episode View in iTunes Watch the event here. By Thomas Lowe Three time winner of the Royal Television Society Journalist of the year award, Sky special correspondent Alex Crawford spoke on trauma, risk, the tools of her trade and why she would rather eat her own liver than be a presenter. The […]
FULLY BOOKED Reflections: Alex Crawford
Alex Crawford‘s coverage from Libya won her widespread praise after she travelled into the conflict with rebel forces. The first journalist to make it into the city of Tripoli after it fell to rebel forces, she coloured her career further with the occasional arrest, detainment, bullet, IED, tear-gassing and mortar shell.
She will be joining us at the Frontline Club in conversation with former BBC executive Vin Ray to take a look back over her career as a foreign correspondent.
Introductory Final Cut Pro X Weekend Course
INTRODUCTORY FINAL CUT PRO X TRAINING AT THE FRONTLINE CLUB 2 day course – November 12th – 13th This course is designed to familiarise participants with Apple’s latest revolutionary non-linear editing software. Learn how to create compelling and engaging multimedia edits, quickly and easily with this new and very powerful tool. The course will guide […]
Insight with Jonathan Steele: The craft of the foreign correspondent
Jonathan Steele has been covering global events for the Guardian for over forty years. From the civil rights movement in Mississippi and Alabama to his extensive coverage of the past 30 years of Afghan history, his work has won him recognition as one of the greatest foreign correspondents of his generation.
He will be joining us at the Frontline Club in conversation with freelance journalist Tom Finn who is currently based in Sana’a, Yemen to reflect on his 40-year career, which has taken him to Eastern Europe, Washington correspondent and Kabul, Afghanistan throughout the Soviet period until 1992.
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, pressures and risks
IN ASSOCIATION WITH BBC COLLEGE OF JOURNALISM
After the headlines trumpeting that Alex Crawford and Sky News were clear winners of the battle for reporting Tripoli, we will be taking stock of this recent chapter in covering modern warfare.
With a panel of newsroom executives and frontline journalists we will discuss how the conflict in Libya was reported and what its legacy is likely to be.
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 […]
The week ahead at the Frontline Club: Focus on Israel, reporting Libya and art meets war in Saudi Arabia
Tonight we will be joined by the "rock star of Saudi contemporary art" Abdulnasser Gharem, an artist and lieutenant colonel in the Saudi army, he will be discussing how he balances these two professions in Saudi Arabia. Screenings in the week ahead include Danfung Dennis’ Hell and Back Again, a cinematic revolution in documentation. With unrivalled artistry, […]
Reporting the Arab Spring: the mirage of the ‘authentic voice’
I’m breaking the radio silence on the blog to post the introduction to my latest book chapter for Mirage in the Desert: Reporting the Arab Spring. (Not to be confused with Mirage in the Dessert…that is something entirely different.) My chapter uses the case of the Gay Girl in Damascus blog, (a hoax which purported […]
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, […]
Reflections: Martin Bell at the Frontline Club
Veteran war correspondent and winner of the Royal Television Society’s Reporter of the Year Award, Martin Bell has reported from over 80 countries and 11 wars in his time as a BBC journalist. Making his name in journalism for his work during the Vietnam war, and later on as an Independent MP for Tatton in 1997 during a landslide win against the Conservatives.
He will be joining former BBC executive Vin Ray to take a look back at his career as a journalist, MP and UNICEF Ambassador.
David Carr in conversation with Richard Gizbert: The media machine
Drawing on their experiences working with two very different global media players, David Carr of the New York Times and Richard Gizbert of Al Jazeera English will be discussing the future of the news industry.
From the future of newspapers like the New York Times and whether they can adapt quickly enough to survive to the emergence of new business models offering alternative sources of funding. They will be addressing some of the big questions that are exercising many minds within the media.
A remarkable opportunity to debate the future of the news industry with two of its key players.