Frontline Club bloggers
Talking violence in Texas
Last week, I was invited to speak at the University of Texas Pan America about this website, MexicoReporter.com, violence against journalists in Mexico, the drug war coverage and how new technologies are contributing to the journalism beast. So I went.
Sri Lanka government to investigate journalists
The Sri Lankan government has appointed a Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate the work of journalists "who have been contributing articles detrimental to the interests of Sri Lanka to foreign Non Governmental Organizations", according to Sri Lanka Defence Spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella. Government will reveal names of those Sri Lankan journalists in about a fortnight, […]
Freelance journalist missing in Zimbabwe
Kudzai Musengi, a freelance journalist based in Gweru, is missing according to an alert issued by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Zimbabwe) today. Musengi failed to return home after normal working hours on 31 March and family and colleagues have not been able to contact him. MISA-Zimbabwe strongly appeals to the authorities and law […]
Upstarts and Question Marks
Thousands of slickly-designed opposition posters and stickers have been appearing on the streets of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, over the past couple of weeks, in the run-up to anti-government protests on April 9. Some of them blame President Mikheil Saakashvili for the disastrous war here last August; others (like this one, allegedly showing the Georgian […]
#G20 – Twitter dominates mainstream media coverage
I’m feeling rather overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information on the G20 protests and I’m just sitting and watching. But maybe that’s my problem – there is so much to watch. I’m currently waiting for 2,383 queued tweets on a #G20 search of Twitterfall (and later I realised that I need to keep it […]
Indian sculptors bring life to Kashmir stone
It was after two decades that sculptors from India landed in Indian held Kashmir to take part in a camp organized by the government run Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art Culture and Languages (JKAACL) which looks after Cultural and Art related activities in the troubled region. Even though Kashmir has produced some sculptors of […]
Account of shootout in Police Training School, Lahore.
Munawan, Lahore: After 3/3, 30/3 was another event, filled with tragedy infused with confusion and terror. Lahore isn’t too used to taking all this. 7:30AM – 30/3: Another Terrorist attack—After Sri Lankan team, this time on Police Training school in Munawa, some 14 KM from Lahore, more towards Wagha Border between India and Pakistan. Flew […]
Rio moves to wall off its slums
Several new walls are being built around the slums in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. Eleven kilometres of Concrete walls 3.5 metres high are being built in about 40 slums to protect native forests. Authorities say they want to stop “favelas” from expanding into preserved areas in order to protect wildlife. But human […]
Dan McDougall foreign reporter of the year
Dan McDougall, a freelance foreign correspondent with The Observer newspaper among others, has been named as foreign reporter of the year at the British Press Awards 2009 being held tonight in London. Dan was shortlisted for the award in 2008, but has triumphed tonight. The Guardian’s Oliver Luft is at the event, 10.25pm: They’re all […]
Immigrants: They are coming back
The Independent on Sunday recently published a vox pop with people from all over the world who have been affected by the world crisis. They were asked to say what they expect from G20 leaders gathered in London this week. I collaborated from Brazil – and ended up learning about a silent drama that is […]
All Eyes on Africa
The Foreign Correspondents Association of East Africa is holding a photo exhibition of the best snaps from the past year. My pic from Kibera, during last year’s election violence, has made it in. Kids there invented a new game after watching Nairobi’s press corps descend on their small patch of mud every morning in […]
Account of shootout in Police Training School, Lahore.
Munawan, Lahore: After 3/3, 30/3 was another event, filled with tragedy infused with confusion and terror. Lahore isn’t too used to taking all this. 7:30AM – 30/3: Another Terrorist attack—After Sri Lankan team, this time on Police Training school in Munawa, some 14 KM from Lahore, more towards Wagha Border between India and Pakistan. Flew […]
Chávez’s cheque book diplomacy
Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s president and media phenomenon, is well known for his antics at home. For those out of touch with his singular leadership style, check out YouTube for his Sunday show Aló Presidente. Now attention is being drawn to his activities outside Venezuela’s borders. Chávez likes to cast himself as the modern day Simón […]
The Khmer Rouge trial gets substantial
I witnessed today the first day of substantive hearing of Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, the former chairman of the famed Phnom Penh detention center S-21 who was charged (among other things) with crimes against humanity. (From 1975 to 1979, under the Khmer Rouge, at least 12,380 men, women and children died at […]
77 names added to wall of fallen journalists
The names of 62 journalists killed in 2008 and 15 killed in previous years have been added to a memorial wall at the Newseum in Washington D.C. that honours journalists killed doing the job of journalism. Iraq and Mexico were the deadliest places for journalists last year. 13 names from Iraq were added to the […]
Beverly Giesbrecht ransom offer rejected
A ransom offered to the Taliban kidnappers of Beverly Giesbrecht has reportedly been rejected according to a report on the Globe & Mail newspaper. Giesbrecht, a Canadian freelance journalist who also goes by the name of Khadija Abdul Qahaar, was kidnapped four months ago in the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The kidnappers […]
U.S. General: Darfur No-Fly Zone Not “Developed”
Let’s be perfectly clear about this: deploying Western forces to establish a no-fly zone over Darfur is a bad idea, and would only further entangle foreign powers in a war in which they have no clear interest. Not to mention, the logistics and rules-of-engagement would be nightmares. Fortunately, the U.S. Air Force doesn’t seem terribly […]
Peter Gabriel asks for political will and muscle to end impunity over Ciudad Juarez’s dead women
Peter Gabriel, the musician and activist, implored Mexico President Felipe Calderon to show "real political will, muscle and budget" in investigating the hundreds of unsolved murders of young women in the border town of Ciudad Juarez in the state of Chihuahua Friday. Speaking to a packed press conference through a translator, and flanked by Mexican […]
John D. McHugh’s latest from Afghanistan
John D. McHugh, club regular and Frontline Club award for journalism winner, sees his latest multimedia production from Afghanistan about the U.S. soldiers view of their Afghan counterparts, on the Guardian website. You can feel the frustration dripping from the U.S. soldiers as they find Afghan colleagues without helmets on, smoking dope and otherwise […]
Somali journalist jailed for two years
Ayanle Jama Feyte, an online journalist working for the Lassqorey website who was arrested on March 26, has reportedly been jailed for two years by a court in Bossaso in the Puntland region of Somalia. He is charged with defamation under the “criminal code defamation to state administrative bodies” after he allegedly published a series […]
The Khmer Rouge trial gets substantial
I witnessed today the first day of substantive hearing of Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, the former chairman of the famed Phnom Penh detention center S-21 who was charged (among other things) with crimes against humanity. (From 1975 to 1979, under the Khmer Rouge, at least 12,380 men, women and children died at […]
Wait and See…
Tribal elders in Kandahar like to explain how they’re waiting to see what will happen before committing themselves to any particular ‘side’. Well, we’ve all been waiting to hear from President Obama on his grand plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan – or the latest neologism, ‘Af-Pax’. Two days ago, finally, we heard. In the words […]
Wait and See…
Tribal elders in Kandahar like to explain how they’re waiting to see what will happen before committing themselves to any particular ‘side’. Well, we’ve all been waiting to hear from President Obama on his grand plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan – or the latest neologism, ‘Af-Pax’. Two days ago, finally, we heard. In the words […]
Luxury temple owner is arrested in São Paulo
Yesterday the owner of the biggest luxury department store in Latin America was arrested in São Paulo and sentenced to 94 years in prison for fraudulent importing, organized crime and tax evasion. Her prison was somewhat spectacular: pictures of blond and chic Eliana Tranchesi, 53 years old, being escorted by policemen made all the headlines. […]
‘Those Who Remain’ focuses on families left behind in Mexico by migrants
The homes and families that those migrants come from are usually just a jumping-off point for filmmakers, but Rulfo and Hagerman chose to stay at the point of departure to see how those who remain deal with their reduced numbers.
Something I Should Have Read a Long Time Ago
I bought The Root Causes of Sudan’s Civil Wars more than four years ago when I was newly arrived in East Africa. I skimmed through it before a trip I did to Rumbek, but its dense text put me off using it as anything other than a reference book. It was kept on the shelf […]
Journalist shot dead in Rawalpindi
Raja Asad Hameed, a senior reporter with the English Language daily The Nation in Pakistan, was shot dead last night in Rawalpindi, Unidentified armed men on Thursday night killed Raja Asad Hameed, senior reporter of a local English daily. The incident took place at 10pm, when the armed men came to Hameed’s house and rang […]
Surveillance Tapes and ‘Secret Orders’
The release of surveillance tapes by the Georgian interior ministry in recent days – ‘evidence’ which allegedly suggests that opposition activists were buying weapons and making ready to use them to stage a coup during mass protests in early April – has a very familiar feeling to many people here in Georgia. The authorities have […]
Piracy War Escalates: Korean Sailor Shot
A Korean crewman aboard a ship sailing on the Indian Ocean was shot in the head by Somali pirates but survived, the AP reports. Despite the surge in East African piracy in the past 18 months, only two people have died as a result of pirates’ actions, by my count. One was the Russian […]
‘Two-bit blogging’: an example
A couple of bits and pieces I picked up today. Literally – a couple: 1. Noah Shachtman, editor of the Danger Room at Wired, is (almost) accused of being a ‘two-bit blogger’ by a spokesman for Donald Rumsfeld: "I think if you’re going to accuse Rumsfeld of ‘blowing the war in Afghanistan’ and do it […]
