Frontline Club bloggers
Things in Sudan Could Go Either Way, Experts
Sudan is gearing up for judges at the International Criminal Court to decide whether to indict President Omar al Bashir on the three charges being pursued by Luis Moreno-Ocampo. Speculation is rife that a decision will come in February, although no-one knows for sure. Journalist and aid worker friends are already getting out – or […]
The most dangerous profession
At least eight prominent journalists have left Sri Lanka since the assassination of Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunga on the 8th January, “Journalism has perhaps become the most dangerous profession in this country,” the privately run [Sunday Leader] said in a front-page editorial on Saturday. “It is riskier than even soldiering in that a soldier […]
Samtskhe-Javakheti: The next Nagorno Karabakh?
Blockaded by Azerbaijan and Turkey, and still effectively at war with the former over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, Armenia risks fast becoming isolated in a region where the democratization process and the situation with human rights protection is of serious concern. For ethnic nationalists in the South Caucasus, however, such an environment is […]
Somalia ransom now $100,000
From $2.5 million to $100,000 – that’s the reduction in the ransom demand for the release of Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan according to Canwest today. The duo were kidnapped in Somalia in August, 2008, “Now they want $100,000,” [said Dad Abdi Daud, executive director of Mogadishu-based Somali Journalists Rights […]
Carnival-tastic
Dressed in a skimpy gaucho two-piece, Maria José pouts and twists her way past the screaming crowd. On her heels prances an army of masked Incas, leaping, whooping and pummelling their bare chests until their war paint runs. Glitter-strewn Mayan maidens swirl and shake behind them aboard elaborate floats, the silver tassels of their bikinis […]
Cristina’s air mile bonanza
Cristina Kirchner, Argentina’s illustrious president, travelled to Cuba this week. The local press are giving her a hard time. First she got ill and had to postpone the trip. Her doctor says she’s suffering from stress and heat exhaustion. The country’s taxi drivers are convinced to a man that she was having some (more?) plastic […]
Baghdad is looking good… just keep your eye on the bits being rebuilt
On March 2007, just a couple of months before I left Iraq, a car bomb exploded in the middle of my favourite street in central Baghdad, al-Mutanabi Street (GMaps). The bomb killed more than 40 people and just totally destroyed a piece of Baghdadi history. Not only is this street the heart of Iraqi publishing […]
Video: An introduction to MUAC, Mexico’s new modern art museum
A modern monstrosity out of place amid a dated aesthetic, or a much-needed injection of fresh, voguish design? Whichever side you come down on, Mexico City’s brand new temple to modern art is well worth a visit. The Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo (University Museum of Contemporary Art), also known by its initials MUAC, opened […]
Burma VJ
Burma VJ is a documentary film by Danish director Anders Østergaard about the Burmese reporters who risked their lives covering the Saffron revolution in Burma in September 2007. Østergaard assembled the film almost entirely from handheld footage shot during the protests. A journalist, using the pseudonym Joshua and with the Democratic Voice of Burma, who […]
The Decline of the Foreign Correspondent
Princeton University recently held a panel discussion on the Decline of the Foreign Correspondent. They talk about the “dramatic shift of traditional media away from foreign reporting and the growth of web-based citizen journalists and the effect on coverage of international news and human rights issues” Taking part are, Loren Jenkins, Foreign Editor, National Public […]
Rwanda Finally Ditches Nkunda
So General Laurent Nkunda has been arrested in Rwanda. About time too. His thuggish rebellion scattered 250,000 people in the last months of 2008 as he flexed his muscles and played games with the lives of the families he claimed to represent. There are still questions to be answered – will Rwanda hand over […]
Seven journalists flee Sri Lanka
Following the killing of Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunge seven “prominent” Sri Lankan journalists have left the country, according to Tamil.net. In addition, another journalist and his wife have been attacked in the district of Gampha, Media reports said an editor of a pro-government Sinhala weekly ‘Rivira’, Upali Tennakoon, and his wife were severely assaulted […]
Guns for Russian reporters
Alexander Lebedev, co-owner of Russia’s Novaya Gazeta newspaper, has requested the Federal Security Service (FSB) issue firearms to journalists at the paper. The highly unusual request comes after Anastasia Baburova, a 25 years old journalist with the Gazeta, was murdered earlier this week. The paper previously employed Anna Politkovskaya who was also gunned down in […]
Undercover Zimbabwe film wins award
An undercover film shot in Zimbabwe by Shepherd Yuda, a prison officer, and smuggled out of the country has won the best news programme category in the Broadcast Awards announced last night. The film followed the story of vote rigging during the 2008 election, Zimbabwe: The Stolen Ballots, a world exclusive broken on the guardian.co.uk […]
Film defends Mexican woman imprisoned in Texas
Rosa Jimenez, a 26-year-old Mexican woman, could currently be serving a sentence of 99 years in a Texas prison for a crime she didn’t commit, according to LucÃa Gajá, 34, the young Mexican director of the documentary “Mi Vida Dentro (My Life Inside).” The film takes aim at the United States criminal-justice system and its […]
Azerbaijan: Black January
As much of the world celebrated the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States, Azerbaijan mourned the 19th anniversary of an event which ultimately led to its independence from the former Soviet Union. With Moscow’s power over its satellites weakened, ethnic tensions in the South Caucasus would soon erupt into […]
I’d like to see more military style from the Ministry of Defence’s Twitter feed
I’ve just come across @defencehq. It’s the official twitter feed of the Minstry of Defence and more or less exclusively links to Defence News articles. I scrolled back to the first few updates which I couldn’t help but have a little chuckle at: “testing twitter 8:06 PM Sep 4th, 2008 from web” “testing twitter 2 […]
44th President or Second Coming?
While the rest of the world was watching the inauguration of the 44th US president, I couldn’t help feeling Kenya was watching the second coming. Down in Kibera (Africa’s biggest slum) the mood was electric. Most of the people I spoke to seemed to have been drinking since very early and everyone had a wishlist […]
Whitehouse.gov launches blog as Barack Obama is sworn in as President
So change has come to America. And change has come to the White House website. The new administration has launched a Presidential blog. It will ‘serve as a place for the President and his administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world’. No promises that the President will be doing the […]
Who killed Hrant Dink?
Hrant Dink was shot dead on January 17, 2007 outside the Istanbul offices of Agos, the bilingual Armenian weekly where he worked as editor-in-chief. 20 suspects have been arrested for the killing of the Turkish-Armenian journalist. Eight remain in custody, but none have been charged. To mark the anniversary of Dink’s assassination this week hundreds […]
Reporter
Reporter is a film about the work of New York Times foreign correspondent Nicholas Kristof. The film, produced by Ben Affleck, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival last week, “As journalism of all kinds becomes more desperate to make money, then there is a tendency to focus more on celebrity,” Kristof said in a telephone […]
Can Obama sell cars in Mexico?
This car dealership in central Mexico City has a name that almost everyone will recognize. But don’t accuse the owners of trying to cash in on the popularity of soon-to-be-President Barack Obama. According to showroom staff, the dealership has been called Fiat Obama since 2006, long before Obama’s historic triumph. Why the name? “Obama” is […]
Anastasia Baburova shot dead in Moscow
Anastasia Baburova was shot dead in Moscow in broad daylight today along with Russian human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov. Baburova was killed as she tried to intervene when Markelov was attacked. The freelance journalist in her mid-20’s worked for Novaya Gazeta newspaper, the same newspaper as Anna Politkovskaya who was also shot dead in Moscow […]
Africa Reading Challenge 6. Bikila: Ethiopia’s Barefoot Olympian
Last year, while trying to pick the sixth book for my African Reading Challenge, I explained how I wanted a book that wasn’t self-consciously a book about Africa. I wanted a story, a biography, a self-help guide, whatever, that just happened to be set in Africa. I failed. And as a result didn’t even manage […]
The Gushing Begins
Far be it from me to accuse anyone of cashing in on Barack Obama’s success, particularly as I have made a not inconsiderable amount of money by writing about the Obama family in Kenya since 2004, but is this really necessary? Email invitation from Vestergaard Frandsen, the Swiss manufacturer of "disease control textiles", to a […]
Journalist and driver released in Somalia
Abdifatah Mohamed Elmi, who was kidnapped along with Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan in August 2008, has been released along with, Marwali, the driver, “We have been released and we are free now after 177 days of ordeal, but our two foreign journalists are still hostages” Elmi told Agence France-Press. link […]
Piracy Faces Challenge – Possibly…
Expect to see the current decline in pirate attacks continue, if my sources have got it right. The reason – although the Yanks are keen to claim "mission accomplished" on behalf of their maritime patrols – is the election of Abdirahman Mohamed Farole as president of Puntland. During the election campaign he promised to tackle […]
CNN vs. Joe the War Correspondent
I said I wouldn’t say anything more about Joe the War Correspondent. And I won’t. But, CNN’s Rick Sanchez does have something to say to the war correspondent who thinks “media should be abolished from reporting”.
Reuters bureau hit in Gaza
Reuters journalists in Gaza report that an Israeli missile or shell hit the 13th floor of the Al-Shurouq Tower in Gaza city this morning. A journalist working for an Abu Dhabi television channel on the 14th floor was injured. Reuters evacuated the bureau which is located on the 12th floor, A camera in the office […]
You Article is Nonsense and Why isn’t it on the Website?
On Monday Hassan al Turabi, once the Islamist power behind the Sudanese president, gave interviews to the BBC World Service, Reuters and AFP calling for Omar al Bashir to give himself up to the International Criminal Court to prevent further international isolation of Sudan. In doing so he was the first opposition leader to break […]
