Frontline Club bloggers
Telegraph slashes foreign correspondent stringer rates
The Daily Telegraph have slashed their stringer rates by around 40% for freelance foreign correspondents to £60 for news stories up to 400 words. Longer articles have a different rate. In addition, regular stringers will find their monthly retainers either reduced or cut entirely. Others will receive an annual lump sum. The Guardian reports this […]
Two journalists killed in Pakistan
Two journalists were among seven killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Government Polytechnic College in Dera Ismail Khan in northern Pakistan yesterday, The suicide bomber struck when police and forensic experts were collecting evidence after cordoning off the area around the teashop. Officials said the head and legs of a man […]
Somalia kidnap victims Colin Freeman and José Cendón are free
Colin Freeman, a journalist with the Daily Telegraph (on the right on the picture below), and Jose Cendon, a freelance photographer, were set free today after being kidnapped in Somalia some six weeks ago on November 26, 2008 while reporting on piracy in Bosasso, "The two journalists are free after their ordeals," said the head […]
Mexican Safari
So I saw the new year in in fine style, sitting around a campfire on the beach in Baja. In theory I am helping to build an earthbag house. In reality I’ve been drinking margaritas and watery beer with a squirt of lime. Either way it’s a pretty cool place to unwind, read a few […]
Hassan Mayow killed in Somalia
Hassan Mayow, a Shabelle radio correspondent in Somalia, was shot dead when he was caught in the crossfire between two groups armed with AK-47s in Afgoi some 30km west of Mogadishu on New Year’s Day, “Hassan was one of the nimble correspondents of Shabelle radio and was very sincere for his task of Journalism, we […]
Happy New Year
My best wishes to all for joy, lots of travel and other eye-opening experiences, and for you to always have fun in your journalism or whatever you do. From the Our Books art team, via Jinja.
How many countries can you name?
In seasonal quiz news for foreign correspondents… How many countries can you name? I had three attempts, the best result I managed was my first attempt – a pretty pathetic 74 out of a possible 195. Happy new year one and all. If you’re finding the time limit’s a wee bit tight on this game, […]
The life of a journalist is quite lonely
Marcus Bleasdale, photojournalist, Frontline Club member and regular on this blog, talks in the Daily Telegraph about how he got into photojournalism in his late twenties after a successful career in banking. Fascinating to hear more about his path into photography and how working the war zone beat has changed him. What with the banking […]
Press Freedom report 2008
Reporters sans frontières release the 2008 Press Freedom report today. While the figures are depressing they are better than 2007, “The figures may be lower than last year’s but this should not mask the fact that intimidation and censorship have become more widespread, including in the west, and the most authoritarian governments have been taking […]
Major TV channels pulling out of Iraq
The United States three mainstream broadcast networks, namely ABC, CBS and NBC, have stopped sending full time correspondents to Iraq. At the same time the channels are trying to bolster their numbers in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “Americans like their wars movie length and with a happy ending,” [said Mike Boettcher, a Baghdad correspondent for NBC […]
Anthony Loyd heads to forgotten wars
Looks like Anthony Loyd is in for a busy eighteen months. The Times war correspondent and Frontline Club regular, will be on assignment for the coming year and a half covering forgotten war zones,What of the rest of the world’s conflicts? What of the thousands killed in Mexico’s drug cartel battles or the fighting in […]
Nick Kristof makes Cambodian visit
I had the privilege to meet New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof this past weekend, as he was inaugurating the school he and his family donated in Prey Veng province. (Full disclosure: the school building program is part of an NGO chaired by my boss.) Kristof has reached this blessed position where he actually gets […]
On the road with Robert Adams
Robert Adams, one of the original Frontline TV cameramen and a founder member of the Frontline Club, is on the road. For six months Rob, his family and some friends will be on the road in Africa. From their home in Harare they’ll head to Cairo, Cape Town and back to Harare and all points […]
Hamza Shahin killed in Gaza
Hamza Shahin, a photographer with the Shihab Media Agency in the Gaza Strip, has died of injuries he suffered some two weeks ago when Israeli tanks attacked in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. The International Federation of Journalists has condemned the killing, “Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza present a serious risk to security […]
Safari Soundtrack of the Year
It’s been a funny year for me music wise. I’m still struggling to keep up with what’s going on back home. I’ve bought a couple of duff albums on the back on online reviews and I’m sorry to lose The Beat on the BBC’s World Service. Anyway, here are the top 10 most played tracks […]
Dividing Lines Multiply in 2008
2008 was a year when the convoluted frontlines of the South Caucasus shifted yet again. The war in Georgia in August has had depressing consequences for ordinary people’s freedom of movement, and for the possibilities for the various nations and ethnic groups to communicate directly with each other across the political lines which divide them. […]
Oil Palm: The Miracle Tree?
In Sarawak it sometimes seems almost every economic and political story – and quite a slice of the cultural and social ones as well – ends up at the foot of one miraculous tree: oil palm. Â Always in bloom, fast growing and, with new seed strains, massively productive, for many, oil palm is the wunder-plant. […]
2008 Caucasus Blog Review
Last year ended with a state of emergency declared in the Republic of Georgia, but few could imagine that the events of 2008 would eclipse those of 2007. Three presidential elections, a war, and yet another state of emergency defined the South Caucasus this year, and bloggers were there to document events from […]
Constitutional Court at the focus of controversies
The highest judicial instance in Azerbaijan, the Constitutional Court "is considering amendments that would ban the broadcast or publication of video, audio, or photographs of any person without his or her prior approval, except in yet-to-be defined special cases", reports RFE/RL. According to local media law expert Alasgar Mammadli, if these amendments get approval, the […]
Christmas in Somalia
African Safari heads off for a much-needed break in the land of the free coffee, casting an anxious glance over its shoulder at Somalia. The Ethiopians love to do stuff over Christmas (not Christmas, according to the Ethiopian calendar, which places the birth of Christ on Jan 7) and their withdrawal, if it turns out […]
Looking back at 2008 in Colombia
The global financial meltdown dominated the news headlines across the world this year. But in Colombia it was, as always, the country’s armed conflict. What Colombians will remember 2008 for: The death of FARC’s iconic founder and leader, Manuel Marulanda, who led the guerrilla group for over 40 years. The death of Raul Reyes, Farc’s […]
Smart students
Today I’m quite happy with my students 🙂 This semester I’ve been teaching a course on Journalism and Trauma (officially it has a long complicated title that I can’t even remember) for Moscow State University journalism students. They seem to be quite interested. They say their formal education definitely lacks courses like this. Soothing to […]
Peter ter Velde talks to the Taliban
Dutch journalist Peter ter Velde talked to Taliban fighters in the northern Uruzgan province of Afghanistan where “several hundred” Dutch soldiers are based, Peter ter Velde, a reporter of NOS public television, met the fighters close to Camp Holland, NATO’s main military base in Uruzgan. He spoke to the six Taliban just before a roadside […]
Showdown in Nairobi
If journalists or aspiring journalists out there want a little inspiration, they should look to Nairobi where reporters are on the streets challenging a newly passed communications bill. The adjective used here in all the papers is “draconian” as in “draconian bill”because it gives the government the power to raid newsrooms and seize, that’s right, […]
The Pirate-Kenya Connection
Mombasa, southern Kenya’s sweltering port town is, in many ways, the center of gravity of the piracy war. While pirates themselves are based mostly in northern Somalia, hundreds of miles from here, the repercussions of piracy — and many of the higher-order command functions on both sides — play out in Mombasa. Many of the […]
My African Predictions for 2009
This year I lost $200 in bets on the US presidential election and remain committed to swimming naked to Tuti island in the middle of the Nile on my next visit to Khartoum. That is not enough to stop me making a few more predictions of the events that will shape the African news agenda […]
Down and out in Yerevan
With the winter setting in and temperatures already dropping below freezing, the number of homeless on the streets of Yerevan is once again becoming noticeable. However, the government has yet to tackle the problem in earnest. Indeed, until we published the stories of individuals forced to sleep in underpasses, on construction sites or literally out […]
The future of news
This could make a good Christmas read. The Media Re:Public report on the future of media in the digital age is published just in time for the holidays and it’s free to download. As Ethan says, My friend Persephone Miel came to the Berkman Center more than a year ago to take on a challenging […]
Tim Page sells snaps in Saigon
Tim Page, the photographer most famous for his Vietnam War coverage, is selling prints during an exhibition at the Cepage restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City this week. Page says a recent illness and money troubles have led him to the sale so that he can make enough cash to complete a new book, The […]
Grim Reckonings
The Georgian parliamentary commission investigating the war in August has published its report, blaming Russia for provoking the hostilities. That’s hardly surprising, considering the body’s official title – the ‘Temporary Commission on Military Aggression and Acts of Russia against the Territorial Integrity of Georgia’. But the commission did criticise the military and civilian leadership for […]
