Frontline Club bloggers
“Happy to work ourselves out of a job”: An insight into the UK Government’s counter terrorism communications unit
This post is long overdue, but I wanted to make sure I had time to write it because it concerns a potentially sensitive subject. At the end of October, Dr Andrew Garner from the UK Government’s Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU), very kindly gave a talk at King’s College, London. He pointed out that […]
Go Animal Early
Mapima, a baby chimp, was rescued from a Congolese army commander and a life of misery. Pic credit: Kate Holt Jolted out of my Congo cynicism by a features editor who wasn’t convinced by my gorilla pitch. “Rob,” she said, “with a quarter of a million people displaced by this fighting isn’t it, erm, a […]
Video: A delicious sound above the din of Mexico City
The sound of street-sellers peddling their wares is a constant in Mexico City, and none more so than the seller of tamales – a traditional, Mexican corncake. I managed to catch one of my local tamale-sellers on camera. This video was made to accompany this Dispatch, written by Ken Ellingwood for the Los Angeles Times. […]
Journalist flees Ciudad Juarez to the U.S
Jorge Luis Aguirre, director of the news website “La Polaka,” has fled Mexico with his family to the United States after receiving death threats in his home city of Ciudad Juárez, in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. His departure follows the killing of crime reporter Armando RodrÃguez last week, who was shot to death […]
Media non-profit appeals for asylum for journalists escaping Mexico
Reporters Without Borders issued an appeal to the international community today to provide asylum for journalists fleeing Mexican cities such a Ciudad Juarez. The non-profit appealed especially to the United States and Canada to provide humanitarian assistance. Journalists in Mexico who cover organized crime are often risking their lives. The move from the global press-protection […]
Our man in Goma
The Ihusi Hotel, Goma I’m finding it pretty tough to pity Rob out in Goma at the moment. I know hotels can get a bit a dull a bit quickly, but come on Rob… Mustn’t grumble, ehh?
My Base in Goma
The Ihusi Hotel, Goma The Ihusi Hotel, nestled on the shores of Lake Kivu, is gradually emptying out. Those of you who may have been worried about my safety/comfort during my time here in Goma will be relieved to know that I have a lake view and have enjoyed omelette avec fromage et jambon each […]
Letter to the New President
I received this letter from a good Afghan friend of mine recently. As you can read in the short biography below, Orzala was involved for a long time in founding and building an organisation called HAWCA, one of the few local NGOs whose work I have always been genuinely and uniformly impressed by. She wrote […]
Nkunda’s Media War
Laurent Nkunda and Olesegun Obasanjo inspect rebel troops So I made my way up into the rebel-held hills at the weekend to seek out General Laurent Nkunda, the renegade Tutsi general, who has helped bring a fresh wave of misery to Congo’s embattled people. Yesterday he was meeting the UN’s new peace envoy, Olesegun Obasanjo, […]
Video: Guerrilla knitting hits Mexico
Magda Sayeg is tagging Mexico City and covering a bus in graffiti – only she’s using knitting, not spray cans, to do the job. The 34-year-old Texan, founder of the guerrilla knitting collective KnittaPlease.com, faced her biggest challenge yet this week in Mexico City when she covered a whole bus in, well, knitting.
Newspaper offices in Northern Mexico attacked with grenades
Reports are surfacing this morning that the offices of the Culiacán newspaper El Debate were attacked with two grenades early Monday. The explosions, which shattered windows but caused no injuries, happened at around 1a.m when two youngsters wearing white shirts threw the grenades at the main entrance to the offices, reports La Jornada. The area […]
The BBC speaking to the Taleban
Last Thursday, the BBC World Have Your Say radio programme built their show around a discussion with a Taleban spokesperson. Through the BBC’s Security Correspondent, Frank Gardner, and a translator, listeners from around the world could put their questions to the Taleban. There was much debate on the programme and on the World Have Your […]
The only Twitter user in Kanadahar?
Is Alex the only Twitter user in Kanadahar? I think he probably is. Frontline blogger Alex talks about his life, his work and Twittering from Kandahar on the Tech Radar blog. “Get yourself set up with a Twitter account. It’s a nice, low-cost way of letting people know if you get into trouble or are […]
The Rory Peck Trust speech in full
I’m not sure of Vaughan Smith’s speech at the Rory Peck Trust Awards last week was filmed or whether it will appear online at all, so here it is pasted in full below. Vaughan was a finalist for his blogged reporting from Helmand Province. All the finalists in the awards are allowed to give a […]
I have been shot more times than I have been credited by the BBC
Frontline club founder Vaughan Smith has been in the news a bit of late for a few words he said at the announcement of the Rory Peck Trust Awards last week. The Guardian, Press Gazette and Journalism.co.uk all picked up on the line above. Today The Guardian runs some more in the TV pages from […]
Donations for David Axe
Frontline blogger David Axe is heading to the Horn of Africa again and is looking for donations, Six months ago my readers contributed nearly $2,000 to help me fund a month reporting from Central Africa. This time around I’m asking for $3,000 to help jump-start my piracy coverage. Donations will help pay for air fare, […]
Who’s Winning?
Children at Kibati Camp, near Goma. Credit: Kate Holt The conflict here in Goma is a meaningless mess. Laurent Nkunda claims his gunmen are protecting ethnic Tutsis from the attentions of Hutu militias – the former Interahamwe, responsible for the worst abuses in the Rwandan genocide. The government says he is a terrorist, and points […]
Journalists profile conservative activist
It turned out to be an unusual book launch. Scheduled to begin at 5pm yesterday afternoon in the Roma neighborhood of Mexico City, the authors Salvador Frausto and Témoris Grecko (both of them journalists) were to present their profile of Jorge Serrano Limón – Mexico’s most prominent Catholic fundamentalist and anti-abortion campaigner. But when we […]
Crime reporter shot to death in Ciudad Juarez
Veteran Mexican crime reporter Armando RodrÃguez was shot to death yesterday morning while in his car in the border city of Ciudad Juárez. The Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders have both condemned the killing. The CPJ reports: An unidentified assailant shot RodrÃguez, 40, a reporter for the local daily “El Diario”, at […]
Guerrilla knitting attacks Mexico City
Magda Seyeg is a Texan artist who tags – but not with graffiti. She and her collective of guerrilla knitters – who you can touch base with at KnittaPlease.com – place knitted stuff on door handles, park benches, statues, lamp posts and virtually anything else standing in the street. This week, Seyeg hit the streets […]
The Roads in and out of Goma
A government soldier on the road out of Goma with his pet, James The road into Goma twists and turns through the hills of Rwanda until you drop down through the mist to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The flat waters of Lake Kivu stretch into the distance giving the lakeside hotels […]
Massive explosion in Kandahar
Frontline blogger Alex was in Kandahar when a “huge explosion near Kandahar stadium” went off. I caught up on this a bit late as I’ve been training all day, but Alex had the wherewithall to poke his head on to the balcony, snap some shots, send a series of messages to Twitter, upload a picture […]
Fish and Chips in Africa 3
So after four years I’ve developed two ways to be on the road in Africa. One is to do the humble visitor, delight in burnt goat and thank my lucky stars that I’m seeing a bit of the continent that other people don’t normally get to see. It’s usually fun. And sometimes I have an […]
Blogging journalist ready for Iraq embed
Independent journalist Michael Totten is going back to Baghdad. He’s managed to organise an embed with the US military and will no doubt be blogging his trip here. “So stay tuned for an in-depth tour through Baghdad after the surge. I will learn as much from this adventure as you will. The United States will […]
My Kit Bag
My kit bag continues to have a fairly low-tech feel (ridiculed in some quarters) but the last thing you need in this part of the world is to be up all night trying to repair your nuclear-powered wireless nose trimmers. Anyway, there have been a few additions since the last time… Sonim XP1 – testing […]
US Army recruitment website relaunches
How about this for an army recruitment website? Relaunched today, goarmy.com, includes all sorts of video from soldiers deployed in Iraq. (Interestingly there are also strong video elements on the British Army recruitment website.) In an introductory montage, the site proclaims that in the past information about the war in Iraq was in the hands […]
Congo’s Forgotten Conflict in the Limelight
Got to be honest, I’m not too sure what to make of recent coverage of the troubles in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The story shows no sign of disappearing off the world news schedules just yet… and yesterday the BBC propelled it right back up to the top again. Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda […]
More than half of Mexicans surveyed suspect foul play in plane crash
As we reported last week, Mexicans don’t have much faith in the word of their government. The natural reaction of many here in Mexico following a plane crash last week that killed Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mouriño as well as former top anti-drug prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos has been suspicion. Some statistical, rather than […]
Election Night with the Obamas
Election night in Kogelo I was one of the few journalists to get an invite to spend election night with the Obama family in their Kogelo home. Put something together for one of the Sundays but it wasn’t used so I thought I’d stick it here… THE piercing shriek of a cheap mobile phone broke […]
Britain, Leaks and those Awkward Tanks
The manifest from the Faina obtained by Reuters and the BBC If this ever gets out it will not be good for UK-Kenya relations, the latter never slow to accuse the former of meddling in Kenyan affairs, maintaining a colonialist mentality and forgetting that the East African country has been independent for more than 40 […]
