Frontline Club bloggers
Kidnappings in Mexico up by 9 percent
The number of kidnappings in Mexico grew by 9.1 percent in the first five months of the year, according to figures published this week. The statistics, from the anti-kidnapping branch of the attorney general’s office (Procuraduria General de la Republica, PGR, in Spanish), will serve to justify the fear currently gripping the country over insecurity […]
Mini-skirts banned to stop “provoking” rape in Mexico
A Mexican university has banned miniskirts and other “provocative clothing” in an effort to stop “provoking” violent attacks against women. Héctor Melesio Cuen Ojeda, rector of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, said that minskirts worn by many of the pupils are an invitation for attacks both inside and outside the university, according to El Universal. […]
Blogs ‘fail’ in coverage of Russo-Georgia War
Joshua Foust argues that blogs have not lived up to expectations in covering the Russo-Georgia War. He homes in on what he describes as ‘large blogs’- the Small War Journal, Instapundit, the Washington Monthly etc. He’s disappointed that they seem to have relied on the same set of sources as the mainstream media: Soon after […]
Busted in Beijing
Kevin German gets his collar felt while shooting the arrest of a "scalper" in Beijing. Scalpers sell tickets for inflated prices to punters wanting a seat at the Olympics, Once the man was on the ground the other officer lunged at me again. He pushed me and hit me in the head. I don’t think […]
Ethiopians Withdrawing from Somalia?
Thousands of Ethiopian troops reportedly are retreating from Mogadishu after nearly two years of bloody fighting.The withdrawal, which still leaves sizable Ethiopian and A.U. (pictured) forces in the city, coincides with two separate peace talks: one, U.N.-brokered, aiming at reconciling all of Somalia’s armed parties; the other, encouraged by Ethiopia, meant to prevent a split […]
Rude Awakening
I’ve been woken up each morning at around 5am for the last two days by a constant stream of helicopters and jets passing over my house here in Kandahar City. A big battle is being fought in Dand district, just over 10 kilometres away from the city. The Taliban are able to operate within the […]
Blood Trail to Toronto Film Festival 2008
Blood Trail is the result of fifteen years of filming one man in war zones across the world. It’s been a labour of love for Frontline Club founder Vaughan Smith and original Frontline TV agency cameraman Richard Parry since they first met wannabe photographer Robert King in Bosnia in the early 90s. The film will […]
Darfur: Not the Size of France or Texas
Poor befuddled readers of newspapers can’t be expected to understand straightforward units of measurement so when it comes to geographical area we journalists have a neat (where neat means hackneyed) trick – compare the subject of the article to things the reader might know. Traditionally this has been the football pitch as in…”the Beckhams’ front […]
Russo-Georgia War: cyber-propaganda
“In its war with Georgia, the first truly global user-generated conflict, Russia’s digital guerillas have been drafted into a state-waged propaganda war” The opening paragraph of an excellent article by Evgeny Morozov on Open Democracy. He argues that the Web’s democratic potential has been undermined by the agendas of nation-states and maintains that ‘digital guerillas’ […]
‘At no time should you endanger yourself’: BBC’s ‘citizen journalism’ disclaimer and war zones
The BBC’s standard plea for information on this article about the crisis in Georgia is bothering me. On the BBC website, we learn that ‘violence has flared [in Gori]’, ‘there are reports of cars being taken from residents at gunpoint’, and ‘there is looting going on involving South Ossetian separatists’. Similarly, The Guardian’s latest article […]
Cyberwar, blogging and other Russo-Georgia War links
I’ve just got back from an all too brief holiday and this morning I’ve been collecting some stuff on the conflict between Russian and Georgian forces in South Ossetia and beyond. 1. While most of the attention has rightly been on the physical war that has been costing Russian and Georgian lives, Wired has nevertheless […]
Chasing Shadows
Today’s Standard splashes on mounting suspicion that someone in Kenya’s anti-terror police unit tipped off Fazul Abdulla Mohammed, a key terror suspect, just as officers were about to swoop. They arrested a family thought to be hosting Fazul in Malindi even as his dinner was cooling on the table. But there was no sign of […]
Slideshow: Immigration explored as a concept in Mexico City exhibition
The video and photography exhibition Laberinto de Miradas – Laberinth of Glances – that opened in Mexico City last month in the Cultural Center of Spain – features the kind of images that we are used to seeing in relation to immigration. But the show also looks at migration and immigration as a concept, broadening […]
Saving Darfur II
My lurch from left-wing idealist living in Britain, to right-wing realist in Africa continues apace. This time it is The Spectator that seems to have nailed the analysis of Darfur… The exclusive focus on bashing the government has emboldened the rebels, encouraging them to keep up the fight and shun the negotiating table. The peace […]
Top tips for reporting from Sudan
Heading to Sudan? Ever wondered what to look out for? Rob has the lowdown with his top tips for working in the African nation. I particularly liked number five, Don’t bear an uncanny resemblance to the previous BBC stringer who got kicked out. link
Waiting for a man to die
Photo: An empty bench outside the American Embassy on Tuesday. There was no candlelit vigil for Medellin in a city still on shock from other violent crime. Deborah Bonello / MexicoReporter.com On Tuesday, I waited for a man to die. Even though several people die every minute of every day, I’ve never known the name […]
How to Operate in Sudan
Soldiers wait for President Bashir to arrive in El Fasher last month Two contrasting views of operating in Sudan. Jennie Matthew of AFP describes her frustration at trying and failing to travel to the Merowe Dam where last week 200 families said they were deliberately flooded out of their homes. As always, the man from […]
Video: Raising of the flag
Following last week’s filming session in the Zócalo, where I was denied the chance to film closeup to the military whilst they were raising the ntaional flag, I managed to edit the move into a decent summary of the ritual. This film was made for La Plaza, and you can see it here on this […]
Mexico’s HIV-positive orphans look to the future
Oscar, above, is 10 years old and his favorite subject at school is math. He wants to be a lawyer when he grows up. Oscar also is HIV-positive, and he lost his parents to complications with the virus two years ago. He lives in a community of children here at La Casa de la Sal […]
Phone 4 Me
Has anyone tried the Sonim XP1 phone, which Time seems to be claiming as a “tough gadget”? My current Samsung U600 is pretty wrecked after four months. Its screen is scratched to pieces after a couple of trips to Sudan, a week in the DRC and a lot of battering in my pocket. Battery life […]
Farc are weakened but prospects for peace remain remote
There’s been much speculation in Colombia and among international pundits about whether the Farc are on their way out. Thomas Shannon, US assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs echoes the views of many, when he recently said the Farc “are in their final phase.” One local analyst believes that in 10 years time, the Farc […]
Last Words
The last word, I think, should go to Mahdi, from Behsud, and Wakil Hani of the Wardak People’s Council. (see post below this for more info/context). Mahdi is self-explanatory, and Hajji Wakil Sahib (at the end) is just explaining that he hopes that the stories of the people from Behsud will be told to the […]
Behsud: Kuchi atrocities?
The story is so small and on such a local level that nobody is particularly interested. With an ever-growing insurgency, are international readers really interested in a conflict within the conflict, in which there are no international actors, nor anyone the ‘international community’ need particularly pay heed to… Even within Afghanistan, it doesn’t merit any […]
Twitter and the Bangalore Blasts: Part IV – Twitter vs the mainstream media
A series of bomb blasts was detonated in Bangalore last Friday, killing two people and injuring several others. Mukund Mohan, a technology entrepreneur, who was working nearby, decided he would provide updates on what was happening using Twitter, a micro-blogging tool that enables people to publish short, 140-character, updates online. Prompted by some interesting comments, […]
Filming the raising of the flag in Mexico City
Every morning in Mexico City’s Zocalo, the country’s military raise the national flag in a ceremony enjoyed by tourists and Mexicans alike. Many of the Mexican bystanders on their way to work stop and salute as the flag goes up. Sometimes it goes up at 6, sometimes at eight, and it usually comes down around […]
You Know You Have Been a Mzungu in Kenya Too Long When…
“Very OK” has become a standard response to a variety of questions Matatus are no longer a welcome bit of colour on the roads. They are a pain in the arse You have stopped picking out politicians who might be Kenya’s best hope You can’t remember the last time you filled your car’s petrol tank. […]
Twitter and the Bangalore Blasts: Part III – Does Twitter ‘hype’ the news?
A series of bomb blasts was detonated in Bangalore last Friday, killing two people and injuring several others. Mukund Mohan, a technology entrepreneur, who was working nearby, decided he would provide updates on what was happening using Twitter, a micro-blogging tool that enables people to publish short, 140-character, updates online. Prompted by some interesting comments, […]
Hermaphrodites or Mercenaries
Have picked the final book for my Africa Reading Challenge. In the end it was a toss-up between Sydney Brenner’s My Life in Science and Horn Of Africa by Philip Caputo. At one stage in my life I knew more about the vulva of the nematode worm than is healthy. Specificially, I knew more about […]
Twitter and the Bangalore bomb blasts: Part II – Verification
A series of bomb blasts was detonated in Bangalore last Friday, killing two people and injuring several others. Mukund Mohan, a technology entrepreneur, who was working nearby, decided he would provide updates on what was happening using Twitter, a micro-blogging tool that enables people to publish short, 140-character, updates online. Prompted by some interesting comments, […]
Frontline Twitter power
I’m on holiday for a week, but I’d like to send you all over to Daniel’s blog. He’s blogging a series about the journalistic uses of Twitter. Meanwhile, Deborah in Mexico talks about her multimedia blogging work for the LA Times. And Rob is grumbling about the price of swimming lessons in Sudan, $40 – […]
