Frontline Club bloggers
Anastassia in Bogotá
The first of our new bloggers is up and running today. Anastasia Moloney is a British freelance journalist based in the Colombian capital, Bogotá. She’s a regular contributor to the Financial Times, a contributing editor for the Washington-based website World Politics Review and she has previously blogged for The Guardian’s Comment is free. She’ll be […]
Letters from the jungle
Ingrid Betancourt, a former presidential candidate who has dual French-Colombian citizenship, is perhaps Colombia’s most well-known hostage. She was kidnapped along a motorway with Clara Rojas, her aide, six years ago while on the campaign trail. Her two children continue to campaign for her release. Last October, Ingrid wrote a letter to her mother in […]
What the tourists miss
My folks just flew back last night after a month-long stay in Mexico. Amongst the places they visited, either with me or alone, were Oaxaca, Puebla and Acapulco. ‘I don’t understand it,’ my father kept telling me. ‘I mean you read all this stuff about violence in Mexico, and yet they seem like such a […]
From Mogadishu
[video:brightcove:1378319364] David Axe, of the War is Boring blog, continues his Somalia coverage with a short film he shot for World Politics Review in December, 2007. Part two follows shortly.
Mexico, narco traffick and journalists
Browsing through my feeds this morning, I came across this story on the Los Angeles Times which documents well the experiences many journalists working in Mexico covering the drug trade experience. Although studies have found that violence against journalists stems as much from Government officials as it does from narco-traffic, Hector’s piece really gives some […]
New Year, Old Problems for Journalists in Mexico
Although one hates to be a pessimist, the coming year is still looking grim for journalists in Mexico. Despite the fact that the numbers of murdered journalists declined last year, levels of violence against them are on the rise and the Government is showing no increase in willingness to investigate cases of murder, violence and […]
Topsy-Turvy Mishaps – 13/01/08
It came out of the blue and just as we were finally beginning to enjoy the drive. Without warning the rear wheels lost traction and shot violently to one side. Then our large, heavily-laden pick-up truck slewed onto the opposite side of the road. I counter-steered as gently as I could, trying to keep the […]
A painful birth
Eight years after the war finished, Kosovo wears its poverty on its sleeve. The capital Pristina is an eye-sore. The place is strewn with refuse. Its streets are clogged with rubble and double-parked cars. UN has done nothing to invigorate its stagnant economy. The spirit of the place, however, could not be more different. There […]
Mexicans On Ice
Another commission from the Los Angeles Times, this time their first video blog news item on the ice rink in the Zocalo, Mexico. Click here to watch the movie.
Ice patches and Inverters – Dec 07
It’s been a week of close calls and minor disasters here in our beautiful little corner of the universe. Just as we thought the learning curve was beginning to flatten out. Since moving to the ranch nearly two incident-strewn years ago, we have struggled through floods, fought off erosion, cowered under the debris of forest […]
MexicoReporter on the LATimes Blog
MexicoReporter.com produced a film for the LATimes blog here in Mexico City this week about the celebrations surrounding Dia de la Virgen. See the post and movie here: Every year, on the north side of Mexico City, a remarkable sight begins to materialize around mid-December. Thousands of worshippers of the Virgen de Guadalupe converge on […]
Video: Mexico’s Faithful Make Annual Pilgrimage On Dia de la Virgen
Wooden crosses bearing the bloodied effigy of Jesus and huge framed pictures of the la Virgen de Guadalupe are quite literally walking down Mexico City’s Calzada de Guadalupe. Boys with gelled hair labor with crosses strapped to their backs and middle-aged women lumber along the tree-lined avenue with enormous pictures roped to their shoulders in […]
Local reporter shot dead in Northern Mexico
A local reporter, who covered agriculture and occasionally crime in the western Mexican state of Michoacán, was shot dead on Saturday night. Gerardo Israel GarcÃa Pimentel, who wrote for the daily La Opinión de Michoacán, was found in the stairway of the car park of the hotel in which he lived. He had been shot […]
A journey through Putin’s Russia part 4
We arrived in Tyumen early morning after another overnight train ride and were greeted by our next guide, a BP interpreter who on first impressions appears to be a bit of a snob, but we warmed to her slowly, first impressions after a rather sleepless journey can mess with your judgement skills. After checking into […]
A Journey through Putin’s Russia Part 3
For the next stage of our trip we took another train to Yekaterinburg for about 24 hours in second class where we had to share a compartment with an elderly couple Konstantin and Galia on their way to the oil town of Nizhnevartovsk for a wedding. They shared with us their food for journey including […]
Axe not dead
We interviewed David Axe a couple of weeks ago before he headed into Somalia. He blogs today that, contrary to pre-assignment popular opinion, he did not die, Somalia: so what’s it all about? It’s about how divisive internal politics can prevent the resolution of a conflict that pretty much everyone agrees must end. It’s about […]
Writers and NGOs: Supreme Court Ruling is a ‘Disgrace’
Writers, journalists and non-governmental organisations have called the Supreme Court’s decision at the end of last week a ‘disgrace’. The Court ruled that the rights of journalist Lydia Cacho’s had not been sufficiently violated to warrant legal action against Puebla State Governor Mario Marin. In a show of solidarity for the journalist, twenty of the […]
A Journey through Putin’s Russia Part 2
Our drive to Samara is helped along grandly by our miserable second Tatar translator Ilnur who drones on continuously about Tatar self determination, the Golden Hordes (heard that before), how immorally behaved his other housemates were when he studied in a university in the UK , Islam , and why don’t British Tourists visit his […]
Bearing up in Khartoum
Take one teacher, one teddy bear and three British journalists. Throw them into the centre of Khartoum, keep the hacks high on lemon soda, a teacher jailed, the local media rabid, the diplomats flustered and what’ve you got? A day or two in the life of foreign correspondents, Rob Crilly, Andrew Heavens and Amber Henshaw, […]
Supreme Court Decides Cacho’s Rights Not Violated Enough
The fight for press freedom in Mexico was dealt a serious blow this week after the country’s Supreme Court found that the rights of journalist Lydia Cacho were not violated enough by the state governor of Puebla, Mario Marin, for action to be taken against him. The Court rejected a report by its own Commission […]
Naked Protest on the Streets of Mexico City
[video:bliptv:516829] El Movimiento de los 400 Pueblos has been protesting naked in Mexico City since 2002. At least 300 men dance naked in some of the city’s major squares and streets to draw attention to their cause, whilst the women from the movement collect money from passers-by and give out pamphlets detailing their cause. One […]
Heathcliff O’Malley is blogging
And what’s that new name at the top of the page? Frontline club member Heathcliff O’Malley joins the From the frontline blog ranks today. He’s a photographer, often found within the pages of the Daily Telegraph. He’s on the road in Russia, following President Vladimir Putin across the steppes. Go read his blog. If you […]
A journey Through Putin’s Russia Part 1
My trip to Russia started with a phone call from the picture desk, saying that they might want me to go to Russia in the next few days . It all becomes clear the following morning , if I want to go I have only a couple of hours to apply for a Visa and […]
Supreme Court Finds Govenor Guilty of Violating Journalist’s Rights
Puebla state authorities have been found guilty by the Supreme Court in Mexico of violating the rights of investigative journalist Lydia Cacho, who was arrested by Puebla police in December 2005 after publishing a book about a pedophile ring in Cancun. The judgment is a victory for Mexican journalists and those campaigning for freedom of […]
Spreading the media word across the Mexican border
This story appeared in Campaign Magazine: the website requires a subscription. English-language titles in Mexico have failed to establish a sturdy web presence. Have they missed a trick? Immigration between Mexico and the US makes headlines around the world. Thousands of Mexicans cross the frontier dividing the two countries every day – illegally and legally. […]
Washington Post article on Oaxaca gets a beating
An article published in this weekend’s Washington Post, called “Oaxaca: One Year Laterâ€, has prompted heavy criticism from people living in the southern Mexican state which this time last year was the scene of huge civil unrest and what one critic describes as ‘some of the worst human rights abuses in recent Mexican history; detaining, […]
Press Freedom Report Paints Grim Picture for Latin America
Journalists in Latin America continue to be the victims of murders, threats and harassment when investigating sensitive subjects such as corruption and drug trafficking, according to the latest report from the World Association of Newspapers, and media in Mexico remains a target of violent attacks. The report mentions the three media workers shot dead in […]
David Axe heads to Mogadishu
David Axe is a journalist and cartoonist and he blogs at the oddly titled War is boring. He’s just arrived in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, to report on the “insurgency” and the work of the African Union. I fired off a few questions to David about his assignment in Somalia and how he intends […]
A year on but still no explanation….
José Antonio GarcÃa Apac, editor of the regional weekly Ecos de la Cuenca, based in the state of Michoacán was last seen on this day last year. He was on his way home to his wife and seven children when he disappeared. Since that date, the culprits for his disappearance have not been presented by […]
In male world of Mariachi, women sing their own tune
In Plaza Garibaldi, female musicians muscle in on the men. (This article appeared in The News, Mexico on Saturday November 17th. They’re yet to launch a website. See below for a video of the band singing) Dusk falls on a regular Thursday night in Mexico City’s Plaza de Garibaldi and the capital’s multitude of mariachi […]
