News
Iraqi journalist shot dead
Xinhua reports that an Iraqi journalist was shot dead in central Baghdad today. “Qasim Abdul Hussein al-Eqabi, a journalist working for the local al-Muwatin newspaper was killed when unknown gunmen in two cars showered him with bullets near the National Theater in Karrada neighborhood,” said Jabbar Tarrad, the new chief of the Iraqi Journalists’ Union. […]
Peter Arnett – We need to know what happens in wars
Long serving war reporter and 1966 Pulitzer prize winner Peter Arnett spoke to students in Texas this week about the job of journalism in a war zone. Arnett reported from the Vietnam war for a period of thirteen years and he compared that experience to present day Iraq, Reports found it incredibly difficult to write […]
Harare customs
McClatchy Newspapers correspondent Shashank Bengali arrives at Harare airport in Zimbabwe fearful of the worst. Fortunately, the rubber glove wasn’t needed. The customs officers just wanted drugs, “Are you carrying drugs?” he asked. I was somewhat relieved. Getting questioned by authorities in Zimbabwe, if you’re a foreign visitor, can often involve something more uncomfortable. Secure […]
Online Free Expression Day
Reporters without Borders today launch the first Online Free Expression Day. This will be an annual event happening every March 12 to help protect bloggers who are increasingly targeted in countries with state controlled media. The campaign focuses on Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, North Korea, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Vietnam, “Today, the first time this […]
Former Scoopt head honcho blogs for Frontline
Great to have Scoopt founder Kyle MacRae blogging with us here at From the Frontline. Kyle founded the world’s first citizen journalism photograph agency – Scoopt.com – in 2005. He’s been at the forefront of digital media industry ever since. He sold the company to Getty Imgaes a year ago and just last week left […]
Calling all angry journalists
Self explanatory… You’re a journalist… You need to vent… Now you have a place to do it. Anonymously.
Burmese bloggers continue to risk their lives
Some five months on since the violent suppression of the protest movement led by monks in Burma and the situation for bloggers is no better. The bloggers, who were such an important part of getting images, video and eyewitness accounts out of the country, continue to blog about life in Burma and relay information overseas. […]
America’s media failed
CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, who recently relocated from the UK to the US, was recently interviewed by former TV man Marvin Kalb at the National Press Club. Amanpour said the profession “failed to do our duty†in the run up to the Iraq war. She also touched on the leading cause of death in journalism these […]
Media priorities
It’s hard not not hard to agree with the first comment on this blog about Frontline Club member Marcus Bleasdale’s multimedia report from the Democratic Republic of Congo. “nonstop media coverage because one of our Governors had some sex with an expensive whore, but this gets nothing.” link The commenter is, of course, referring to […]
Viagra? Hash? Iraqi army marshal’s uniform?
[video:youtube:aGzGzyyDLNM] Your typical frontline trader offering your typical frontline goods to your typical soldier soldiering in your typical Middle East war zone. via The Observers.
Violence censors journalists in Mexico
This is a version of an article which appeared in Press Gazette last month. While traveling home through Pánuco, Veracruz with his 16 year old son in late January this year, Octavio Soto Torres, journalist and director of the Mexican daily Voces de Veracruz, was shot at by four masked gunmen. This was just the […]
‘Citizen journalism’ without the scare quotes…
It’s good to be back at the Frontline Club. My first encounter with the club was when I was invited to speak at an event way back in September 2005, when citizen journalism/user-generated content/blogging was a hot topic and Scoopt, the company I had started two months earlier, was part of the buzz. It was […]
The Habbaniya bookshelf
Tony Perry, a staffer with the LA Times and regular visitor to Iraq, takes us on a tour of a typical bookshelf found in American soldier’s barracks on a recent trip to Iraq, As I jump from base to base in Anbar province where the Marines are stationed, I always prowl the book collection. Some […]
Frontline students
Students from the University of Indiana descended upon the Frontline Club this week to meet and talk with New York Times London Bureau Chief John Burns. John treated them to a talk about his experiences as a war reporter and about “embedding”. One of the students, Rosemary Pennington, blogged her thoughts about the talk and […]
Asne Seierstad in 5 minutes
Following on from her BBC radio interview with Simon Mayo, war reporter Asne Seierstad gets the 5-minute interview treatment in The Independent today, The most surprising thing to happen to me was … Realising that people read my books all around the world. That surprises me all the time. link
The Pickup
On Friday I stopped. After two months haring around Kenya, diving in out of slums and driving throuugh the Rift Valley I simply stopped. And went to Lamu for the weekend. My body responded by making me sleep for long periods of time and then making me vomit. Anyway, I managed to polish off the […]
‘Innocent until proven guilty’ to underlie Mexican justice system
Sweeping overhauls to Mexico’s criminal trial system announced last week could bring the country into the modern world, according to the Financial Times. People suspected of crimes will be presumed innocent until proved guilty, according to the reforms backed by President Felipe Calderon. ‘For the first time – and assuming that a majority of the […]
“Like being in the mouth of a tuba”
In a series of behind the scenes films ITV’s Mark Austin and Phil Reay Smith describe life working as reporters in Helmand province, Afghanistan. And by the looks of things it’s all rather snug. As Mark says, “It’s the best food in terms of being in a theatre of war that I’ve ever tasted.” I […]
Deborah Haynes gets upgraded
Times newspaper reporter Deborah Haynes blogs about the rigmarole associated with getting flights in Iraq as she seeks out the ‘Freedom Express’ on a mission to Mosul only to get upgraded to cockpit class, Travelling to northern Iraq for an embed is always a bit of a gamble because there are limited military flights and […]
Ethical living? Stop taking cocaine
There is a great Leader in this Sunday’s Observer which makes a point I’ve often debated – how cocaine takers in Britain and the US, which provide the demand for the illegal drug industries in Latin America, tend not to think too hard about the impact their weekend drug habits might be having on other […]
Debacle disperses in Latin America, but more Mexicans involved
Just as quickly as it blew up a week ago, the disagreement between Ecuador and Columbia over an incursion into Ecuador by Columbia to kill a leader of the Farc rebel group has blown over. President Correa of Ecuador, Uribe of Columbia and Chavez of Venuezuela shook hands during a conference of Latin American leaders […]
Video: Las Mariachis celebrate International Women’s Day for BBCMundo.com
Tomorrow is international women’s day, so we went down to Plaza de Garibaldi to ask Mariachi Sonidos de America Feminil to sing a song for BBCMundo’s viewers across Latin America. Please click here to watch the film.
Back to foreign correspondent school
A Prague-based not for profit outfit called TOL is about to start offering a foreign correspondent training program for students and young journalists, The nine-day course, led by experienced foreign correspondents, will teach participants the essential skills of international reporting. One full scholarship will be given to an applicant from Eastern Europe. The course will […]
Iraq war reporters talk five years on
Five years since the war in Iraq kicked off, NPR talk to four reporters who have covered the war over the last half decade. They are Anne Garrels, John F. Burns, Ted Koppel and Hoda Abdel-Hamid, Iraq has changed dramatically in the last five years for journalists covering the war. When foreign correspondents arrived in […]
Rights group attacks impunity in Mexico
The limited attempts of the Mexican Government to tackle the high levels of violence against journalists testifies ‘to the inability or unwillingness of the Mexican authorities to make the fight against impunity,’ according to Article19, the freedom of expression NGO. Dr. Agnes Callamard, executive director of the group, said in a statement that the impunity […]
When a Spade is a Long-Handled Digging Implement
Reporters Without Borders has reopened the debate on how best to cover the issue of tribe and tribalism during Kenya’s election violence. Its verdict on the Kenyan media is bizarrely damning: …the Kenyan media failed in its duty to report fully on the political crisis and violence that followed last 27 December’s presidential election because […]
“Gets nasty, get down to business”
[video:youtube:D99NHb6B03s] I really do not know what to say… via Abu Muqawama
Getting into Colombia’s top security jail
Contacts are often made at the bar after a few stiff drinks (well, that’s what I tell myself) but in this case, it started on the golf course. I’d promised The Financial Times to get an interview with any one of Colombia’s notorious ex-paramilitary warlords who were in jail. “That would be gold dust,” said […]
“She wouldn’t last five minutes in a war zone”
Nicola Sadler returns from two months in a war zone reporting for Fox News to discover her sister Brooke – pictured above – fancies a shot at war reporting, just like Nicola and war correspondent Dad Brent Sadler. Nicola is not amused. The Daily Mail has more, Recently, after two gruelling months in Baghdad reporting […]
Video: The shooting of Brad Will
It occurred to me that many of you may as yet have not seen the last few minutes of the life of journalist Brad Will – he taped his own shooting. It is strong stuff: be warned. This is a link to the video on YouTube.[video:youtube:brt4YFnMdZ8]
