News
Knowing it
The Times reviews club member Christina Lamb’s new book Small Wars Permitting today. Quentin Peel, the FT’s international affairs editor and reviewer of the book, makes some pretty spot on observations about journalists, It is not just a question of being in the right place at the right time, as [Christina] says herself, but of […]
A Model American
A Model American, Elsie Burch Donald’s third novel, is a twist on the classic saga of “normal” westerners dumped in weird surroundings. How do they cope? The lead characters are two middle-aged American tourists: Bill Bolton, a rich, successful businessman; and his wife, Marjorie. With them are their guide, Anne Philips, a young Englishwoman of […]
Under the Turkish cosh
In their own different ways, Diyarbakir, Hasankeyf and Hakkari are trying to cope with events that have become more than a regional struggle between the Turkish state and its Kurdish minority. The run-down city of Diyarbakir remains the regional hub and political centre of the Kurdish rights movement, where the city’s crumbling infrastructure is testimony […]
Small wars permitting, dispatches from foreign land
Part memoir, part previously-published reportage, Small Wars is a romp through twenty years of Christina Lamb’s career as a foreign correspondent. Her tale begins with a personal invitation from Benazir Bhutto to her ill-fated wedding to Asif Zardari. Lamb displays a talent for putting herself in the right place, where she meets not only the […]
Life imitating journalists
Rob Crilly in Kenya wins my vote for snap of the week. Rob, when you gonna start blogging at Fromthefrontline… ???
Jean-Paul Ney arrested and charged
The French photojournalist Jean-Paul Ney who was detained on December 27, 2007 outside the headquarters of the national TV station in the Ivory Coast has been arrested and charged along with nine others, The 10 are accused of conspiracy against the state, belonging to an armed group, and threatening public safety and state security, said […]
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 […]
Journalist arrested in Somalia
Reporters Without Borders reports that Ayanle Hussein Abdi, a stringer with the BBC Somali service, was arrested yesterday in Beletwein in the central region of Hiran. There has been no explanation for the arrest, “The very few journalists who continue to work in Somalia at risk of their lives are easy prey,†[said Reporters Without […]
Dressing the story
Is it just me, or is The Guardian newspaper increasingly headed towards the tabloid drain these days?? Anyway… Tim Dowling explores the sartorial possibilities for burka wearing, master of disguise, Frontline club member and roving reporter John Simpson as he traverses the world’s danger zones. Most recently in Zimbabwe. I bet you can’t guess which […]
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 […]
Chicago Tribune foreign correspondents speak
The Chicago Tribune features an excellent series of short video profiles of five of the newspaper’s foreign correpondents; Laurie Goering, Tom Hundley, Evan Osnos, Kim Barker and Christine Spolar. Christine is a Frontline Club member and she talks about her life as a reporter from early days through Bosnia, the Balkan war, London, Liberia, Chicago, […]
Back in the sandbox
A former US soldier and milbogger who served in Iraq until October 2007 is heading back to the “sandbox”, but not with the army, I am going back of my own free will- I am becoming a participant in this great experiment of independent, citizen journalism. I am going back to Iraq as a photojournalist, […]
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.
Liu Heung Shing’s China
Liu Heung Shing is the only ethnic Chinese to have won a Pulitzer prize for photography. He shared the 1992 spot news prize with AP Moscow colleagues. Liu spent much of his journalistic life as a foreign correspondent in places like Los Angeles, New Delhi, Seoul and Moscow. Liu is profiled in China Daily today. […]
People of the book
Former Wall Street Journal war correspondent Geraldine Brooks is busy promoting her new novel called ‘People of the Book’ The author drew on her experience in Bosnia for the story which is set in Sarajevo. Kirsten Tagami interviews Geraldine for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, I was in Bosnia during the siege of Sarajevo and I […]
Tom Ricks gets grilled
Military reporter for the Washington Post Tom E. Ricks gets the quiz treatment from readers today. The former Pulitzer prize winner has reported from Somalia, Haiti, Korea, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Kuwait, Turkey, Afghanistan and Iraq and is the author of the 2006 book, FIASCO: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. Here’s a quick dip into […]
Simpson gets a makeover
Frontline club member and BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson is in Zimbabwe filing live reports for the BBC News at Ten. No mean feat for one of Britain’s most recognizable reporters in one of the world’s least BBC-friendly spots, Back in London a make-up artist fitted me out with a beard, to make me […]
Carsten Thomassen killed at the Serena
The gunfire and bomb blasts that rocked the only luxury hotel in Kabul yesterday killed Norwegian journalist Carsten Thomassen. He wrote for the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet. He was reporting on the visit of Jonas Gahr Støre, the Norwegian Foreign Minister. The International federation of Journalists condemns the attack, “This attack shows that Afghanistan is one […]
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 […]
Richard Wild “unlawfully killed”
Richard Wild was killed while working on a feature about museum looting in Baghdad in July 2003. He had only been in the country for two weeks and wanted to establish himself as a war reporter. He was shot in the back of the head. At the time Oxford Coroner’s Court heard that the US […]
4 million bullets
The Ministry of Defence revises original figures of bullets used by British troops in Helmand province, Afghanistan. The real number, circa-4 million bullets, is almost double the original estimate, “These new figures illustrate the intensity of fighting our troops face. It does call into question Des Browne’s judgment that the Taliban poses no strategic threat […]
Getting the story out
Tim Arango, writing in the International Herald Tribune, considers the dangers facing journalists in Iraq and looks at the methods news organisations use to recruit local reporters, fixers and translators, “When you are working side by side, you get to know the person, and if the person seems unreliable, or if you ever see someone […]
Subtitling Saddam supporters
[video:youtube:cG-wXgDhO54] A “war reporter” in Iraq gives the subtitle treatment to her interviewee…
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 […]
David Greising on foreign correspondents
David Greising talks about being a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. Economic worries and the future of the profession are foremost in his mind. Greising’s piece is one of three taking the temperature of the people who work for the Tribune, “Nobody really knows what the fun-damental economics are going to look like going […]
Journalist faces death penalty
The British Foreign Secretary is facing pressure to help secure the release of a French-British journalist in Niger who faces the death penalty. The Press Association has more, Freelance photo-journalist Thomas Dandois was arrested along with two colleagues on a reporting trip for TV station ARTE on December 17. The 33-year-old, who holds a British […]
Citizen journalist beaten to death
Disturbing news for Chinese citizen journalists, bloggers and mobile phone camera people in The Guardian, A man who used his mobile phone to film a violent clash between villagers and officials in rural China was beaten to death by public order “enforcers”, Chinese state media reported yesterday, bringing more unwanted attention to the country’s unruly […]
Bourne to Baghdad
[video:brightcove:1026280250] 2008 looks set to host something of a war film mania. Matt Damon is the latest actor to go to war. The star of the Bourne trilogy of films, starts work in Spain today with film director Paul Greengrass and actress Amy Ryan on an as yet untitled war thriller about life in Green […]
