News

March 5, 2012

Just for YOU: NATO launches WE-NATO social media platform

NATO has launched a new interactive social media platform called WE-NATO. It’s primarily a WordPress blog which will attempt to encourage an "eye level conversation with netizens out there in the web". WE-NATO also wants to livestream a series of talks and conduct video interviews in the run up to the NATO summit in Chicago […]


March 2, 2012

Defending collaboration, with A. A. Gill and Tom Craig

View event here. By Alan Selby The advent of new media has seen an increasing pressure placed upon journalists to become multidisciplinary, but often to the detriment of each medium. During an evening moderated by David Campany, reader in photography at Westminster University, writer A. A. Gill and photographer Tom Craig mounted an impassioned defence […]


February 29, 2012

Frei at The Frontline Club

By Alan Selby A packed house at The Frontline Club heard Matt Frei regale them with tales from his long and illustrious career. The former BBC Washington correspondent, recently poached by Channel 4 News, was on fine form as he spoke to former BBC executive Vin Ray about more than 20 years with the BBC: […]


February 29, 2012

Matt Frei and the ‘light touch’ (five tips for journalists)

By Thomas Lowe In conversation with Vin Ray, Matt Frei let us into the deepest, darkest and funniest recesses of his journalistic mind. Here is his advice for putting together a good story for television. 1. Pictures Writing well for TV is quite simple, Frei says. The lesson is just to “get out of the way” of the […]


February 28, 2012

Screening: Darkhead

  By Charlene Rodrigues Torn by a lack of cultural identity, a Schwarzkopf or “Darkhead” is the word European born immigrants use to define themselves in Austria.   Arman T. Riahi’s documentary of the same name is a portrait of immigrant life in Austria, and follows Nazar, an Austro-Iranian 25-year-old rapper, as he and his […]


February 27, 2012

Mama Illegal

By Nicky Armstrong Women leaving Moldova and crossing the border into Romania and then on to European countries to work illegally has become a mass phenomenon that is tearing families apart. Bordering Romania and the Ukraine, Moldova is the poorest country in Europe, with an unemployment rate of 80%. Mamma Illegal follows three women between […]


February 27, 2012

ForesightNews world briefing: upcoming events 27 February – 4 March

A weekly round up of world events from Monday, 27 February to Sunday, 4 March from Foresight News By Nicole Hunt This week’s roundup includes no fewer than eight elections at all levels of government, beginning with a leadership ballot for Australia’s Labor Party on Monday. Prime Minister Julia Gillard called the snap ballot on […]


February 27, 2012

#FCBBCA: Crisis in Syria – what can be done?

Almost a year since the uprising began in Syria, 7000 people are estimated to have died at the hands of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The death this week of the revered journalist Marie Colvin – a founding member of the Frontline Club – has intensified the media spotlight on what has become a humanitarian crisis.
A panel of experts on the situation came to the Frontline Club on Friday for a #FCBBCA event exploring possible solutions to the situation.


February 23, 2012

Freelance News Safety Survey

From Vaughan Smith of the Frontline Club, Dear Colleague, I am convinced that there is an exciting opportunity, post embed-free Libya, for a practitioner-led initiative to move the industry forward on news safety. So in April this year the Frontline Club is hosting workshops, bringing news management, leading practitioners and experienced freelances together to discuss […]


February 23, 2012

Marie Colvin: “committed to telling the real story of war”

Friends and colleagues of Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin gathered at the Frontline Club last night after hearing of her death during a rocket attack on the besieged city of Homs.  There were many tributes to Marie Colvin – and great stories – all recognising the qualities that made her a great journalist and remarkable […]


February 22, 2012

Tributes to Marie Colvin, Sunday Times correspondent killed in Syria

The Sunday Times correspondent, Marie Colvin, was killed in Syria on Wednesday morning. She died after a makeshift media centre in Homs came under attack from Syrian forces. French photographer Rémi Ochlik was also killed. Colvin and Ochlik died the day after Syrian activist, Rami al-Sayed. His video footage, uploaded to YouTube and Bambuser, was […]


February 22, 2012

Journalists killed as CPJ’s ‘Attacks on the Press’ is released

By Helena Williams No one who attended last night’s discussion at the Frontline Club on the safety of journalists was under any illusion that the issue was not an important one, but few there could have anticipated that it would be so topical. News of the death of Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin, a regular at the […]


February 22, 2012

Marie Colvin: “I should stay and write what I can to expose what is happening here”

UPDATE: Friends and colleagues are invited to the Frontline Club tonight from 7pm to remember Marie Colvin.  Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin remained in Syria because she was determined the terrible story of events  there had to be told. Marie had hoped to moderate a discussion that is taking place on the growing crisis in […]


February 21, 2012

Robert Mugabe… What Happened?, asks Frontline

By William Turvill A sell-out crowd last night gathered at the Frontline Club for an exclusive screening of Robert Mugabe… What Happened?, followed by a question and answer session with the film’s director and producer. The documentary, which premiered at last year’s Encounters South Africa International Documentary Festival, gives a historical account of Mugabe and […]


February 18, 2012

Fawzia Koofi – from a baby left to die to running for president of Afghanistan

by Ivana Davidovic "If it was fiction, you would not believe it.” That is how Nadene Ghouri, a journalist and a writer, described Fawzia Koofi‘s remarkable life story told in her new memoir The Favored Daughter: One Woman’s Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future. The day Koofi was born, was the day she was […]


February 17, 2012

ForesightNews world briefing: upcoming events 20- 26 February

A weekly round up of world events from Monday, 20 February to Sunday, 26 February from Foresight News By Nicole Hunt After a false start on 9 February and another postponement on 15 February, euro zone Finance Ministers are using their regularly-scheduled meeting on Monday to discuss whether to release the next tranche of Greece’s […]


February 15, 2012

Rebuilding Libya

View in iTunes Watch the event here. By Alan Selby Much has happened since this time last year. The 15th of February 2011 saw the first Libyans take to the streets of Benghazi against a brutal dictatorship which ruled over them for 42 years. The events that followed sent shockwaves around the world, led to a […]


February 15, 2012

BBC Screening:The Ayatollah’s Seal

by Rosie Scammell In the wake of intimidation of BBC Persian journalists by the Iranian authorities, last night saw the screening of ‘The Ayatollah’s Seal’ – the first documentary to be made about the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. Refused access to Iran by the Ministry of Culture (there were more important topics for the […]


February 14, 2012

Frontline screening: Tweets from Tahrir

    By: Will Turvill The Frontline Club last night hosted an exclusive screening of an Al Jazeera documentary Tweets from Tahrir. The film, set to be broadcast on the network for the first time on Thursday, portrays the uprising in Egypt from the perspective of five Twitter users active in the Tahrir Square protests. […]


February 10, 2012

ForesightNews world briefing: upcoming events 13- 19 February

A weekly round up of world events from Monday, 13 February to Sunday, 19 February from Foresight News By Nicole Hunt Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has been ordered to appear before the Supreme Court again on Monday, this time to be indicted on charges of contempt of court over what prosecutors say is […]


February 10, 2012

Journalists beware: Washington’s wrath

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism quite rightly threw up its arms in protest this week at the accusation by an anonymous ‘senior American counterterrorism official’ that they were ‘helping al-Qaeda’ by revealing the death toll of civilian casualties in CIA drone strikes in Pakistan, whilst also pointing out that this was not the first time US officials had attacked their findings. […]


February 9, 2012

“Welcome to Syria”: Embedding with ‘citizen journalists’

This Al Jazeera English report on Syria’s citizen journalists is interesting.  When people in the media industry talk about "embedded journalists" they usually mean journalists embedding with military units. It is, of course, possible to ’embed’ with other people or organisations and it is perhaps a sign of the times that ‘journalists’ like Jane Ferguson are […]


February 9, 2012

Full House UK Premiere Screening: Under Fire: Journalists In Combat

By Nicky Armstrong Half way through the film the ripple effect that war has on journalists and the stresses that leak out from being present at such horrific moments in people’s lives are laid bare for the audience to see. The question of morals, as well as dealing with your own problems and family life […]


February 8, 2012

The DNA of culture: Jeremy Hunter in conversation with Paddy O’Connell

By Natricia Duncan     The Frontline Club was treated to an explosion of colour, culture, festivity and debate as photojournalist Jeremy Hunter explored the “DNA of countries” through pictures. Hunter described how he began travelling as part of his job as a foreign correspondent for NIR-TV in Tehran.  Although not employed as a photographer […]


February 7, 2012

Screening: Albino United

By Antonia Roupell “Albinos are human too” was the resounding message from Marc Hoeferlin, Barney Broomfield, and Juan Reina’s film Albino United. A story that  follows not only Tanzanian Albinos’ struggle for equality but their struggle for survival. Dangerous beliefs that “Albinos are human ghosts” has lead to the brutal mutilations and killings of this […]


February 3, 2012

Screening: Bahrain: Shooting in the Dark Q&A with May Welsh, Jon Blair, and ex-Bahraini MP

By Ivana Davidovic     "With our souls, with our blood, we would sacrifice anything for you Bahrain" people chanted on the streets of Bahrain. In February 2011, while the media glare was firmly focused on the uprising in Egypt, the Bahraini people were left to shout in the dark. One of their rare witnesses […]


February 3, 2012

ForesightNews world briefing: upcoming events 6 – 12 February

A weekly round up of world events from Monday, 6 February to Sunday, 12 February from Foresight News By Nicole Hunt Towards Healing and Renewal, the Catholic Church’s four-day long symposium on sexual abuse within the Church, begins on Monday in Rome. The conference brings together over 200 representatives from bishops’ conferences and other religious […]


February 2, 2012

Getting Somalia Wrong

          http://www.royalafricansociety.org/events/details/1137-getting-somalia-wrong-faith-war-and-hope-in-a-shattered-state.html Next week I’m planning to attend this event at the Royal African Society, where BBC journalist Mary Harper will be launching her new book ‘Getting Somalia Wrong’. Mary has a long history of association with Somalia, she’s travelled there many times. One of her best stories came about when she […]


February 2, 2012

Social media from the front line

Major Paul Smyth is one of the people responsible for changing the Ministry of Defence’s approach to social media particularly in the context of front line operations. I’ve spoken to him previously for the Frontline Club about his Frontline bloggers project.  In this interview with David Bailey, Maj. Smyth talks in some detail about how […]


February 1, 2012

Wael Ghonim in conversation with Ben Hammersley: Revolution 2.0

By Emily Wight A key element to the Arab Spring was the role of social media in giving momentum to the revolution. In countries such as Egypt, Facebook and Twitter have been used as a democratizing force, a platform for activists to share ideas. At last night’s #FCBBCA event Wired UK’s editor at large Ben […]