News
Yemen Friday prayers protests: Last (wo)man standing
In the heat of the midday sun orderly rows of coloured prayer mats stretched for the best part of a mile. What should be one of the busiest roads in Sana’a filled with people, squeezing in and around hundreds of tents currently housing around a thousand activists, permanently camping on the road in a spectacular […]
First Wednesday: Libya – what does the future hold?
By SHYAMALIE SATKUNANANDAN The end of Muammar Gaddafi’s rule in Libya is in sight – this was the consensus at the Frontline Club’s March First Wednesday, which focused on the situation in Libya. As Norman Benotman, a senior analyst at Quilliam, said: The question is a matter of when – we need to think about […]
The age of “the inexpert” and the unexpected?
Two blogs in the past seven days from different perspectives on the upheaval in the Middle East, raising the question of whether we are in uncharted territory or if the Western media in particular has been talking to the wrong people: In a post titled Middle East uprisings: no one predicted ‘rebellious cascade‘ Channel 4 […]
China’s Twitter – inside Sina Weibo
I was reading a Foreign Policy article about the Chinese government’s "deep suspicion of social media and the Internet" which included a link to a very interesting presentation about Sina Weibo – one of several Chinese answers to Twitter. Founded in August 2009, Sina Weibo had 80-100 million users by the end of 2010. […]
The week ahead at the Frontline Club: First Wednesday and a special screening of Blood and Dust
Tomorrow evening’s First Wednesday is fully booked but the discussion will be broadcast live here from 7pm. On Sunday we have a special screening of Frontline Club founder Vaughan Smith’s new film on Afghanistan Blood and Dust. Sunday lunch will be served in the Club room at 12pm and 2pm and tickets are available for […]
Political tumult in the Middle East and North Africa – Frontline Club events in February
With so much going on in the Middle East and North Africa it’s unsurprising that our two events in February focusing on the region sold out. Our First Wednesday event on 2 February was announced as a discussion on The Tunisian domino effect and the Middle East but one week after we announced it the […]
Where does Yemen sit in the Middle East domino theory?
With the winds of change blowing across the Middle East, people are busy combing the region for their next favorite to fall. After the resignation of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt nearly two weeks ago, most of the world’s attention has shifted to Libya and Bahrain where tens of thousands are calling for change and violent […]
Zimbabwe 2011: An opportunity for change?
Download this episode View in iTunes Watch the event here. By Mariah Hamalainen “I don’t think there will be free and fair elections in Zimbabwe in 2011” Geoff Hill said at a recent panel discussion on the topic at Frontline Club. Geoff Hill wasn’t alone; his fellow panelists agreed that should the elections – which […]
Preparation politeness and pauses.. the art of the interview
Streaming .TV shows by Ustream Listen to the podcast here or download from itunes. By Lucy Lacock A panel of journalists were at the Frontline Club last night to discuss "The Art of the Interview" and to pass on their knowledge about the way to get the most out of an interview and the interviewee. […]
Snake charmers, ironed shirts and spooning with authority
I’ve heard stories of the major local TV stations sending extended entourages to official events – a cameraman, a journalist, a sound man, a man to carry the tripod, another to carry lights, a driver, a juggler and a snake charmer – just so everybody in the newsroom gets their cut. Before Christmas I told […]
Social media, protest and changing the world order – Clay Shirky
Clay Shirky‘s article in Foreign Affairs magazine discussing the political impact of social media focuses on its long term potential for changing public anc civil life as well as for toppling governments. In the interview above with the Wall Street Journal Clay Shirky, who is Professor of New Media at New York University, Clay Shirky […]
What’s coming up at the Frontline Club
Next week’s First Wednesday will be an opportunity to discuss events in Libya and elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East. With events moving so fast we will bring together a panel to take stock and to reflect on key issues – we will keep you posted but you can be sure it will […]
Reporting from the frontline: what does the attack on Lara Logan tell us?
Channel 4 News‘ international editor Lindsey Hilsum, who took part in last week’s First Wednesday special on Egypt wrote a piece at the weekend about the dangers journalists face following the sexual assault of Lara Logan in Cairo on the night President Hosni Mubarak stepped down. Lindsey Hilsum, who herself came under attack while reporting […]
Blood and Dust film
Vaughan’s new film, Blood and Dust, is below for those who didn’t catch it on Al Jazeera’s People and Power strand. If you want to see it on a large screen we will showing it at the Frontline Clubon 6 March. Followed by a discussion about how war is represented by the broadcast media. Vaughan writes: I have […]
Accurate reporting ‘difficult’ as foreign journalists banned from Libya
In a post on the BBC’s Editor’s blog world news editor Jon Wiliams wrote yesterday about the difficulties news organisations face reporting the uprisings in Libya. The BBC and other news organisations are relying on those on the ground to tell us what’s happening. Their phone accounts – often accompanied by the sound or gunfire […]
Armenia: An online revolution in the making?
Opposition Rally, Liberty Square, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian 2007 Recent events in Tunisia and Egypt have captured the attention of the world’s media and also encouraged and inspired other movements elsewhere, albeit in much bloodier ways as this week has shown in Bahrain and Libya. Not to be outdone, opposition groups in […]
The Minister formerly known as “Doktor” zu Guttenberg
Yes, Germany’s Minister of Defence, Dr. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, has been previously mentioned in Frontline blog dispatches. However the latest scandal to dog the defence minister is his doctorate, or more specifically, large slabs of his doctor of laws dissertation that he is accused of cutting and pasting. Minister zu Guttenberg has denied the claims […]
‘I was concerned that I hadn’t filmed the suffering of war, just its machinery’ – Vaughan Smith on his new film showing the reality of war in Afghanistan
Vaughan Smith, founder of the Frontline Club, spent two weeks with the US Army’s 214th Aviation Regiment shooting Blood and Dust, a film being broadcast on Al Jazeera this week. The film will also be shown at the Club on 6 March and will be followed by a discussion about how war is represented by […]
Protest, social media and the importance of journalism in post-Mubarak Egypt
The Empire programme on Al Jazeera English looking at "cyber-generated" change examined how the media "missed" the warnings of looming trouble in Tunisia. The programme looks at some of the themes which were covered at the Frontline Club’s discussion: The changing nature of protest: does the mainstream media get it? Following the #sidibouzid hashtag […]
What WikiLeaks has told us
Since 2006, the whistleblowers’ website WikiLeaks has published a mass of information we would otherwise not have known. The leaks have exposed dubious procedures at Guantanamo Bay and detailed meticulously the Iraq War’s unprecedented civilian death-toll. They have highlighted the dumping of toxic waste in Africa as well as revealed America’s clandestine military actions in […]
FIRST WEDNESDAY SPECIAL: Egypt – what happens now?
Listen to the podcast here or download from itunes. The First Wednesday ’emergency meeting’ – announced just two days before in response to events in Egypt and continuing unrest in the Middle East and North Africa – was a fast-paced and lively discussion that threw up a great deal of insight. With Paddy O’Connell, […]
Visualising the Egyptian revolution through Twitter
"I was very lucky to get this data", André Panisson tells us. He made the serendipitous decision to perform a test run of a Python server that would collect Twitter statuses around a particular hashtag on 11 February – the day that President Mubarak announced he would step down in Egypt. The following video documents […]
How Twitter and Facebook are changing protests and journalism
By Will Spens The recent demonstrations across the Arab world, unrest in Ireland, Greece and France and the student protests in Britain have highlighted what appears to be an unprecedented revolt against power structures around the world. Chaired by Steve Crawshaw, author and international advocacy director for Amnesty International, the discussion focused on […]
Coming up at the Frontline Club in March
Looking ahead to March, we will be discussing homosexuality in Africa and the peace process in Afghanistan as well as tackling the thorny issue of media coverage of crime and hearing from Nick Robinson about his career in political journalism. From a family’s experience of murder and one man’s campaign against terrorism to injustice in […]
Vaughan Smith’s new film ‘Blood and Dust’ broadcasting on Al Jazeera
Above is a preview of Vaughan Smith’s dramatic new film BLOOD AND DUST recording life and death with an American helicopter medevac unit in Southern Afghanistan. ‘These Medivac teams, US military air ambulances, are amoungst the only soldiers that go to war to save lives and they are very good at it.’ See BLOOD AND […]
The week ahead at the Frontline Club: First Wednesday special on Egypt and the Middle East
In response to the extraordinary events witnessed in Egypt we are holding a First Wednesday special event with Paddy O’Connell, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House. He will be joined by a panel of experts and journalists fresh from reporting events in Egypt to both take stock and ask what lies ahead for the […]
Friends show support for freelance photographer Giles Duley injured in Afghanistan
Photograph by David Bowering: Giles Duley has shown me the strength and depth the human spirit is capable of. I hope for a speedy recovery so that we may see more of your excellent work. Hats off to you sir. News that Frontline Club member Giles Duley was injured in a bomb blast while embedded […]
Exploring the role of Twitter and social media in revolutions
I’m afraid I haven’t been able to follow events in Tunisia and Egypt as closely as I would have liked as I was determined to enjoy an overdue holiday and a break from computer screens. And my mission was largely accomplished. As part of an attempt to catch up, I’ve just been reading Jeff Jarvis, […]
Screening: Videocracy
by Gianluca Mezzofiore Videocracy, screened yesterday at the Frontline Club, is a groundbreaking documentary by Italian-born, Swedish-based director Erik Gandini about the power of Berlusconi’s TV culture over Italian society at large. Showing the dark side of TV industry controlled by Berlusconi over the last 30 years, Gandini gives a precious insight over a fictional world […]
How the People Lost their Fear of the Pharaoh, but is the Regime Getting Away With Murder?
Hosni Mubarak is gone, ousted by a revolution. As someone who lived in Egypt and can testify to the brutality of the Mubarak regime, I celebrated with the millions of people who were glad to see the back of him. These picture galleries from the New York Times and photojournalist Matthew Cassell show powerful images of protesters in their pain during […]
