News
Upcoming paper on the BBC’s coverage of the Mumbai attacks
Just a note to let you know that later this month I’ll be speaking about the BBC’s coverage of the Mumbai attacks in 2008. The paper is a case study of the BBC’s adoption of live text commentary to report breaking news. Indeed, Mumbai was the first time the BBC had used a ‘live-blogging’ format […]
The Gun Always Shines on TV
The US webmag Gawker recently published a video survey of Army recruitment videos from around the world. The most entertaining was this ad for the Ukrainian Army, which basically promises young men that they will score with the girls if they drive a big tank and fondle their gun barrel suggestively enough (although the clip itself looks […]
First Wednesday: Why Pakistan matters
This Wednesday we turn our attention again to the crisis unfolding in Pakistan. With more than 14 million people displaced by relentless floods and disease spreading through the country, our First Wednesday event for September with chair Paddy O’Connell will look at the disaster with a wide lens and ask what the prospects are for […]
Reporting Vietnam: ‘We don’t only work for the news, we work for the memory’
By Gouri Sharma The only victory for the media during the Vietnam War was that the public decided it never wanted to see those images and stories again. That was a central theme at a Frontline event on Friday to mark the 35 years of the end of the Vietnam war. If you couldn’t be […]
Embedded with the Taliban
Discussions around embedded journalism in Afghanistan tend to focus on journalists joining up with NATO or U.S. forces but what about the view we get from an embed with the Taliban? In the video below, Norwegian journalist Paul Refsdal risks his life to film Taliban operations with a commander in Eastern Afghanistan. There’s some intriguing […]
Gideon Levy in conversation with Jon Snow: why the media’s role in the occupation of Palestine matters
View in iTunes If you couldn’t be there in person, you can watch the whole thing here. With a protracted, complex and bloody conflict between Israel and Islamic forces in Palestine, the need for independent journalism has never been greater. Isreali journalist Gideon Levy says that when he started writing, “There [was] no one there to […]
Mid-Ramadan in Mogadishu is Just Another Bloody Day
It is the eve of the 15th night of the holy month of fasting in the Islamic calendar, but the families of at least 33 people killed in Tuesday’s attack will be mourning rather than feasting. Al-Shabab gunmen disguised as government forces stormed the Muna hotel close to the presidential palace and opened fire. One […]
Iraq revisited: What next for the Forgotten War?
Picture: Chris King By Sara Elizabeth Williams As the last full US combat brigade rumbled out of Iraq, what comes next for the region and its people, and what is the legacy of this long and divisive conflict? A Frontline Club panel got together to discuss just that on Wednesday night, discussing Iraq’s recovery […]
The small acts of mischief that could change the world
Challenging the pessimistic view that "nothing can ever change" was partly the purpose of last night’s event looking at small acts of resistance around the world that have gone on to have greater impact. If you couldn’t make it to the club for this event, you can watch it here: Ahead of the publication next […]
How Wikileaks is changing journalism
Tensions were revealed in the relationship between some of the news organisations that collaborated with the whistleblowing organisation Wikileaks in publishing the Afghan War Diary when its founder Julian Assange spoke at a Frontline Club event last night. Speaking via Skype at a discussion hosted by Paddy O’Connell, presenter of BBC Broadcasting House, Assange said […]
Neither friend nor foe: Google is just the messenger
By Jasper Jackson Google’s online dominance puts it at the heart of forces undermining the traditional news publishing industry. But a Frontline Club panel on Google’s relationship with publishers on Wednesday focused on the wave of technological change behind the search giant that means the industry must "innovate or die". If you couldn’t be there […]
Social networking and journalism: Power to the people?
By Julie Tomlin and Sirena Bergman How have Facebook, Twitter and blogs changed changed grassroots politics? This was the question tackled at the club on Tuesday, at an event moderated by Deborah Bonello, founder of Mexicoreporter.com and video journalist for the Financial Times. If you couldn’t be with us for this event, you can watch […]
Rwanda decides but what next?
There was no discussion about who would win Rwanda’s 2010 Presidential election among Rwandan and foreign hacks as we drove through the eastern provinces yesterday afternoon. As we passed shuttered polling stations, the betting began. How much would President Paul Kagame win by? By 5pm, we’d heard three preliminary results from three separate polling stations. […]
Tributes pour in for Frontline Club member Karen Woo, killed in Afghanistan trying to make a difference
There’s no more sad news for us at the Frontline than to hear that one of our own has died. So it is with a heavy heart we read that the surgeon Dr Karen Woo was shot and killed in a remote area of northern Afghanistan on Friday (there are many news reports, such as […]
Global Voices launches Caucasus Conflict Voices
Since working on my own project using new and social media to counter local media bias in terms of reporting on Armenia-Azerbaijan relations and the still unresolved conflict between the two estranged neighbours over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, it’s been quite a roller coaster of a ride. If in late 2008 it seemed […]
Incredible India by David Rieff
The shining face of success that the country presents to the world disguises deep tensions between great wealth and extreme poverty. With the commonwealth games approaching, David Rieff looks at the politics that sustains such divisions and wonders whether the dream of the Asian century still has meaning for this divided culture. The term “Asian […]
Combatants for peace: Israelis and Palestinians fighting extremism together
Download this episode View in iTunes The intractable conflict between Israel and Hamas over territory, settlements, blockades and terror strikes can give outsiders the impression of a desperate situation. With no firm political, two-state solution in sight, will ordinary peaceful Israelis and Palestinians ever return to the kind of normal lives that we in the […]
At the centre of a media storm: The Frontline and WikiLeaks in links
It’s not every day that the world’s media descends on 13 Norfolk Place. But on Monday at noon the eyes of the British and international media were firmly fixed on our forum room as WikiLeaks editor and founder Julian Assange explained and defended the release of more than 90,000 confidential US military records on the […]
Footage from Pakistan plane crash site posted to YouTube
Earlier today a plane crashed in Pakistan killing all 152 people that were on board. The Airblue aircraft came down in hills north of the capital, Islamabad. Footage from the scene of the aftermath was posted to YouTube and highlighted by the CitizenTube blog. In June, CitizenTube said it would increase its focus on finding […]
Hunting Men
Here is my director’s cut. 22 minutes from Operation Moshtarak, exciting stuff. Shows the war as it really is. First shown on Channel 4 News in February 2010. Vaughan
WikiLeaks founder at the Frontline: ‘We will fill the journalism vacuum’
Download this episode View in iTunes Watch the whole event here. By Heather Christie “We’re not an organisation concerned with protecting troops,” said Julian Assange. “We’re an organisation concerned with protecting human beings.” The founder of WikiLeaks, the secretive whistle-blowing website, did not mince his words at last night’s Frontline Club talk. Rather, he […]
Wikileaks founder defends Afghan War Diary files at the Frontline
Download this episode View in iTunes The founder of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks today described the release of more than 90,000 classified US military documents on the war in Afghanistan as the equivalent to the East German Stasi secret police opening up its files after the collapse of communism. Julian Assange was speaking at the Frontline […]
Media round up: Wikileaks releases Afghanistan war logs
Main coverage Wikileaks "The Afghan War Diary [is] an extraordinary secret compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010. The reports describe the majority of lethal military actions involving the United States military. "We hope its release will lead to a comprehensive understanding of the war in Afghanistan and […]
War & Peace by Jon Swain and Gavin Greenwood
As Vietnam celebrates the 35th anniversary of its defeat of the US, Jon Swain remembers the adrenalin rush of being a young reporter in the biggest war story of his life. Gavin Greenwood reports on how the old guard struggles to hold the socialist line. A few weeks ago, a group of Vietnam Old Hacks […]
Reflections: Jon Snow
View in iTunes Watch the full event here. One of the biggest challenges for today’s journalists is showing “the full consequences of war” Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow told a packed audience at the Frontline Club on Monday. Showing footage taken on assignment during his reporting career, Jon Snow remarked that some […]
America’s invisible government: Can a President take it on?
View in iTunes Watch the full event here. By Joseph Stashko American government is constantly in the grip of unseen forces, including the CIA and big business. That was the consensus view at last night’s Frontline Club event, ‘America’s Invisible Government’. The panel discussion was chaired by BBC Radio 4’s Paddy O’Connell and comprised of […]
Africa for sale by John Vidal
China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, India – half the world seems to be buying vast tracts of territory to grow food for their home markets. But, as John Vidal reports from Ethiopia, the great land-grab is at the expense of local farmers and is seen by some as a new colonialism. We turned off the main […]
Ian Parry Photography Scholarship 2010 Winner Announced
On Friday, the Frontline Club hosted the Ian Parry Scholarship judging session.
The esteemed judges awarded Sebastian Liste the 2010 scholarship for his work focusing on homeless families in Brazil.
Shane Bauer: The forgotten journalist
By Andrew Sampson On the 30th of December last year, two French journalists were kidnapped by an Afghan ‘warlord’ whilst covering a story for France 3. When news was received of their capture, an immediate request was sent out to other news organisations not to release the journalists’ names due to safety concerns. Six months […]
Any difference between PR and journalism?
Watch the full event here. “PR has always been the get-out for journalists who want to make more money,” said Martin Veitch who is due to join Bite Communications. “Those who wanted to drink more would become journalists instead.” This arguably outdated vision of the intrinsic differences between journalism and PR is what promted Frontline […]
