News
Christmas is coming!
Our Christmas menu is here! And we are now taking bookings for Christmas lunches, dinners and parties – in the restaurant as well as the private function room. To check availibility and discuss your requirements please do not hesitate to contact me on olga.kozanecka@frontlineclub.com or give me a call on 0207 479 8960. For the […]
My Reading
There was little rhyme nor reason to my book buying before moving to the Middle East. My mind and reading were still rather engaged with Sudan, and so I tended to pick up whatever I spotted in second hand book shops – mostly the Oxfam in Crouch End. So my little bookshelf in my friend’s […]
Petition to release journalists held in Somalia
A group of six Canadian media organisations have banded together to petition the Canadian government and help raise awareness of the kidnap of freelance journalists Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan in Somalia over one year ago, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) is launching a campaign, joined by the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ), Canadian […]
Better get your mojo working
"News Quoyle, news. Better get your mojo working." – Annie Proulx, The Shipping News A draft of this post has been loitering in my documents folder for a while. But six months on from when I gave some mojo apps a workout in Nigeria and in Georgia I’ve got a […]
WMD screening – Oct 20th 2009
Writer/director David Holroyd described himself as “outraged” at how little known the facts about the fabrication of evidence in the run up to the Iraq war are. He was speaking at the Frontline Club following a screening of the film, which tells the story of a fictional MI6 desk officer who uncovers the very real […]
Democracy fail in Cambodia – Part 1, Crushing dissent
While the world looks elsewhere, an increasingly authoritarian government discreetly crushes dissent and tightens its hold. Hun Sen oye? (This essay was first posted on my personal blog last week.) It’s hard to explain to someone who hasn’t experienced it what it feels like to see freedom of expression slowly degrade in front of you. […]
Apologies…
… to the people whose comments were neither approved nor acknowledged for weeks. This CMS oddly doesn’t notify me of pending comments. And while we’re at it, apologies for this blog never really picking up. I had some professional reasons not to be able to speak my mind while I was in Cambodia (see upcoming […]
An Invitation
I read in Friday’s Independent that: "Three judges of the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal ruled on Wednesday that the level of "indiscriminate violence" was not enough to permit Afghans to claim general humanitarian protection in the United Kingdom. Hundreds of asylum-seekers a year are returned to Afghanistan if they have not convinced a court they […]
The Story Changes, Sometimes
A few weeks ago I posted that it was time for a change after living for five years in Africa. The same stories were coming around again and again and it was time to look for new stories in a new location. So I’ve landed in Tel Aviv ready for a fresh challenge back on […]
Burma deserves better by Philip Delves Broughton
The international community is good at moral outrage when dealing with the rangoon junta but always meets a stumbling block in geopolitical reality. Change in Burma will come only when the west decides to replace ineffectual sanctions with attempts to shape the economic landscape. Perhaps then Aung San Suu Kyi can be more than just […]
Revisiting Moldova’s ‘Twitter Revolution’
I don’t usually crosspost, so if you’ve seen this post (which also a couple of interesting comments now) on the Media140 blog there’ll be nothing new below, but I hope you’ll forgive me for doing so on this occasion. The intro in italics was written by Dee Jackson, the Editor of the Media140 blog. I’m […]
Club quiz
With quiz master George Chamier author of When it Happened.
Join us for another quiz evening in the Clubroom. You can enter as an individual or as a team of six. All money will go to the Fixers’ Fund which raises money for families of fixers around the world killed or injured while working with the international media.
Press Freedom Index 2009: Cambodia’s up 9 spots, which doesn’t mean it’s getting better
Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders) has released its famed Press Freedom Index for 2009. Cambodia has risen in the rankings by 9 spots, from 126 to 117, but the only explanation for this is that many other countries have sucked even more than the Kingdom, rather than Cambodia itself having an improved media environment. A mediocre […]
Kidnapped journalists in Somalia moved
Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan, the two freelance journalists who were kidnapped well over one year ago on the outskirts of Mogadishu, have been moved "for security reasons" according to reports coming out of Somalia, "It is true that Lindhout and Brennan are not in Mogadishu," said [Ambroise Pierre, head of the Africa desk for […]
WRL: Blogging, Milblogging and the London bombings
(Dusty history section) on the London bombings, 2005. I came across a couple of links on media coverage of the London bombings in July 2005 that I hadn’t previously discovered. Maybe you missed them too. Mike Thelwall did some research into bloggers and the bombings which ‘scratches the surface’ of the use of blogs to […]
Club quiz
Join us for the Club Quiz on thursday 22nd October with Quiz Master George Chamier. £5 entry donation to the Fixers’ Fund.
Armenia-Turkey protocols signed, small protest at home
There’s obviously no rest for the wicked. No sooner than I finish fixing for the BBC and Al Jazeera English on what most outside observers consider to be a historic agreement between Armenia and Turkey to normalize relations after almost a century of bitter rivalry, than Tbilisi beckoned in the form of a New Media […]
Assault and despair, Lahore must live on
Three terror attacks killing almost 22 people, shook Lahore on Thursday morning. I was getting ready for work, when the text message from the Rescue headquarters informed me that FIA building at Famous temple road been under attack. While I was making a few calls to confirm the news, I got to know about the […]
Darfur: A New Deadly Chapter… Or Maybe Not
The Independent’s splash makes for powerful reading… The Lord’s Resistance Army, one of the most feared guerrilla groups in Africa, has moved into Darfur, one of the continent’s most troubled regions, intelligence sources in Sudan say. The unexpected move by the LRA comes just as the war-weary west of Sudan recedes from world headlines and […]
Mexican activist fights for the rights of migrants as town is split
Central American migrants have long passed through Tultitlán on their way north to the United States because the trains on which the migrants ride north pass nearby. The mayor of Tultitlán says the number of migrants arriving has increased over recent months and wants them deported, but local activist Paty Camarena continues to fight for […]
Bussmann’s War
The problem with books on Africa – and writing about the continent in general – is that they tend to take themselves rather too seriously. Po-faced is apparently the best way to observe the continent’s daily struggles with war, famine and disease. Never mind that so many of the underlying causes are the result of […]
Detained Azeri blogger turns 30 in jail
Today, on 14 October, detained Azerbaijani blogger Emin Milli is celebrating his birthday in a Baku jail.
Frontline: Obama’s War
I flagged up the preview earlier in the month and now here is the full version of the Frontline documentary, Obama’s War:
Air Miles and God
The Archbishop of Canterbury has waded into the air miles debate. In an interview with The Times, Dr Rowan Williams said that families needed to respond to the threat of climate change by changing their shopping habits and adjusting their diets to the seasons, eating fruit and vegetables that could be grown in Britain. He said […]
DoD Director of New Media: “It’s not about controlling the message anymore”
Continuing what is rapidly turning into an autumnal video season here on the blog, I came across this interview by David Meerman Scott with Roxie Merritt, the Director of New Media Operations at the U.S. Department of Defense. There’s some very interesting stuff in this brief video. A few points for those of you […]
Afghan and US commanders considering Kandahar & Quetta to be next big stops in insurgency fight
In recent recommendations by the top American commander in Afghanistan Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, is exerting pressure to add another 40,000 troops on top of the 68,000 Americans already deployed there. The report by Gen McChrystal, last week got leaked to the media, in which he have assessed three main Taliban groups. The report identifies […]
Armenia, Turkey sign historic protocols… eventually
Under the watchful eyes of the United States and Russia, Armenia and Turkey have finally signed two protocols which many hope will see the normalization of relations between the two neighbouring countries. Fixing again for Al Jazeera English and the BBC, today’s historic development meant another visit to Margara, an Armenian village on the border […]
VAN ES International Wake
Tim Heald and Penny Byrne are organising a celebratory wake in Hugh Van Es’s honour. There’ll be a cash bar and an opportunity to buy food for those who want. Doors open at 7pm and close when the last one is left standing. Bring youselves, some good van Es stories bearing in mind that the Frontline is the nearest thing London has to the FCC in Hong Kong which was latterly van Es’ spiritual home.
2 Rifles firefight in Afghanistan
Here’s a very short video of a recent firefight in Helmand province courtesy of Michael Yon’s recent embed with the British Army. I seem to have slipped into videoblogging these days. I’ll write something soon…promise. Maybe you prefer the videos anyway.
A Black and White War on the Dark Continent
No-one reported the second press release: Shegeg Karo village in North Darfur was bombed repeatedly by an Antonov aircraft on Sunday, May 4th. The bombing happened between 2-3pm, not at 4pm as reported in the May 5 press release from “Darfur Diaries”. The Shegeg Karo market was hit directly and was completely burned, as confirmed […]
