News
Contact with Somalia kidnappers
AFP reports that contact between the authorities in Puntland, Somalia and the kidnappers of one British and one Spanish journalist in Bosasso has been made, “The kidnappers are asking for a ransom, but we refuse negotiations. We just want them to be released,” [Bossaso Governor Musa Gueleh Yusuf] said without elaborating. “We are not giving […]
Taliban free two kidnapped journalists
Dawa Khan Menapal of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Aziz Popal, who worked for a local TV station in Kandahar have been released after three days in captivity, Militants kidnapped the two in Ghazni province on Wednesday as they were driving on the country’s main Kabul-Kandahar highway. The Taliban’s high council ordered the pair released […]
Going live… Frontline Club Journalism Awards 2008
Click To Play We’re just going live right now with the Frontline Club Journalism Awards and the annual party. The club is now five years old. And it looks like Vaughan is relating the history of the club right now. Hope you come and join us… UPDATE: In the video above you can see Frontline […]
Is RICU trying to influence the media?
Recently, Dr Andrew Garner from RICU gave a talk at King’s College London about the government’s counter terrorism strategy. There’s more information and background about RICU in a previous post, but just to reiterate for the purposes of what appears below, this is Garner’s personal view and not that of RICU or the UK Government. […]
AFP reporter injured in Mumbai
An AFP reporter is among four people injured in crossfire outside the Taj Hotel in Mumbai today. A commando operation is currently underway to secure the hotel following the attacks of the past 24 hours. AFP reports that the journalist, a camerawoman, was not seriously hurt, Four grenades were launched into a part of the […]
Telegraph war correspondent dies age 96
Edmund Townshend, who worked as a war correspondent for The Daily Telegraph during World War II, has died aged 96. On his first ever flight in an aircraft, during the Battle of Arhem, he was shot down and had to bail out. He went on to cover the D-Day landings, On the morning of D-Day […]
Video: Crimes against dogs in Mexico City
When thieves brandishing handguns broke into Ignacio Villanueva’s bulldog breeding kennels on the outskirts of Mexico City, it wasn’t the safe they were after but Cinderella, Titiana, Adelita and a handful of other dogs and puppies. A gang of robbers who forced their way into the home of Jesus Guerrero’s business partner went straight for […]
Mumbai – twitter, blogging, and social media
I’m collecting a series of links on how Mumbai has been covered by blogs and social media. You can find all the links on my delicious account.
2 foreign journalists kidnapped in Somalia
Two freelance journalists, presumed to be British, are reported kidnapped by police in the northern Puntland region of Somalia earlier today, “I think both the journalists are British but we shall investigate … we are sending police to free them,” Puntland’s police spokesman Abshir Said Jama told Reuters. link via BreakingNewsOn. A report from AP […]
Abdullah Farah Duguf wins FPA award for Somalia film
Abdullah Farah Duguf won the prestigious TV News Story of the Year at the Foreign Press Association Awards in London last night. Duguf’s colleagues at Channel 4, Ben de Pear and Nima Elbagir, were also there to pick up the award, De Pear said: “He sent back via DHL five or six tapes which were […]
Sonim XP1: Does What It Says on The Tin
“Well, they did tell me it was unbreakable… and asked me to do my best to destroy it… and it has a three-year warranty.” Those were roughly the thoughts that ran through my head as my new Sonim XP1 phone described a graceful arc from the top-floor balcony. Time seemed to stand still as my […]
LIVE event: Elizabeth Pisani on HIV/AIDS
You can now watch the event here. Elizabeth Pisani is at the Frontline Club tonight to talk about HIV/AIDS. Elizabeth is the author of The Wisdom of Whores and has spent ten years working as a scientist in the bloated AIDS industry. If you can’t make it to the club in person, please tune in […]
One night in Bangkok
Interesting time to be in transit at Bangkok International airport (Suvarnabhumi) via BreakingNewsOn the Twitter channel of The Breaking News Wire confirmed on AFP UPDATE: Looks like the airport is shutdown now.
Farnaz Fassihi on reporting and Iraq
Farnaz Fassihi, an Iranian-American journalist, author of Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq and The Wall Street Journal‘s deputy bureau chief for the Middle East and Africa, talks to Sara Sarnaz on the Persian Mirror. Fasshi reported from Iraq from 2002 until 2006 and in the interview she talks about […]
Fung’s Afghanistan fixers released
Shokoor Feroz and his brother Qaem Feroz, who were working with CBC journalist Mellissa Fung when she was kidnapped on October 12, have been released by the Afghan authorities. The brothers were arrested by the National Directorate of Security soon after Fung’s kidnap. Reporters without borders have released a statement applauding the release of the […]
Capturing casualties in Afghanistan
‘The soldier keeps shouting “Sir!” as he deliriously looks around “Don’t take my legs,” he appeals. “Have I got my legs?” He doesn’t believe the doctor who reassures him.’ This is an extract from the diary of artist David Cotterrell who observed the work of British military medical staff at Camp Bastion last year. Published […]
Africa Reading Challenge. 5. Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone
If there was ever a heyday for journalism then it must have been in the latter part of the nineteenth century. As pre-festive season memos circulate newsrooms warning that Christmas party expenses must be kept to a minimum, reading about Henry Morton Stanley’s instructions to travel the world for a year writing travel features before […]
45 journalists killed in Mexico since 2000; rights body appeals for end to impunity
Mexico’s National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH is its Spanish acronym) appealed to authorities over the weekend to investigate thoroughly the recent killings of a number of journalists here, and to put an end to the impunity for those who murder members of the profession. Since 2000, 45 journalists have been killed in Mexico, according […]
Shooting the messengers in Mexico
Just over a week ago crime reporter Armando Rodriguez was shot dead in his driveway in the border town of Ciudad Juárez. Two other crime reporters have since received death threats including Jorge Luis Aguirre, the 51-year-old editor of the Juarez news Web site called La Polaka. Frontline blogger Deborah Bonello, in Mexico City, has […]
Amanpour hour to launch on CNNI in 2009
Foreign correspondent Christiane Amanpour is set to head up a new nightly programme, The Amanpour Hour, on the CNNI channel in the United States beginning in the summer of 2009, “Our thinking was we wanted a big, the biggest, name to hub our international prime time, and when it comes to global international superstars that […]
Kate Peyton inquest kicks off
The inquiry into the death of Kate Peyton, the BBC producer who was gunned down outside the Sahafi Hotel in Mogadishu in February 2005, opens today, Ms Peyton’s sister, Rebecca, an actress who lives in Brixton, south London, said: “All the journalists we’ve spoken to who have been to Somalia or who know about it […]
Didace Namujimbo shot dead in South Kivu
Didace Namujimbo, a radio journalist with the UN-backed Radio Okapi station, was shot dead on Friday night. He is the second journalist from the station to have been shot dead in the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu in the last eighteen months, “Once again a Radio Okapi journalist has been killed in Bukavu. Didace Namujimbo […]
In the name of what?
Kate Adie says she asked this question of every interviewee she encountered during a long career as news correspondent for the BBC on the frontlines of the world. Susan Mansfield, in The Scotsman, turns the question on her,. So, Kate Adie, in the name of what? “Enlightening people. Which is a grander way of saying […]
“Basic Foreign correspondence is dead. I think that’s a damn good thing”
David Schlesinger, Reuters News editor-in-chief, gave the traditional foreign correspondent model both barrels at a debate on International news coverage at City University in London last week. “A lot of basic traditional foreign correspondence was lousy. It was reading the local papers, having some fixer translate it for you, stringing it together and sending it […]
“Happy to work ourselves out of a job”: An insight into the UK Government’s counter terrorism communications unit
This post is long overdue, but I wanted to make sure I had time to write it because it concerns a potentially sensitive subject. At the end of October, Dr Andrew Garner from the UK Government’s Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU), very kindly gave a talk at King’s College, London. He pointed out that […]
Journalism’s deadliest decade
Writing in The Observer, Richard Sambrook discusses what has been the deadliest decade for journalists. 173 journalists were killed in both 2006 and 2007 – up from 70 in 2002. The numbers look set to be lower in 2008, but as Richard notes, they’re still far too high. Iraq is still the most dangerous country […]
Go Animal Early
Mapima, a baby chimp, was rescued from a Congolese army commander and a life of misery. Pic credit: Kate Holt Jolted out of my Congo cynicism by a features editor who wasn’t convinced by my gorilla pitch. “Rob,” she said, “with a quarter of a million people displaced by this fighting isn’t it, erm, a […]
Video: A delicious sound above the din of Mexico City
The sound of street-sellers peddling their wares is a constant in Mexico City, and none more so than the seller of tamales – a traditional, Mexican corncake. I managed to catch one of my local tamale-sellers on camera. This video was made to accompany this Dispatch, written by Ken Ellingwood for the Los Angeles Times. […]
Mike Saburi wins Mohamed Amin Award
Mike Saburi, a freelance journalist working in Zimbabwe has won the 2008 Mohamed Amin Award for his work in Zimbabwe, “For the last 12 months Zimbabwe has been at the forefront of the international news agenda once again,” Amin said. “Covering this difficult story has meant that many journalists had to work under harrowing conditions […]
Journalists who risk their lives praised
Five journalists, including Andrew Mwenda from The Independent in Uganda, and one attorney were cited for risking their lives to report the news often working in places with dictatorial regimes, The six, who work in Iraq, Afghanistan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Cuba, are recipients of this year’s International Press Freedom Award presented by the Committee to […]
