News
Call to free Afghan fixers
Reporters without borders have called upon the Afghan government to free the Afghan fixer and driver who were working with Mellissa Fung when she was kidnapped outside Kabul. The brothers, Shokoor Feroz and Qaem Feroz, were picked up hours after Fung was kidnapped and remain in the custody of the Afghan intelligence agency, the National […]
Journalist flees Ciudad Juarez to the U.S
Jorge Luis Aguirre, director of the news website “La Polaka,” has fled Mexico with his family to the United States after receiving death threats in his home city of Ciudad Juárez, in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. His departure follows the killing of crime reporter Armando RodrÃguez last week, who was shot to death […]
Media non-profit appeals for asylum for journalists escaping Mexico
Reporters Without Borders issued an appeal to the international community today to provide asylum for journalists fleeing Mexican cities such a Ciudad Juarez. The non-profit appealed especially to the United States and Canada to provide humanitarian assistance. Journalists in Mexico who cover organized crime are often risking their lives. The move from the global press-protection […]
The Amanda Lindhout kidnap story
As other journalist kidnap stories take the limelight, the case of Amanda Lindhout and her four fellow kidnap victims in Somalia has slipped off the radar. Macleans publish a time line today of what is known in the case. In the four page article Ken Menkhaus talks about his time in Somalia some three years […]
Gunnar Bergstrom says sorry
Gunnar Bergstrom reported from Khmer Rouge run Cambodia as a young reporter in 1978. He spent fourteen days in Democratic Kampuchea and filed glowing reports. Seven months after he returned to Sweden he retracted what had originally reported. This week, some thirty years later, he’s back in Cambodia to tell the Cambodians he was conned, […]
Our man in Goma
The Ihusi Hotel, Goma I’m finding it pretty tough to pity Rob out in Goma at the moment. I know hotels can get a bit a dull a bit quickly, but come on Rob… Mustn’t grumble, ehh?
My Base in Goma
The Ihusi Hotel, Goma The Ihusi Hotel, nestled on the shores of Lake Kivu, is gradually emptying out. Those of you who may have been worried about my safety/comfort during my time here in Goma will be relieved to know that I have a lake view and have enjoyed omelette avec fromage et jambon each […]
Congo – Condition Critical
[video:youtube:I-LJEdCiMEc] Médecins Sans Frontières launch their Congo – Condition Critical campaign this Thursday. Last week I did some training for the folks at the MSF offices in London and promised to give this very worthwhile campaign a push here. If you can help MSF get the word out, please do pass on the video and […]
Kidnapped journalists – one rule for staffers one for freelancers?
I’ve been mulling this over since I first heard about the kidnapping of Mellissa Fung in Afghanistan some weeks before it was finally reported and she was set free. Ever since I first started blogging about “the world of foreign correspondents, war reporters, life on the frontline and the job of journalism” for the Frontline […]
Peshawar off limits to foreign correspondents
Sami Yousafzai has reported from the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan since September 11, 2001. However, he says he’s never been in more danger. The Afghan journalist, who was attacked along with a Japanese journalist last week, spoke about safety from his hospital bed this week, “I think divine intervention saved me. The gunman […]
Letter to the New President
I received this letter from a good Afghan friend of mine recently. As you can read in the short biography below, Orzala was involved for a long time in founding and building an organisation called HAWCA, one of the few local NGOs whose work I have always been genuinely and uniformly impressed by. She wrote […]
Nkunda’s Media War
Laurent Nkunda and Olesegun Obasanjo inspect rebel troops So I made my way up into the rebel-held hills at the weekend to seek out General Laurent Nkunda, the renegade Tutsi general, who has helped bring a fresh wave of misery to Congo’s embattled people. Yesterday he was meeting the UN’s new peace envoy, Olesegun Obasanjo, […]
Jon Ronson at the Frontline Club
[video:brightcove:2439065001] Jon Ronson spoke at the club last week. The video of the event is now live – Jon wanted the piece edited, not sure what he said that he’s so worried about, but the discussion above is the edited version of the actual chat. More info on Jon below, Jon Ronson is a writer […]
Video: Guerrilla knitting hits Mexico
Magda Sayeg is tagging Mexico City and covering a bus in graffiti – only she’s using knitting, not spray cans, to do the job. The 34-year-old Texan, founder of the guerrilla knitting collective KnittaPlease.com, faced her biggest challenge yet this week in Mexico City when she covered a whole bus in, well, knitting.
Newspaper offices in Northern Mexico attacked with grenades
Reports are surfacing this morning that the offices of the Culiacán newspaper El Debate were attacked with two grenades early Monday. The explosions, which shattered windows but caused no injuries, happened at around 1a.m when two youngsters wearing white shirts threw the grenades at the main entrance to the offices, reports La Jornada. The area […]
The BBC speaking to the Taleban
Last Thursday, the BBC World Have Your Say radio programme built their show around a discussion with a Taleban spokesperson. Through the BBC’s Security Correspondent, Frank Gardner, and a translator, listeners from around the world could put their questions to the Taleban. There was much debate on the programme and on the World Have Your […]
The only Twitter user in Kanadahar?
Is Alex the only Twitter user in Kanadahar? I think he probably is. Frontline blogger Alex talks about his life, his work and Twittering from Kandahar on the Tech Radar blog. “Get yourself set up with a Twitter account. It’s a nice, low-cost way of letting people know if you get into trouble or are […]
The Rory Peck Trust speech in full
I’m not sure of Vaughan Smith’s speech at the Rory Peck Trust Awards last week was filmed or whether it will appear online at all, so here it is pasted in full below. Vaughan was a finalist for his blogged reporting from Helmand Province. All the finalists in the awards are allowed to give a […]
I have been shot more times than I have been credited by the BBC
Frontline club founder Vaughan Smith has been in the news a bit of late for a few words he said at the announcement of the Rory Peck Trust Awards last week. The Guardian, Press Gazette and Journalism.co.uk all picked up on the line above. Today The Guardian runs some more in the TV pages from […]
Edward R. F. Sheehan dies age 78
The freelance foreign correspondent Edward R. F. Sheehan has died at the age of 78. The journalist, playwright, novelist and scholar is best known for his reports from the Middle East. He also had a few close calls during a long career which began in the 1960’s, “He almost got killed a number of times,” […]
Giorgos Koiliaris dies after Afghan car crash
Greek TV war correspondent Giorgos Koiliaris has died from injuries he suffered in a car crash in Afghanistan last month, Giorgos Koiliaris had worked for several newspapers and radio stations before he started working for the NET broadcaster. The 53-year-old specialized in reporting on wars from around the globe, beginning in Lebanon in the 1980s. […]
Politkovskaya trial opens Monday
The trial into the killing of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006 opens in a Russian military court on Monday. The family of the slain journalist have long campaigned for an open trial, but that looks unlikely, “We will demand that the trial be open. My mother was a journalist and I think it’s impossible […]
Donations for David Axe
Frontline blogger David Axe is heading to the Horn of Africa again and is looking for donations, Six months ago my readers contributed nearly $2,000 to help me fund a month reporting from Central Africa. This time around I’m asking for $3,000 to help jump-start my piracy coverage. Donations will help pay for air fare, […]
Beverly Giesbrecht kidnapped in Pakistan
Beverly Giesbrecht, a Canadian freelance journalist also know as Khadija Abdul Qahaar, was on a commission with Al-Jazeera when she was kidnapped on Tuesday. According to a report by AFP the 52 year old was seized at gunpoint in Bannu district of Pakistan which borders Afghanistan. "The government of Canada is aware of the kidnapping […]
Who’s Winning?
Children at Kibati Camp, near Goma. Credit: Kate Holt The conflict here in Goma is a meaningless mess. Laurent Nkunda claims his gunmen are protecting ethnic Tutsis from the attentions of Hutu militias – the former Interahamwe, responsible for the worst abuses in the Rwandan genocide. The government says he is a terrorist, and points […]
Journalists profile conservative activist
It turned out to be an unusual book launch. Scheduled to begin at 5pm yesterday afternoon in the Roma neighborhood of Mexico City, the authors Salvador Frausto and Témoris Grecko (both of them journalists) were to present their profile of Jorge Serrano Limón – Mexico’s most prominent Catholic fundamentalist and anti-abortion campaigner. But when we […]
Crime reporter shot to death in Ciudad Juarez
Veteran Mexican crime reporter Armando RodrÃguez was shot to death yesterday morning while in his car in the border city of Ciudad Juárez. The Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders have both condemned the killing. The CPJ reports: An unidentified assailant shot RodrÃguez, 40, a reporter for the local daily “El Diario”, at […]
Two journalists shot in Pakistan
An Afghan journalist and a Japanese journalist were shot in the Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar today. Motoki Yodsukura 四倉幹木さん, a reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, was shot in the foot and is said to be in a stable condition. However the condition of Abdul Sami Yousafzai, the Afghan journalist, is said to […]
Guerrilla knitting attacks Mexico City
Magda Seyeg is a Texan artist who tags – but not with graffiti. She and her collective of guerrilla knitters – who you can touch base with at KnittaPlease.com – place knitted stuff on door handles, park benches, statues, lamp posts and virtually anything else standing in the street. This week, Seyeg hit the streets […]
The Roads in and out of Goma
A government soldier on the road out of Goma with his pet, James The road into Goma twists and turns through the hills of Rwanda until you drop down through the mist to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The flat waters of Lake Kivu stretch into the distance giving the lakeside hotels […]
