News
Massive explosion in Kandahar
Frontline blogger Alex was in Kandahar when a “huge explosion near Kandahar stadium” went off. I caught up on this a bit late as I’ve been training all day, but Alex had the wherewithall to poke his head on to the balcony, snap some shots, send a series of messages to Twitter, upload a picture […]
Fish and Chips in Africa 3
So after four years I’ve developed two ways to be on the road in Africa. One is to do the humble visitor, delight in burnt goat and thank my lucky stars that I’m seeing a bit of the continent that other people don’t normally get to see. It’s usually fun. And sometimes I have an […]
Frontline Journalism Awards announced
The second annual Frontline Club Journalism Awards were announced today. Yuri Kozyrev wins the Frontline Club Award for his photo essay covering different sides of life in Baghdad since the US-led attack began in 2003, “Yuri Kozyrev has been on the ground almost continually for the entire length of this conflict, and has given the […]
Blogging journalist ready for Iraq embed
Independent journalist Michael Totten is going back to Baghdad. He’s managed to organise an embed with the US military and will no doubt be blogging his trip here. “So stay tuned for an in-depth tour through Baghdad after the surge. I will learn as much from this adventure as you will. The United States will […]
My Kit Bag
My kit bag continues to have a fairly low-tech feel (ridiculed in some quarters) but the last thing you need in this part of the world is to be up all night trying to repair your nuclear-powered wireless nose trimmers. Anyway, there have been a few additions since the last time… Sonim XP1 – testing […]
US Army recruitment website relaunches
How about this for an army recruitment website? Relaunched today, goarmy.com, includes all sorts of video from soldiers deployed in Iraq. (Interestingly there are also strong video elements on the British Army recruitment website.) In an introductory montage, the site proclaims that in the past information about the war in Iraq was in the hands […]
Mellissa Fung swapped for prisoners?
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper denied Mellissa Fung, the CBC journalist kidanpped by the Taliban a month ago, was released in exchange for Taliban leaders at the weekend, “There have been continual reports about ransoms or money being paid. That was not done in this case,” he told reporters in Ottawa following a first ministers […]
Deborah Haynes wins inaugural Rat Up A Drain Pipe
Deborah Haynes won the inaugural Rat Up A Drain Pipe Award at the Society of Editors gala last night. The new award was presented by the BBC’s Andrew Marr for her reports on the persecution Iraqi translators faced when the US and British forces withdrew. “Here is somebody who dug out a difficult story, pursued […]
Burmese blogger jailed for 20 years
Nay Phone Latt, the 28 year old Burmese blogger who blogged from the capital Rangoon during the bloody Saffron revolution in September 2007, was jailed for 20 years and 6 months on Monday. According to the blogger’s mother Aye Than he was “convicted of contravening Public Offense Act 505 B by posting a cartoon depicting […]
Congo’s Forgotten Conflict in the Limelight
Got to be honest, I’m not too sure what to make of recent coverage of the troubles in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The story shows no sign of disappearing off the world news schedules just yet… and yesterday the BBC propelled it right back up to the top again. Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda […]
More than half of Mexicans surveyed suspect foul play in plane crash
As we reported last week, Mexicans don’t have much faith in the word of their government. The natural reaction of many here in Mexico following a plane crash last week that killed Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mouriño as well as former top anti-drug prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos has been suspicion. Some statistical, rather than […]
Election Night with the Obamas
Election night in Kogelo I was one of the few journalists to get an invite to spend election night with the Obama family in their Kogelo home. Put something together for one of the Sundays but it wasn’t used so I thought I’d stick it here… THE piercing shriek of a cheap mobile phone broke […]
Mellissa Fung free
[video:youtube:goSQuxkfKwU] Mellissa Fung, a 35 year old journalist with CBC, who was kidnapped in Kabul four weeks ago was released today. She says she was kept in a cave for the first three weeks, “They kept me blindfolded, but not the whole time,” she said. “They chained me. . . . Just my hands and […]
Britain, Leaks and those Awkward Tanks
The manifest from the Faina obtained by Reuters and the BBC If this ever gets out it will not be good for UK-Kenya relations, the latter never slow to accuse the former of meddling in Kenyan affairs, maintaining a colonialist mentality and forgetting that the East African country has been independent for more than 40 […]
Daniel Bennett on the Nick Meo brouhaha
Frontline blogger Dan is doing a great job trying to get to the bottom of a rather confused story relating to Nick Meo’s report on a bomb explosion just outside Kandahar recently. I recommend you go and read through both Dan’s posts on this. Start with the summary of the debate that continues to rage […]
Thomas Scheen freed
Belgian journalist Thomas Scheen, who was kidnapped by Mai Mai militia in the DRC earlier this week, has been released after being held captive for three days, “We thank all those in Germany, Belgium and Congo who worked intensively over the past days for the release of Thomas Scheen and his co-workers, especially the German […]
Dutch journalist freed
An unnamed Dutch journalist who was kidnapped by suspected Taliban in Afghanistan last week has been freed, The woman, whose name was not released, was captured on Saturday last week while she was en route to do a story about a group of Taliban who had killed 10 French soldiers in August, an editor at […]
Radio journalist killed in Congo
Alfred Nzonzo Bitwahiki is reportedly among 20 killed in a battle for control of Kiwanja in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The Radio Racou journalist was confirmed killed by Human Rights Watch. The International Federation of Journalists has released a statement condemning the killing, “Our colleagues covering the conflict in the eastern part of the […]
Scott Taylor on reporting from the Caucasus
Canadian war reporter Scott Taylor talks about getting into the Caucasus to report on the South Ossetian conflict. The editor of Canadian military magazine Esprit de Corps found the situation on the ground far from straightforward, Before setting out from Stavropol, I had been assured by the Russian authorities that we would have no problems […]
The other war in the Caucasus
I’ll second Mathew Collin’s sentiments about this BBC World Service report called the PR battle for the Caucasus. It’s a fascinating 23 minute listen, The South Ossetian conflict, which began in early August this year, not only sparked a military war between Russia and Georgia, but a propaganda battle. It even made the front-page of […]
Behind the scenes on election night
This will be the last US election post… The Obama campaign used a whole bunch of social media sites to propel their man to the White House. One of the tools they used on election night itself was Flickr. The election night slideshow is an extraordinary view behind the scenes as Obama, his family and […]
What Now for Obama and Africa?
Three ways that Kenyans think they will benefit from an Obama presidency: 1. By spending the American budget on Kenyan infrastructure Peter Otieno, one of the hustlers who crams extra passengers into already crowded minibus taxis in the town of Siaya, beside the Obama family homestead, said the president-elect should remember his roots. “When he’s […]
Thomas Scheen kidnapped in Congo
Thomas Scheen has been named as the Belgian journalist kidnapped by the Mai Mai in the village of Mabenga in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Sheen works for the German daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, “Contacts have been opened with people involved or able to help with his release,” he added. The abduction happened in […]
Plane crash “an accident”, says Mexico government
The Mexico Government maintains that there is no sign of foul play surrounding the plane crash on Tuesday night here in Mexico City that killed interior minister Juan Camilo Mouriño, the former deputy chief Federal Prosecutor José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos and more than 14 others. The victims were honored this morning in an official ceremony. […]
Tehran newspaper shut down
The Shahrvand-e-Emrouz newspaper in Iran was shut down today. The LA Times Babylon & Beyond blog reports the weekly, with a circulation of 50,000, was banned for “publishing untrue news about the government of Ahmadinejad.” Ramin Mostaghim talked to one of the journalists on the paper about the shut down, “We were expecting such a […]
More on Meo and the US milbloggers
I’ve been doing some further work into ‘Nick Meo vs the milbloggers‘ to try to work out exactly what is going on. The Telegraph journalist has got in touch with me and I have also had email contact with 1Lt Amy Bonanno, the ARSIC Public Affairs Officer. I’d like to start by setting up what […]
Click for Congo
Janeen Heath at the Pulitzer Center argues for keeping Congo in the headlines now that the US election is over and violence in the DRC has escalated yet again. However, as she argues in her post on the Untold Stories blog, space for international news coverage in general and in the US in particular is […]
Belgian journalist seized
A Belgian journalist has been kidnapped by the Mai Mai in Mabenga, 70km north of Goma in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, In nearby village of Mabenga, a Belgian journalist working for a German newspaper was kidnapped by the Mai Mai late Tuesday along with his assistant and three rebel fighters, […]
From Chicago to the streets of Tehran
Ramin Mostaghim blogged the reaction on the streets of Tehran to the election of Barrack Obama to the presidency of the United States, Hassan Mosavi, a 47-year-old barber, said he’s been closely following the campaign for days, mostly watching the Voice of America satellite channel. This morning, he awoke to see images of jubilation as […]
More from the Shah Wali Kot wedding bombing
Photographs from the women’s section of the hospital in Kandahar today. Click the image above to scroll through the pictures. I am writing for the Globe and Mail newspaper in Canada for this story. In interviews at Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar city, where at least 16 male victims and dozens of female victims were being […]
