News
The Birmingham of Kenya
The road into Thika stretched before us. The hot, noon sun made the air shimmer above the Tarmac and to one side the first Jacarandas of the season were bursting into colour. An occasional flame tree added a dash of scarlet to the dusty green acacias that lined the verge. Pineapple orchards filled the hills […]
“No Peace Without Islam”
Received one of the irregular news update bulletins from Kavkaz Center just now. Was just googling to find the precise details of a reported press conference held by Sheikh Mukhtar Robow Mansur in Somalia this week. For more on Sheikh Mukhtar see this recent interview. “No Peace Without Islam” is the title of a new […]
Kandahar Police HQ Bombing
Just missed being caught up in a double suicide-bombing in Kandahar City. Bombers targeted the main police headquarters in an attack just three minutes after I exited the building. Detonations were at approx 13:21 and 13:23. The police commander was allegedly injured in the attack, but there are mainly only rumours at this point. The […]
Into Danger
Katie Adie promotes her new book Into Danger, which was published yesterday, in The Telegraph. She discusses why people like her choose to go to war and other dangerous places to work, One of the questions I am frequently asked is: ”What is the most dangerous thing that’s happened to you?” But I find it […]
Andrew Berends “temporarily released”
The filmmaker Andrew Berends has been temporarily released for the weekend along with his Nigerian translator, Samuel George. The two were arrested earlier this week while working on a film about the oil business in the Niger Delta, “Nigeria’s democratic government has made enormous strides since the days of dictator Sani Abacha, when dozens of […]
Robert Fisk: We are all frightened
Robert Fisk, The Independent’s Middle East correspondent and a Frontline club regular, was in Christchurch, New Zealand to give a talk about his work and the situation in the Middle East at The Press Christchurch Writer’s Festival. The dangers for journalists working in the Middle East are “very real” says Fisk. The Nelson Mail has […]
Daman District
Went out to Daman district (Kandahar still) yesterday evening for a walk in the countryside. Shoran Dam is an area that has almost total sympathy with the Taliban, so we didn’t stay too long, but long enough to enjoy the peace of being outside the city. The days are getting longer, all the more so […]
Milblogger reflects on attacks at Camp Salerno
About two weeks ago, Camp Salerno in Afghanistan was attacked twice in two days by Afghan militants. Milblogger Rich Phillips, who spent some time at Salerno, says articles like the ones linked to above (BBC) are useful for the broader picture of what happened, but will not provide a close-up view: “I know from experience […]
Mexico’s drug violence is bad for business
The drug violence that continues to sweep across Mexico isn’t only damaging citizen confidence in the country’s government and public security. It also is taking a toll on Mexico’s economy, according to Treasury Secretary Agustin Carstens. The Mexican government estimates that the violence has slowed economic growth by more than 1%. Increased safety concerns have […]
The Vultures Start Circling
So at first glance this story in today’s Standard seemed a bit weird. Six months after post-election violence hit Kenya and when a new coalition government is still finding its feet, Kenya’s political heavy weights start jockeying for position… The post-Kibaki alliances started taking shape, on a day coalition partner ODM readied for its own […]
Marcus Bleadale in Georgia and beyond
Marcus Bleasdale is a bit of a regular in these parts and it seems the Oslo-based photojournalist has been busy of late. The above frame is taken from a recent commission in Georgia. Beyond all out war, Marcus has also visited Venezuala and the USA. There are some great pictures (as usual) in all these […]
Francoise Demulder dies age 61
Francoise Demulder, the French war photographer who became the first woman to win the World Press Photo award in 1976, has died, according to the International Herald Tribune today. She died of a heart attack at a hospital in Paris. She was 61 years old. “She was considered by all her colleagues as very courageous,” […]
Georgia in motion
Now that’s how to do a multimedia presentation and get inside the workings of a photojournalist on the road all through images and emails. A Georgian Diary by Thomas Dworzak for Magnum in Motion is excellent, The Russians invaded Georgia on August 8th, while George W. Bush was in Beijing attending the Olympics. Twenty days […]
Reporter’s Notebook 4: Make sure you’re not left on the plane
[video:liveleak:61e_1219834360] British soldiers blow up a Hercules C130 transport plane. That’s an estimated £45 million pounds of aircraft biting the dust. In February 2007, the plane had been damaged on landing in Iraq. It was “deemed unrecoverable due to operational constraints” according to an MoD inquiry. More details at the Flight Blog.
Journalists detained in Iraq
The Wired Danger Room blog does a good job rounding up the number of journalists who have been detained by US forces in Iraq. In late August, for example, Ali al-Mashhadani — a freelance cameraman working for Reuters, the BBC, and NPR — was released by the U.S. military in after 26 days in detention. […]
Video: The thrill of the Huamantlada
Watch last weekend’s festivities in Huamantla, Mexico in which 23 people were injured trying to challenge 500-kilo bulls.
Iraqi snapper Ibrahim Jassam arrested
Ibrahim Jassam, an Iraqi photographer working for Reuters, has been arrested by US forces south of Baghdad. He “posed a threat to security” an army officer told AFP by email. Reuters demand he is either charged or released, “We are concerned to hear about Jassam’s detention, and urge the US military to either charge or […]
Ramazan Grape Trip
Went out of town this afternoon to get some grapes. Not that you can’t buy them in town, but actually driving 45 minutes into the districts to pick them yourself is always more fulfilling (and more interesting). So we headed to the land of a friend in Dand district. He has about 50,000 grapevines on […]
A Very Rash Bet
You may remember that a couple of weeks ago I took issue with the standard, lazy size comparisons used for Darfur. If you bother to check the facts (ridiculous I know) then France and Texas are not nearly as accurate an area comparison as Spain. At the time I offered a prize for the first […]
Kenyan Political Family Refuses Cash Shock
It was difficult to feel optimistic about Kenya’s post-crisis power-sharing deal. It seemed a classic case of jobs for the boys in a giant cabinet while the tribal and land tensions that exploded into violence had been left to fester. Although many Kenyans hailed the arrival of Raila Odinga as prime minister, many others thought […]
Russian TV journalist Abdulla Alishayev shot dead
Abdulla Alishayev, a journalist from the republic of Daghestan died today after being attacked by gunmen on Tuesday. Alishayev worked as the anchor to a popular religious programme Peace to Your Home. He was attacked in his car in the village of Separatorny near Daghestan’s capital, Makhachkala. An official said he died in hospital. Earlier […]
Alistair Cooke cut up and sold
Gruesome news from Philadelphia. Two former funeral directors have admitted to “selling cadavers to a ring that cut them up and sold the body parts to hospitals for implants”. Not only that, but one of the bodies was that of esteemed foreign correspondent and voice of Letter from America, Alistair Cooke. One of the bodies […]
Live tonight: Understanding Somalia
[video:brightcove:1772128809] Martin Plaut will chair a discussion about Somalia at the Frontline Club tonight – Tue 2nd September, 7.30pm UK time. If you can’t make it in person, please tune in to the Frontline Club live channel to watch it online and take part in the dicussion. Taking part will be Awale Kullane, from the […]
Film maker Andrew Berends arrested in Nigeria
Andrew Berends and his Nigerian fixer Samuel George were arrested in the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt at the weekend. Berends has been working in the Niger Delta since April making a film about the oil-producing area that has been riven with conflict between government forces and armed separatists since the early 1990s, “Berends was […]
The tools have changed
Broadcast talks to four senior TV news journalists about how their working life has changed due to improvements in technology. Tim Marshall, Sky News’ foreign affairs editor, says most of the changes are for the good. And sometimes knocking on a door and asking if you can hop on a wifi connection is the best […]
Russo-Georgia Conflict: a collection of links
I’ve been taking a break from blogging recently but I’m hoping to get going again now September is here and those not-so-balmy August days are behind us. If you’ve been following the conflict and ongoing confrontation between Russia and Georgia, you might be interested in my delicious links on the topic. (Delicious is a social […]
Fund for relatives of journalists killed in South Ossetia
The response to the campaign for funds to help the relatives of two reporters killed in the recent conflict in South Ossetia has been impressive according to Journalism.co.uk. As we blogged at the time, Alexander Klimchuk and Giga Chikhladze were killed in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali. Journalism.co.uk talks to Mark Pinder, a friend of […]
The 91st most powerful woman in the world
Forbes releases its annual 100 Most Powerful Women list. Christiane Amanpour, the CNN war correspondent and regular at the Frontline Club, comes in at number 91. Award-winning correspondent has reported on nearly every major news story CNN has covered in recent years, including Hurricane Katrina, the first Iraqi elections and the bombings of the London […]
Photos: Peace march in Mexico
A girl wielded a photo of Monica Alejandrina, who was kidnapped in 2004, during this Saturday’s march for peace across Mexico. Thousands of protesters of all social classes hit the streets of cities across the country, expressing their anger and indignation at rising levels of kidnappings and crime across Mexico. Click here for the video […]
13 journalists killed in August
The Press Emblem Campaign says it has registered 13 journalists killed in the month of August. This is the highest recorded toll since October 2007. A total of 61 journalists have been killed since the beginning of 2008, Iraq remains the deadliest country for media coverage with 10 media workers killed since the beginning of […]
