From China to Exeter the micro-blogging tool broke the news ahead of the mainstream media.

“Just heard a big blast near badi chowpak. Donno what it was.”Not much of a quote, but it was enough to get the story out. Sandil Srinivasan, or 2s as he is known on the microblogging service Twitter, was in Jaipur on 13 May when the first of a series of nine synchronized bombs exploded […]

Bloggers around the world being arrested

More bloggers are being arrested by repressive regimes than ever before according to this article in The Guardian. The report that the article is based on can be found here. It says that collectively bloggers have served 940 months in jail and that ‘China, Egypt and Iran account for more than half of all arrests […]

Top 10 journalistic uses for Twitter

Here’s a brief guide to the top 10 journalistic uses of the microblogging tool Twitter. It’s not all useless banter about cats and cookery… Sources – Use Twitterlocal to find out if anyone is tweeting from where you want to report, see what they’re tweeting about, whether they might be useful/interesting and see if they […]

Twitter’s quicker

“Just heard a big blast near badi chowpak. Donno what it was.” Not much of a quote, but it was enough to get the story out. Sandil Srinivasan, or 2s as he is known on the micro-blogging service Twitter, was in Jaipur on 13 May when the first of a series of nine synchronized bombs […]

Twitter’s quicker

“Just heard a big blast near badi chowpak. Donno what it was.”Not much of a quote, but it was enough to get the story out. Sandil Srinivasan, or 2s as he is known on the microblogging service Twitter, was in Jaipur on 13 May when the first of a series of nine synchronized bombs exploded […]

Leaving Nairobi

MGQ. A complex grouping of consonants represents Mogadishu in its airport 3-letter code. Mogadoxo to the Portuguese, Hamar to the Somalis, the city represents so much of the dashed dreams of the 1990s. Ticket in hand, I’m a little apprehensive about a place that exists more in rumour and myth than in reality. Journalist colleagues […]

Online Free Expression Day

Reporters without Borders today launch the first Online Free Expression Day. This will be an annual event happening every March 12 to help protect bloggers who are increasingly targeted in countries with state controlled media. The campaign focuses on Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, North Korea, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Vietnam, “Today, the first time this […]

No room at the inn

Reporting on the Gaza problem from Rafah in Egypt. NBC News Producer Charlene Gubash, tells us how it is for her Palestinian colleagues, On Saturday, hotels were ordered to turn away Palestinian guests. Our Palestinian colleague was forced to spend a cold night in the car because the hotel refused to accept him. “I am […]

Premiere Screening: Extraordinary Rendition – FULLY BOOKED

Extraordinary Rendition is a shocking investigation into the secret programme used by the US to seize terror suspects around the world and fly them for interrogation to third countries, such as Egypt, Morocco and Syria, where torture is routine. It also reveals how rendition has been used on children in East Africa.

Drawing Jihad

“Get that negative energy out on the paper,” urges Awad Alyami waving his arms like an orchestra conductor. The objects of his exhortation – eight convicted jihadi warriors – sit at a long table clutching pastel crayons, as intent as children in a kindergarten. Each of these young men has served prison time for terror-related […]

Double-Bill Screening: Tunnel Trade and A Midsummer Nights War

Behind the headlines of one year’s Middle East coverage both films ask the important, rather than the obvious, questions.

Tunnel Trade:

The Gaza Strip is more isolated today that it has ever been. Since June 15 virtually nothing crosses the borders of what is effectively one of the world’s largest prisons.

A Midsummer Night’s War:
 
The summer of 2006 was set to mark Beirut’s return to the international stage after years of civil war, reconstruction and a struggle for stability.

Fighting the Militants

The recent attempted bombings in London and Glasgow have highlighted the fact that Britain remains a prime target for al-Qaeda. Outside Iraq and Afghanistan, Britain is al-Qaeda’s most popular target, having faced more attempted attacks than any other country. Leaving aside various ineffectual plots, fundraising and propaganda efforts, the so-called Doctors’ Plot was at least […]

Media Talk marking World Press Freedom Day: Blogging – Self-exposure or Self-expression?

Political bloggers may share the media landscape with journalists but they don’t necessarily inhabit the same space – they live in an unregulated twilight zone where anything goes.

Kitbag: Jane Kokan

Jane Kokan is an independent news and documentary director/ reporter/ camera woman specialising in the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Iran, SE Asia and Africa working for a variety of international broadcasters. Often her films were made in extremely difficult circumstances and Jane often worked alone in the field doing her own camera work […]

Snow ploughs and Santa Claus – 8/12/06

It looked wonderful in the catalogue. Yellow, gleaming, metallic – and all for a very reasonable thousand dollars or so. With funds dwindling but the first snowfall already upon us we decided to bite the bullet. Perhaps nothing defines a Canadian homesteader quite as well as the means he uses to get rid of his […]

Sony HVR – Z1U

Sony HVR – Z1U I bought the Sony Z1U camera in January 2006 and have used it fairly intensely in a professional capacity as a video journalist. I have worked as a video journalist for the past 12 years principally specialising in hostile environments and countries undergoing “transition”. main features:Switchable NTSC/PAL color system, 1080/60i, 1080/50iImage […]