debate

July 13, 2011 7:00 PM

Focus on Sudan: What does independence mean for North and South?

Salva Kir is to lead South Sudan into independence on the 9 July after a landslide referendum earlier this year where 99% of the South voted to secede from the North. But with relations still tense over disputed border regions of Abyei and the surrounding area, what does the future hold for North and South alike?


July 6, 2011 7:00 PM

First Wednesday: Kill/Capture missions in Afghanistan

Following the targeted killing of Osama Bin Laden we will be devoting July’s First Wednesday to the expansion of man hunt missions used in Afghanistan to take out thousands of Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

With a panel of experts we will be examining the effects of the kill/capture missions on the ground? How are they are conducted and how is the intelligence obtained? What effect are they having and could they play a definitive role in ending the war?


July 5, 2011 7:00 PM

Insight with Colin Freeman: Life as a Somali pirate hostage

  View in iTunes In late 2008, Daily Telegraph correspondent Colin Freeman and Jose Cendon, a Spanish photographer travelled to Somalia to investigate the recent spate of piracy attacks that were terrorising shipping in the Gulf of Aden. Their aim was to track down some of the pirates and secure an exclusive interview. They were […]


July 2, 2011 4:00 PM

Frontline Club Exclusive: Julian Assange in conversation with Slavoj Žižek moderated by Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman

Discussing the impact of WikiLeaks on the world and what it means for the future, for this very special event WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange will be in conversation with bestselling Slovenian philosopher, Slavoj Žižek.

The event will be chaired by Amy Goodman, the award-winning investigative journalist and host of Democracy Now!, a daily, independent news hour which airs on the internet and more than 900 public television and radio stations worldwide.


June 29, 2011 7:00 PM

Reflections: Bill Neely – Northern Ireland’s Troubles to uprising in Libya

In the latest of our Reflections series, Bill Neely ITV News” international editor, will be joining us in conversation with former BBC executive Vin Ray.

Looking back at a career that includes covering major stories around the world since 2002 and posts in Europe, Washington Bill Neely will discuss the stories that he has covered and the work and people that have inspired him.


June 29, 2011

WikiLeaks’ Assange too controversial for London university

Frontline Club’s upcoming event featuring WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange and renowned Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek was deemed too controversial for the University of London’s Institute of Education (IOE). The event, which will take place on 2 July at the Troxy in East London, had originally been tentatively scheduled to take place at Logan Hall, a […]


June 28, 2011 7:00 PM

THIRD PARTY: Screening – The Baha’is of Iran

Organised by BBC Persian

Followed by a Q&A.

In 2010, BBC Persian’s Kasra Naji and Rozita Riazati setout to focus attention on the plight of Baha’is in Iran; their goal was to help Iranians understand the Faith and to shed light on the extent of persecution suffered by its members in Iran. On 30 June 2010, the day the BBC Persian documentary Baha’is in Iran was first broadcast, 50 houses owned by Baha’is were demolished in a village northeast of Tehran – driving home the stark reality of the persecution suffered by Iranian Baha’is.


June 15, 2011 7:00 PM

On the media: celebrities, super-injunctions and phone hacking

When more details about the News of the World phone hacking scandal were revealed earlier this year, there were calls for greater regulation of the press. At the same time, the use of super-injunctions (or ‘gagging orders’) by celebrities to stop the press revealing details about scandals has also been called in to question.

Focusing on issues of privacy, justice and journalistic ethics, we will be asking whether the current system of law and regulation is – or is not – in need of reform.


June 8, 2011 7:00 PM

Internships: opportunity or cheap labour?

The explosion of the internship in the past 10 years has begun to raise some serious questions about the implications for a generation expected to work wage-free in order to move onto the career ladder.

Ross Perlin, an ex intern himself and the author of Intern Nation will be at the Frontline Club to take part in a panel discussion about internships and his investigation into a trend which, he argues, is destroying “what’s left of the ordered world of training, hard work and fair compensation”.


June 7, 2011 7:00 PM

THIRD PARTY Plunder of the oceans – The rise of pirate fishing, impacts and solutions

The evening will reveal the extent of the problem of pirate fishing, which takes place in both the developed and developing world. Discussion will focus on the many issues surrounding pirate fishing, including its dramatic impact on poorer coastal states, where hundreds of thousands of people rely on fish for food and livelihood. How EU subsidies are still benefitting illegal fishing operations, and how port states are being seen as the frontline in combating this activity. We will be exploring possible solutions and the importance of the role of the media in exposing the impacts of pirate fishing as a crime, comparable to international drugs smuggling.


June 2, 2011 7:00 PM

THIRD PARTY: Revolution uplo@ded

Organised by BBC Arabic.

Followed by a panel discussion

At a secret rendezvous on the Tunisian border, a young man hands over to Libyan rebels a crate of medical supplies. He’s hoping for a precious cargo in return – memory cards and small video tapes that he will upload to the internet and show the world what is happening inside the Libyan capitol, Tripoli. In the revolutions of 2011, these are the new weapons of the internet age.


June 1, 2011 7:00 PM

First Wednesday: Iran’s Green Revolution and the Arab Spring

Two years after Iranians took to the streets to protest against the apparent rigging of the presidential elections we will be examining the impact of the Arab Spring. What has been the response of the government of Iran to the uprisings? Could they inspire further protests among the people? We will also be looking at the power struggle between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the conservative clerics and asking what it could mean for Iran’s future.


May 31, 2011 7:00 PM

FULLY BOOKED On the Media: Going it alone as a foreign correspondent

As many established media organisations are forced to cut back on their foreign bureaux, new opportunities are emerging for a new type of foreign correspondent – the independent multimedia journalist.

We’ll be bringing together a panel of experts to talk about their experiences of reporting, including kit, the realities of going it alone, and working relationships with the established news organisations.


May 25, 2011 7:00 PM

FULLY BOOKED Insight with Leila Ahmed: A Quiet Revolution

Leila Ahmed was raised in Cairo in the 1940’s, by a generation of women who never dressed in veils and headscarves. To them, they seemed irrelevant to both modern life and Islamic piety. Today, the majority of Muslim women throughout the Islamic world again wear the veil. Why, Ahmed asks, did this change take root so swiftly, and what does this shift mean for women, Islam, and the West.

Leila Ahmed, who is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Divinity at the Harvard Divinity School, will be joining us at the Club in conversation with Azadeh Moaveni, Iranian-American writer, journalist and author of Lipstick Jihad, to discuss her new book A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence, from the Middle East to America and her surprising discoveries about Muslim women, Islamism and democracy.


May 17, 2011 7:00 PM

Realignment in the Arab world – What does it mean for Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel?

Download this episode View in iTunes With a panel of experts and journalists we will be examining the political realignment taking place in the Middle East and North Africa. We will be asking what the shifts in Arab world mean for Israel, Iran and Saudi Arabia: What is Israel’s likely response to the emerging democracies […]


May 11, 2011 7:00 PM

World’s oceans in crisis: What can be done?

The world’s oceans are in a state of crisis and decline, with the continuing affliction of climate change, overfishing and other pressures.

The Fish Fight campaign fronted Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Sir David Attenborough’s Horizon on The Death of the Oceans? have put the spotlight on the state of our oceans. Ahead of the release of new scientific findings from IPSO Frontline Club will kick off the first of a series of events with a panel of experts discussing what is happening to our oceans and what can be done about it.


May 4, 2011 7:00 PM

FULLY BOOKED A safer world? What does Osama bin Laden’s death mean for Pakistan, Afghanistan and the West?

View in iTunes After the tracking down and killing of Osama bin Laden by a U.S. special operations team the questions have come thick and fast. At our May First Wednesday we are hoping to throw light on some of them: What impact will the death of Osama bin Laden have on Al Qaeda and […]


April 13, 2011 7:00 PM

FULLY BOOKED On the media: what does the future hold for Arab state media?

Join us at the Frontline Club when we will be discussing what the future holds for state media, the impact of channels such as Al Jazeera and BBC Arabic, and the ways that people are using the internet and other social media to circumvent that power.


April 12, 2011

Report: Whistleblowers make the world a safer place debate (II)

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange makes his case at Kensington Town Hall. Photo by Sophia Spring. You can view the full event here.  This is part II of our report on the special debate, “whistleblowers make the world a safer place,” organised by the Frontline Club in collaboration with New Statesman magazine. Part I can be […]


April 11, 2011

Whistle blowers: what people have been saying about the debate

  You can view the full event here.  Discussion about the Frontline Club/New Statesman debate on Saturday has continued in blogs and on Twitter, under #fcnsdebate. The New Statesman‘s two-part coverage of the event plus video of all the speakers, photo library and live blog is here. Video of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaking, not […]


April 11, 2011

Report: Whistleblowers make the world a safer place debate

Download this episode View in iTunes Watch the event here.  Sir David Richmond makes his case against whistleblowing at Kensington Town Hall. Photo by Sophia Spring. More than 850 people crammed in to Kensington Town Hall on Saturday evening for our special debate in collaboration with New Statesman magazine, “this house believes whistleblowers make the […]


April 9, 2011 5:00 PM

FULLY BOOKED This house believes whistleblowers make the world a safer place

EXTERNAL EVENT AT THE KENSINGTON TOWN HALL

Join the Frontline Club and New Statesman for a provocative public debate featuring Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks.

For this very special event at Kensington Town Hall, the New Statesman and the Frontline Club host a challenging debate in which some of the most prominent public figures on secrecy and transparency issues will go head to head.


April 6, 2011 7:00 PM

First Wednesday: Foreign policy, diplomacy and the new world order

With people movements rising up across the Middle East and North Africa the US, the UK and other European powers have had to think fast, abandoning old friends and allies and attempting to form new alliances with emerging leaders. Join us with Paddy O’Connell of BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House to discuss the new political landscape and the challenges it represents – have the rules of engagement changed or is the West trying to play the same game with different players?


April 6, 2011
April 5, 2011 7:00 PM

THIRD PARTY EVENT Face the future: Tools for the modern media age

To mark the publication of Face The Future: Tools For A Modern Age edited by John Mair and Richard Lance Keeble. Join us with a panel of experts to ask; will the internet wipe away newspapers and more in its wake? Is digital the only way? Will Twitter and Facebook be the new vanguards of the revolution?


March 31, 2011 7:00 PM

FRONTLINE CLUB SPECIAL: Protest, technology and the end of fear

EXTERNAL EVENT AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN

The start of 2011 will be remembered as a period in which the barrier of fear fell across the Middle East and North Africa as people took to the streets demanding freedom from the tyrants who had governed for so long.
No one can predict where these momentous events will lead and what the repercussions will be for years to come.

For this special event held at the The Royal Institution of Great Britain the Frontline Club and BBC Arabic Service will be bringing together some of the key players, journalists and experts to discuss what has taken place so far and to try to gauge what the future might hold.