Discussion
Behind the wall of secrecy: Escape from Camp 14
View event here. View in iTunes By Jim Treadway A packed house heard the touching and frightening story of Shin Dong-hyuk at the Frontline Club, told in Blaine Harden’s recently published book Escape from Camp 14: One man’s remarkable odyssey from North Korea to freedom in the West. Shin Dong-hyuk is one of only three known prisoners […]
FULLY BOOKED Behind the wall of secrecy: Escape from Camp 14
Little is known about the prison camps of North Korea where it is estimated that 200,000 are imprisoned. Shin Dong-Hyuk is the only person born into one of these camps that has ever escaped.
He will be joining us at the Frontline Club with Blaine Harden whose book Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West recounts this extraordinary journey.
THIRD PARTY SCREENING: From Cyrus to Ahmadinejad
From Cyrus to Ahmadinejad is a groundbreaking documentary about one of the most explosive conflicts in the world. For the first time on the record, an Israeli official, vice Prime Minister Moshe Yalon, implicitly, accepts the responsibility for the assassination of Iranian scientists, damaging Iranian nuclear centrifuges with a computer virus and destroying Iran’s military and nuclear facilities in the past few years.
FULLY BOOKED Insight with Ahmed Rashid – Pakistan on the Brink: The Future of America, Pakistan, and Afghanistan
As we approach the one year anniversary of the death of Osama Bin Laden, Ahmed Rashid will be joining senior BBC presenter and special correspondent Lyse Doucet to discuss the future for Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States.
Bosnia 20 years on – Part 2
By Ivana Davidovic It was a full house at the Frontline Club, the audience gathering to mark two decades since the ill-fated weekend in April 1992 when first shots were fired in Bosnia. The worst carnage in Europe since World War II was about to unfold. Over 100,000 people were killed, out of whom about […]
Bosnia 20 years on – Part 1
By Merryn Johnson Twenty years after the beginning of the Bosnian War, Ed Vulliamy still rages against the powers that failed to act, the perpetrators not held to account, and the international organisations continuing to profit from the fractured regions sufferings. “It’s not just about the war but about the peace after it… wars, and […]
FULLY BOOKED 20th anniversary of the Bosnian war
What has happened to the people of Bosnia in the aftermath of the Bosnian war which broke out 20 years ago?
Ed Vulliamy writer for the Guardian and Observer will be joining Frontline Club founder Vaughan Smith in conversation to look back at the impact of the war both then and on people’s lives today.
Is Invisible Children’s KONY 2012 campaign baloney?
With over one hundred million ‘views’ the Kony 2012 video has started a far-reaching debate on the aims and value of a production seen by many as an over-simplification of complex situation.
FULLY BOOKED First Wednesday: KONY 2012 – A force for good?
The recent KONY 2012 campaign video has been met with strong criticism, but nobody can question its effectiveness in reaching a mass audience.
Despite its inaccuracies this campaign has created wider awareness about Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) than any news report or campaign that has come before it, so what can be learned? Join us for April’s First Wednesday as we debate whether the KONY 2012 campaign is a force for good or a worrying development in campaigning.
THIRD PARTY SCREENING: The Trouble with Girls
There’s a long tradition in Afghanistan of families with no sons choosing to bring up one of their daughters as a boy. For the girls this means growing up dressed in boy’s clothes, answering to a boy’s name and being allowed the freedoms and privileges Afghan boys enjoy both within the family and outside.
Tahir Qadiry’s film looks at the issue from a number of different perspectives. He spends time with a girl currently growing up as a boy, talks to a young woman who’s still coming to terms with her experience being raised as a boy, seeks the opinion of a mullah and hears from a human rights activist.
Putin, corruption and the Magnitsky case
It’s not easy to hear of how Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was killed.
What next for Putin’s Russia?
By Alan Selby Against a backdrop of growing discontent, and widespread allegations of fraud, Russia’s recent elections heralded Vladimir Putin’s re-election to the presidency. The man who many still saw as Russia’s de facto leader will now resume his tenure, four years after ostensibly ceding power to Dmitry Medvedev. In light of these developments a […]
FULLY BOOKED Russia: Another six years of Vladimir Putin?
Vladimir Putin is back in presidential office for a third term after four years as Russia’s Prime Minister. We will be asking what the people of Russia think of the man who has dominated the country’s politics for more than 12 years and will now be President for a new extended term of six years?
Tens of thousands of Muscovites have taken part in protests to demand free and fair elections. But how deep and how far does the disaffectedness go? Join us to discuss the outcome of the presidential elections in Russia and what they mean for the future of the people of Russia and its development on the world stage.
Nine years on is the UN still failing Darfur?
View event here. Download this episode View in iTunes By Nicky Armstrong Last night’s event at the Frontline Club saw a heated debate between the expert panel and the audience on the UN’s presence in Darfur. Chaired by Patrick Smith, editor of Africa Confidential, the discussion bought up many of the tangled complexities surrounding the […]
Nine years on is the UN still failing Darfur?
Since the start of the 2003 conflict in Darfur, questions have been raised about the role played by the United Nations and the viability of its mandate.
Join us at the Frontline Club to discuss the actions of the UN and whether they are still failing Darfur.
THIRD PARTY EVENT: Are cheap, local hires saving or ruining foreign reporting?
How are the rules of reporting being rewritten by risk? What innovative methods are journalists using to report from some of the world’s most dangerous places?
Journalists working in areas of conflict reveal how they get information when traditional techniques are insufficient. The discussion will focus on the interaction between local hires and foreign journalists.
#FCBBCA: Iran – power struggles and diplomatic tension
EXTERNAL EVENT HELD AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN
Join us as we bring together a prominent panel to discuss the growing tensions between Iran, its neighbours and the West, the impact of the power struggles at the heart of government and looking at the future of the pro-democracy movement.
On the media: The protesters toolkit – revolutionary apps
Governments and security forces are becoming increasingly wise to the role of social media in organising and enhancing protest movements.
First Wednesday: The problems facing Pakistan and its leadership
View event here. Download this episode View in iTunes By Rosie Scammell The Forum opened to a full house on Wednesday evening for a clash of opinions over the problems facing Pakistan. With BBC journalist Owen Bennett-Jones acting as chair, the government and military soon took centre stage, a relationship described as “A power struggle […]
FULLY BOOKED First Wednesday: The problems facing Pakistan and its leadership
Political tension are rising in Pakistan following the the Supreme Courts decision to charge Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani with contempt for failing to re-open corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.
We will be bringing together a panel of experts to discuss the deepening political crisis in Pakistan and ask what lies ahead.
FULLY BOOKED In conversation with Marwan Bishara: The promise and peril of the Arab revolution
Marwan Bishara Al Jazeera English’s senior political analyst and editor will be joining senior BBC presenter and special correspondent Lyse Doucet to discuss the roots of the uprisings across the Arab world, how they have evolved from country to country, the shifts they have created in the region and asking what lies ahead as people continue to battle for freedom and justice?
THIRD PARTY SCREENING: An Arab Spring in Saudi?
A year after the Arab Spring Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen are still coming to terms with the realities that the fall of their respective dictators created. Some other countries are still struggling and revolts are ongoing in Syria and Bahrain. But what about countries in the Middle East that have born witness to the Arab Spring but haven’t been noticeably been touched by it?
In this documentary Shaimaa Khalil speaks to young Saudis, opposition leaders and tribe elders and asks whether the Arab Spring could ever find it’s way to The Kingdom.
FULLY BOOKED #FCBBCA: Crisis in Syria – what can be done?
What are the options for the Syrian people and for President Bashar al-Assad and his regime now that China and Russia have vetoed the U.N. Security Council’s resolution calling for foreign intervention? We will be discussing the deadly crackdown and asking what can be done – and by whom?
THIRD PARTY EVENT: Viv Groskop in conversation with Sofi Oksanen, Robert Service and Elif Shafak
"Politics Versus the Personal: Totalitarianism Stamps out Love"
Presented by Borealis Theatre and the Estonian Embassy.
In conjunction with the UK theatre premiere of Purge by Sofi Oksanen at the Arcola Theatre, 22nd February – 24th March, Viv Groskop will lead a dynamic discussion about politics, love and oppression with three influential writers.
#FCBBCA: Iran – diplomatic tensions and power struggles
EXTERNAL EVENT HELD AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN
Join us at the Royal Institution of Great Britain to discuss the growing tensions between Iran and the West, the internal power struggle within Iranian power elites and what the future could hold for the pro-democracy Green Movement.
Journalists killed as CPJ’s ‘Attacks on the Press’ is released
By Helena Williams No one who attended last night’s discussion at the Frontline Club on the safety of journalists was under any illusion that the issue was not an important one, but few there could have anticipated that it would be so topical. News of the death of Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin, a regular at the […]
Reporting under fire: covering a new world of political unrest
Join us for the launch of a series of events, screenings and workshops at which we will be examining the challenges to safety faced by journalists around the world.
The event will also mark the launch of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Attacks on the Press report which will be presented by CPJ executive director Joel Simon.
Fawzia Koofi – from a baby left to die to running for president of Afghanistan
by Ivana Davidovic "If it was fiction, you would not believe it.” That is how Nadene Ghouri, a journalist and a writer, described Fawzia Koofi‘s remarkable life story told in her new memoir The Favored Daughter: One Woman’s Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future. The day Koofi was born, was the day she was […]
Insight with Fawzia Koofi: Running for president of Afghanistan
Fawzia Koofi has lived a life defined by struggle, the 19th of 23 children born, as a baby she was left in the sun to die because she was a girl. Now a Member of Parliament, she continues her struggle to improve women’s and children’s rights and plans to run for President of Afghanistan in 2014, despite death threats and assassination attempts.
Join us at the Frontline Club with Fawzia Koofi and the co-author of the book that tells her story The Favored Daughter: One Woman’s Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future, Nadene Ghouri, award-winning journalist and BBC correspondent.
THIRD PARTY EVENT: ENO presents The Death of Klinghoffer – the debate
On 25 February, ENO stages the London premiere of The Death of Klinghoffer by John Adams. A powerful and arresting opera from one of the world’s greatest living composers, directed by Warhorse’s Tom Morris. Based on the hijacking of the cruise liner Achille Lauro, and resulting in the death of Leon Klinghoffer, a Jewish-American passenger. The Death of Klinghoffer is a theatrical presentation of an event that dominated the world headlines and became a defining moment in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
This debate explores the complex role of the arts in illuminating contemporary events touching on the relevance of opera today and ENO’s role in bringing fresh, modern work to the London stage, and extending the boundaries of theatre.
