The Forum Blog
A pattern of bloodshed
By Nishat Ahmed Syria’s continually deteriorating situation set the tone for January’s First Wednesday – the first panel debate of the year. The group, chaired by Paddy O’Connell of BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House, included Melissa Fleming, spokesperson of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); Ausama Monajed, the executive director the the London-based Strategic Research […]
Magnum Revolution: 65 Years of Fighting for Freedom
By Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi How does a photographer work with a dozen iPhones obscuring her view? This was just one of many questions debated on Thursday 13th December at the Frontline Club’s sold-out event on Magnum’s latest publication: Magnum Revolution: 65 Years of Fighting for Freedom.
#FCBBCA Israel and Iran: Countdown to war? – The report
By Jim Treadway Will 2013 see an escalation in tensions between Israel and Iran? The Frontline Club in association with BBC Arabic brought together an expert panel to decipher the drumbeat of war and predict what 2013 may hold. Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow began by telling an audience at LSE’s Sheikh Zayed Theatre on 12 December, that the […]
Leveson’s legacy and the future for British press
By Emily Wight Following the publication of Lord Justice Leveson’s 2,000-page report last week, the Frontline Club hosted a panel of media experts on 3 December. The talk was chaired by BBC media correspondent Torin Douglas, he was joined by: Martin Moore, director of the Media Standards Trust and one of the founders of the Hacked […]
Around the world through Shorts at the Frontline Club
By Jonathan Couturier On November 28th, an evening of Shorts at the Frontline Club tackled two questions: how much time do you need to tell a story? and how can you tell non-fictional stories? That night, Frontline screened seven short but poignant documentaries, portraying past and present struggles from around the world. Radically different and […]
Albino killings in Tanzania: Harry Freeland’s ‘In the Shadow of the Sun’
By Jim Treadway We don’t choose the colour of our skin, or the place where we are born. But for people with albinism in Tanzania, their appearance has made them a hunted, sub-human species. “We are killed. We are dismembered,” says Josephat Torner, one of the albino subjects in Harry Freeland’s documentary, In the Shadow […]
Covering poverty in an indifferent world
By Lizzie Kendal On Tuesday 27 November, a group of experts gathered at the Frontline Club to discuss the issues and nuances that surround the task of: Covering poverty in an indifferent world. This subject was recently explored by the BBC’s Why Poverty? series in an episode covering the campaigning efforts of Bob Geldof and Bono, and […]
Voice of Afghanistan: Screening and Q&A with Jawed Taiman
By Jim Treadway “The life we had. The flowers, the trees,” an elder Afghan recalls about the village in which he has lived, and where director Jawed Taiman grew up before his family fled the Soviet invasion in 1979. “Just look at it now,” the man gestures. “It’s completely dry.” This conversation opens Taiman’s latest […]
PhotoTALK with WPO: The funding game
By Sally Ashley-Cound Wednesday 21st November saw the World Photography Organisation hold the first PhotoTALK event at the Frontline Club; a new series of talks which will take place around the world. Chaired by Stuart Smith of SMITH design, the panel for PhotoTALK with WPO: The Funding Game consisted of Canadian photographer Donald Weber who recently […]
Cruel Britannia: A secret history of torture
By Emily Wight Less than two months after the Mau Maus won a legal victory over the British government for torture they suffered during the 1950s, Ian Cobain has published Cruel Britannia: A Secret History of Torture, a book which explores the narrative of Britain’s complicity in torture around the world from the Second World […]
Insight with Jeremy Bowen: The Arab uprisings
By Anna Reitman Coming straight from a day of reporting on the latest unrest between Israel and Gaza, the BBC’s Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen was at the Frontline Club on 14 November to discuss the historic events that have reshaped the Middle East. He reflected on their political context, history and the evolving landscape as documented in […]
Fixers: Explaining countries, cultures and revolutions
By Merryn Johnson Last night’s talk looked at the future of fixers in foreign reporting and at the relationships that develop when the ‘mad circus of the international press’ arrives to cover a news story, desperately needing to hide their ignorance of the country, culture and language. The discussion was chaired by Charles Glass, broadcaster, […]
Screening: Land Rush + Q&A
By Joëlle Pouliot On November 12, Land Rush was screened at The Frontline Club as part of a cross-media event entitled Why Poverty?, which uses films, online and TV, to get people talking about poverty. Land Rush explores the land appropriation debate in Mali. 75% of the population are small-scale traditional farmers who compete with […]
Call Me Kuchu – screening and directors Q&A session
Call Me Kuchu, a powerful and evocative documentary film about the human rights of Uganda’s gay and lesbian population, screened – with a following Q&A session – on 1 November at the Frontline Club.
David Kato, the most prominent leader for sexual equality rights in Uganda, is the focus of this extraordinary documentary filmed during the last year of his life – until his murder in January 2011.
Chaos and cannibalism – First Wednesday exposes disconnection at the BBC
By Nigel Wilson The Frontline Club’s monthly showpiece night, First Wednesday, is a reliably feisty evening as expert panelists dissect the biggest news story of the day. On 7 November, in an explosive debate, the panel and an audience that included Newsnight producer Meirion Jones and reporter Liz MacKean revealed more about the editorial and management […]
Screening: The Mexican Suitcase + Q&A
By Sally Ashley-Cound On the 5th of November filmmaker Trisha Ziff brought her widely acclaimed film The Mexican Suitcase to the Frontline Club. Thought lost since 1939, the group of three boxes full of negatives by Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and David ‘Chim’ Seymour, known as The Mexican Suitcase, was uncovered in Mexico by Ziff […]
New Series Launch: Unreported World – Reporting Social Change
Channel 4 presented its new series of Unreported World to a packed audience at the Frontline Club on October 31, followed by a panel discussion entitled “Reporting Social Change”.
Images of the Frontline Club Awards 2012
The Frontline Club Awards were presented by Jon Snow on 25th October 2012 at the Frontline Club. A keynote speech from judge Jon Lee Anderson was followed by the presentation of the Awards.
#FCBBCA Cyber snooping: In whose hands should internet governance be entrusted?
By Doug Brown A packed audience filled the Frontline Club forum on 23rd October to hear a panel tackle the question: In whose hands should internet governance be entrusted? Chaired by the Chief Executive of Index on Censorship Kirsty Hughes the event, in association with BBC Arabic, featured: Icelandic MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir; developer for The Tor Project, Jacob Appelbaum; independent media technology […]
Not Invisible: London Premiere of The Invisible War
By Lizzie Kendal On October 22 the Frontline Club hosted the London Premiere of The Invisible War, followed by a Q&A with Emmy-nominated producer Amy Ziering. The Invisible War explores the devastating emotional and physical effects of sexual assault within the US military. In the Q&A producer Amy Ziering, explained how the emotional side of […]
And all that Jazz
By Merryn Johnson “I’m very happy to face serious opposition: If I would say what I say and talk about Jewish political power without facing serious, relentless opposition, it would mean that I am talking nonsense… and apparently I’m not.” — Gilad Atzmon Gilad Atzmon certainly does face serious opposition, but he also revels in it. […]
Narco Estado: an advertisement of terror
By Merryn Johnson Teun Voeten’s CV reads like a guide to some of the world’s most dangerous places. “For 25 years I’ve been working [as a photojournalist and anthropologist] and seeing pretty nasty things, to put it diplomatically, in Rwanda, Sierra Leon, Liberia, Congo, but this is savagery and depravity that I have not seen.” […]
Addicted in Afghanistan: Beautiful and bleak
By Merryn Johnson Jawed Taiman‘s award winning film, Addicted in Afghanistan, which screened at Frontline on 13 September, is beautiful and utterly bleak. The documentary follows the lives of two young boys, best friends Zahir and Jabar, through the streets of Kabul. The film moves between their sober, childish hilarity and the painful grips of […]
“Poetry on a deadline” – remembering Anthony Shadid
By Merryn Johnson A gathering at the Frontline Club was held in remembrance for Anthony Shadid, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, who died in February this year while crossing the border out of Syria. The room was filled with family, friends and colleagues, including his wife, Nada Bakri; Jonathan Rugman, foreign affairs correspondent at Channel 4 News […]
Whoever said that journalism should be safe?
By Merryn Johnson Last night’s talk was a whistle stop tour through the history of the Frontline News Television agency, with its two surviving founding members, Vaughan Smith and Peter Jouvenal, in conversation with long-time cohort, BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson. From FNTV’s origins over a Christmas dinner amid the chaos of the Romanian revolution […]
Reflections with John Pilger: “Journalism was an enormous privilege”
By Helena Williams Veteran investigative journalist John Pilger cannot explain what has driven him to travel the world and cover some of its most important stories for the past half century. From being the youngest journalist to be named Journalist of the Year – and winning the award twice – to witnessing numerous conflicts – Pilger’s […]
Fifteen months and 15,000 dead: Syria’s tipping point?
By Merryn Johnson In a bloody coincidence with Frontline’s First Wednesday talk about the divisive issue of international intervention in Syria, yet another massacre of women, children, civilians has been charged at the Assad regime. Less than a fortnight after the Houla massacre in the Homs province of Syria, in which 108 people were killed, opposition […]
Photo Week 2012 – Liberty and Justice: A tribute to Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros
By Helena Williams View event here. Download this episode View in iTunes On 20th April last year, accomplished journalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros were tragically killed while covering the civil war in Libya. In a fitting tribute, American literary magazine Alaska Quarterly Review has collated photographs from 68 of the world’s leading photographers to […]
VII’s Questions Without Answers: An evolving legacy
By Merryn Johnson Photography agency VII’s latest publication, Questions Without Answers, not only spans over two decades of world history, but it also spans the evolution of photojournalism and the photographers who have pioneered their own take on the industry. The book reflects the independence that the VII founders established for themselves when they set […]