The Forum Blog
#FCBBCA: Crisis in Syria – what can be done?
Almost a year since the uprising began in Syria, 7000 people are estimated to have died at the hands of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The death this week of the revered journalist Marie Colvin – a founding member of the Frontline Club – has intensified the media spotlight on what has become a humanitarian crisis.
A panel of experts on the situation came to the Frontline Club on Friday for a #FCBBCA event exploring possible solutions to the situation.
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 […]
Robert Mugabe… What Happened?, asks Frontline
By William Turvill A sell-out crowd last night gathered at the Frontline Club for an exclusive screening of Robert Mugabe… What Happened?, followed by a question and answer session with the film’s director and producer. The documentary, which premiered at last year’s Encounters South Africa International Documentary Festival, gives a historical account of Mugabe and […]
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 […]
Rebuilding Libya
View in iTunes Watch the event here. By Alan Selby Much has happened since this time last year. The 15th of February 2011 saw the first Libyans take to the streets of Benghazi against a brutal dictatorship which ruled over them for 42 years. The events that followed sent shockwaves around the world, led to a […]
BBC Screening:The Ayatollah’s Seal
by Rosie Scammell In the wake of intimidation of BBC Persian journalists by the Iranian authorities, last night saw the screening of ‘The Ayatollah’s Seal’ – the first documentary to be made about the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. Refused access to Iran by the Ministry of Culture (there were more important topics for the […]
Frontline screening: Tweets from Tahrir
By: Will Turvill The Frontline Club last night hosted an exclusive screening of an Al Jazeera documentary Tweets from Tahrir. The film, set to be broadcast on the network for the first time on Thursday, portrays the uprising in Egypt from the perspective of five Twitter users active in the Tahrir Square protests. […]
Full House UK Premiere Screening: Under Fire: Journalists In Combat
By Nicky Armstrong Half way through the film the ripple effect that war has on journalists and the stresses that leak out from being present at such horrific moments in people’s lives are laid bare for the audience to see. The question of morals, as well as dealing with your own problems and family life […]
The DNA of culture: Jeremy Hunter in conversation with Paddy O’Connell
By Natricia Duncan The Frontline Club was treated to an explosion of colour, culture, festivity and debate as photojournalist Jeremy Hunter explored the “DNA of countries” through pictures. Hunter described how he began travelling as part of his job as a foreign correspondent for NIR-TV in Tehran. Although not employed as a photographer […]
Screening: Albino United
By Antonia Roupell “Albinos are human too” was the resounding message from Marc Hoeferlin, Barney Broomfield, and Juan Reina’s film Albino United. A story that follows not only Tanzanian Albinos’ struggle for equality but their struggle for survival. Dangerous beliefs that “Albinos are human ghosts” has lead to the brutal mutilations and killings of this […]
Screening: Bahrain: Shooting in the Dark Q&A with May Welsh, Jon Blair, and ex-Bahraini MP
By Ivana Davidovic "With our souls, with our blood, we would sacrifice anything for you Bahrain" people chanted on the streets of Bahrain. In February 2011, while the media glare was firmly focused on the uprising in Egypt, the Bahraini people were left to shout in the dark. One of their rare witnesses […]
Wael Ghonim in conversation with Ben Hammersley: Revolution 2.0
By Emily Wight A key element to the Arab Spring was the role of social media in giving momentum to the revolution. In countries such as Egypt, Facebook and Twitter have been used as a democratizing force, a platform for activists to share ideas. At last night’s #FCBBCA event Wired UK’s editor at large Ben […]
Part 1: Frontline Club discusses Italian press after Berlusconi
Watch the event here. By Will Turvill The Frontline Club last night hosted a lively and informative discussion on what the future might hold for Italian media in the post-Berlusconi era. The event was hosted by BBC Radio 4 presenter Steve Hewlett who was joined on the panel by four Italians and an Anglo-Italian lecturer […]
Gene Sharp’s ‘terrifyingly simple’ methods for non-violent revolution
by Thomas Lowe As he walks to sit at the front of the room one can see Gene Sharp is frail, and at times it’s hard to hear his gravelly voice. But you can’t doubt the passion with which he speaks, or the power in his words. His ideas on non-violent revolution have been hugely […]
Frenemies entertain the Frontline Club
By Will Turvill A crowd gathered at the Frontline Club last night for a humour-filled evening hosted by comedian Katerina Vrana, who stood alongside jesting journalist Miss D (Daphna Baram) and Peyvand Khorsandi. In an exclusive preview of the stand-up show Frenemies, controversy and laughter were coupled throughout. With an Israeli Miss D and an […]
American Muslim: Freedom, Faith and Fear
By Alan Selby A lot has changed in the years since 9/11. The date itself has become emblematic of a change in attitudes towards Islam, perhaps most notably in the country which bore witness to the infamous attacks that day. Popular opinion has shifted, and the land of the free has become an increasingly […]
‘Shooting vs. Shooting’ screening comes under fire
By Helena Williams A documentary on journalist casualties during the Iraq war came under fire last night as members of the audience questioned the director’s stance on the US military. Greek journalist Nikos Megrelis’ 2011 film, ‘Shooting vs. Shooting’, centres around the killing of Western journalists by American soldiers in Iraq and suggests that […]
Tears of an Afghan Warlord
By Rosie Scammell After nearly a decade in the making, Tears of an Afghan Warlord had its UK premiere on Friday night, with director Pascale Bourgaux on hand to tell the story behind the screen. Bourgaux dedicated the evening to Frontline News Television cameraman James Miller, killed in 2003 while filming in Gaza, […]
Frontline Club panel optimistic about the future of Egypt
By Will Turvill There was an overall feeling of positivity in the Frontline Club last night as the panel, chaired by the Observer‘s foreign affairs editor Peter Beaumont, discussed what the future might hold for the Egyptian people after a year of military rule. Indeed, despite recognising the number of challenges facing the revolutionary movement, each […]
How to become a freelance foreign correspondent
By Helena Williams Last year was the year of the freelance foreign correspondent. The tumultuous events of 2011 gave freelance journalists unprecedented access to breathless, breaking news stories in the Arab world – unlike Iraq and Afghanistan, where embedding restrictions applied, freelancers were free to travel and compete on the frontline. With the increasing attraction […]
U.N Me Screening and Q&A with author Ami Horowitz
By: Ivana Davidovic When the United Nations was founded after World War II it embodied the world’s hopes for a more peaceful and just world. Since it’s noble founding, wars and human rights abuses have continued unabated, throwing a spotlight at the UN’s role in keeping the peace and building a fairer world for all. […]
#FCBBCA Part 1: Women of the Revolution
By Helena Williams The uprisings that shook the Middle East this year have been a focus of relentless debate. ‘Revolutionary Arab women’ – activists, bloggers and academics – took to the streets and fought both for their country and their rights, capturing the western media’s attention and begging the question ‘what does the future hold […]
#FCBBCA Part 2: Women of the Revolution
by Ivana Davidovic Maryam Al-Khawaja from the Bahrain Center for Human Rights comes from a family of activists, many of whom have been on the receiving end of the police brutality in the Kingdom. So much so that she joked that “Bahrain should adopt family cells in prisons, so family members could spend some time […]
Part 1: Democratic Republic of Congo: Presidential elections and blood minerals
Download this episode View in iTunes Watch the event here. By Natricia Duncan As we see landmark election in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the discussion at the Frontline Club turned to the way forward for this troubled nation. Chaired by Mary Harper, Africa Editor at the BBC World Service, who opened by asking: “Why a […]
Frontline watches the rise and fall of Yugoslavian film in Cinema Komunisto
By William Turvill The end of the Frontline Club’s screening season was marked, on Sunday 27 November, with the showing of Cinema Komunisto, featuring a subsequent question and answer discussion led by one of the film’s producers, Iva Plemic. The film, created by a group of young filmmakers from Serbia, documents the creation and collapse […]
Kashmir: South Asia’s Palestine?
View in iTunes Watch the even here. By Marise Jeyarajah The club hosted an animated discussion last night on the controversial issues surrounding the future of Kashmir. Chaired by author and broadcaster Victoria Schofield. Kashmiri born Mirza Waheed, BBC Urdu journalist and author of The Collaborator, opened the event by giving his account of the ‘turning point’ events […]
ToryBoy visits the Frontline Club
By William Turvill The Frontline Club, on Monday 21 November, screened the critically acclaimed ToryBoy The Movie, followed by a question-and-answer session with the film’s creators, John Walsh and John Cowen. Dubbed the “documentary of the year” by The Guardian, this film follows the campaign trail of Walsh, a “disillusioned Labour Boy gone stray”, […]
Cairo and the super rich
By Alan Selby Forty percent of Egyptians live on less than $2 a day, and Egypt receives an average of $2 billion a year in foreign aid. Yet millions of people are preparing to migrate away from the centre of Cairo and into newly constructed suburbs for the super rich. Jason Larkin, a photojournalist, and […]
El Problema – The true story of Western Sahara
By Paaras Abbas “We know that somebody is watching us. We don’t know where.” How many of us have a full realisation of the torture the people of Western Sahara endure on a daily basis? It’s a story that has simply not been heard. It is this fact that made last night’s screening of El […]
Reporting conflict: competition, pressure and risks
View in iTunes Watch the event here. By Helena Williams In a year where 100 journalists have been killed so far while trying to tell the story, and as the media’s coverage of events rocking the Middle East have been brought into sharp relief, it seems high time to examine the delicate relationship between ensuring the […]