Your wonderful and kind messages mean so much to us, as has your friendship, council and support over so many years. There is no prize in our trade that we could ever value as much as your belief in us.

– Vaughan and Pranvera Smith

 

Thank you to Stewart Purvis, Richard Gizbert, Tina Carr, Emma Beals, Allan Little, Mani, Stuart Hughes, Richard Sambrook, Jon Snow, Marina Litvinenko, Martin Bell, Tom Fenton, Anthony Loyd, Lyse Doucet, Bill Neely, Lindsey Hilsum, Charles Glass, John G Morris, Salim Amin, Liz Palmer Gary Knight, Jon Lee Anderson, Jeremy Bowen, Matt Frei and Jean-Jacques Gonfier.

A distinguished panel of journalists gathered at the Frontline Club on Wednesday 27 November to celebrate its tenth anniversary and to reflect, with great humility, on the past ten years of reporting from front lines around the world.

(L-R) Lyse Doucet, Shoaib Sharifi, Jon Snow, Bill Neely, Anthony Loyd

Bill Neely, international editor at ITV News, began on the sobering note that although we [journalists] “really try our best…in many respects I think we’ve failed:”

“I think we have to be damn humble about what we do and what we’ve failed to do… In 2001 in Afghanistan when the Taliban ‘fell’, we walked away and went to Iraq and somehow behind our backs the Taliban came back and we didn’t notice. Then in Iraq we covered a successful invasion, we risked our lives and did our best, and then somehow the Brits lost Basra…who was there? I certainly wasn’t – there were very few of us there.”

Similarly, he said, journalists were not in Benghazi when the American ambassador was assassinated:

“Where were the date lines from? Cairo, London, Washington… And as a result of us not being there, the policy was wrong.”

Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, talked about how, in preparation for a BBC Newshour’s 25th anniversary celebrations, she had come across pictures and memories of when she had been in Pakistan and Afghanistan 25 years ago:

“I was coming back to the very origins of the people who inspired the Frontline Club…the brave young men who inspired the club.”

“25 years ago, war was a war on children, it was a humanitarian war, a war when even women took up guns… As one French philosopher said ‘the only lessons of history that we learn is that we don’t learn the lessons of history.’”

Far from shying from the spotlight, mediator for the evening Channel 4 News presenter, Jon Snow, said the thing that sticks most with him is the same obsession he had in the decade before the Frontline Club – Iran:

“Although shots were not fired, Iran was a front line too. But, as Bill has said, we have fallen into the trap of believing what the outside powers tell us. The demonisation of Iran is easily done…but too simplistic… We’ve never wanted to do anything about it. All we want to talk about is nuclear, and nuclear is a completely bankrupt conversation. As journalists we fail to talk truth to power.”

Shoaib Sharifi, an Afghan journalist who has worked with national and international media outlets in Afghanistan for more than ten years, said that he thought the reporting by journalists in Afghanistan when the Taliban was in control was much better than reporting now:

“In the last ten years, I don’t think we as national and international journalists have learnt anything significant that has affected the war…. We could have done so much better if we hadn’t followed the line of ‘what makes the 6 o’clock news.’ I would pitch really human stories but then hear from a fellow correspondent ‘I don’t think it will make the 6 o’clock news.’ Who are these people making the news agenda, that flows all the way down to Kabul?”

Although Anthony Loyd, the award winning journalist and roving correspondent for The Times, disagreed that journalists shouldn’t be as humble as Neely made out, he too was shocked by some recent journalism:

“Although I haven’t seen the full Panorama [alleging the murder of civilians by British soldiers]…if I wrote a story as weak as that my editor would tell me to go out and fucking stand it up – do some proper journalism.”

Far from being a raucous celebration of the brilliance of journalists, the evening was a thoughtful reflection on the incredible bravery and selfless commitment of journalists and also on their ability to be mistaken, to fail to talk truth to power on occasion and to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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 safety of journalists and being able to break the story first.

“Libya has been a very traumatic year for journalists, especially for freelance journalists. We lost three good friends,” said Inigo Gilmore, an award-winning freelance journalist who has worked in conflict zones across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

“No one even imagined Libya would turn to this. How could we [journalists] predict what would happen on the frontline?”

Last night’s talk at The Frontline Club, ‘Reporting Conflict: Competition, pressure and risks’ highlighted the risks that journalists out in the field and news editors back in London face while attempting to break news to an increasingly demanding audience.

Chaired by former BBC executive Vin Ray, and with international editor for ITV news Bill Neely, head of international news at Sky News Sarah Whitehead, and BBC’s world news editor Jon Williams sitting on the panel alongside Gilmore, the debate focused on the difficulties of conflict reporting from opposing sides of the industry – both those commissioning journalists to go to the frontline, and the journalists themselves.

Neely, who has worked in numerous conflict zones, was adamant that the first and constant pressure of covering war did not come from newsrooms in London, but rather from the competitive nature of journalists who want to go and get the story.

The old pressures from the newsroom no longer exist, said Neely, who argued that journalists now travel to hotspots on a voluntary basis.

Journalists have to be savvy while out in the field – the rule is “don’t stay anywhere for longer than 20 minutes in a warzone,” he said –  but it is also up to the editors to monitor the situation.

“Over the past 10 years editors in London understand that it’s people on the ground who have to make the decision not to go those 100 metres up the road.”

Whitehead, whose Sky News teams were hailed for their remarkable coverage from Tripoli’s Green Square during the fighting in Libya in August this year, agreed:

“You’re not there and you have to make sure they [the journalists] can make the decision. This year has been one of the most extreme and dangerous that I’ve known.

“This year I have taken people off air who have been in the middle [of reporting]. One afternoon, when a team was watching a fire fight in Tripoli, snipers opened up behind them and I pulled them off air and asked what their exit route was.

“You have to be there to be the stops if they are taken over by the story.”

While the BBC and other news organisations were criticised for failing to get equally dramatic coverage of events unfolding in Libya, Whitehead insisted that a lot of her team’s reporting was down to luck.

“[Sky News] was at the right place at the right time, and in the right frame of mind. They didn’t know where they were going to end up. A lot of people made other decisions and it was the right decisions for them.”

Williams, who has also had his fair share of managing journalists in hostile environments, said: “Risk must outweigh return, but it is a very fine balance. It’s a difficult call to go forward, and it’s just as difficult to go back. If you have the balls to go back because you don’t think it’s safe I take my hat off to you.”

Neely added: “It’s risk and reward. You have to ask yourself, ‘is it really worth that extra shot?'”

“War reporting is a mixture of judgement and luck – but you can be unlucky. For those 100 journalists this year, for one reason or another, their luck ran out.”

IN ASSOCIATION WITH BBC COLLEGE OF JOURNALISM

After the headlines trumpeting that Alex Crawford and Sky News were clear winners of the battle for reporting Tripoli, we will be taking stock of this recent chapter in covering modern warfare.

With a panel of newsroom executives and frontline journalists we will discuss how the conflict in Libya was reported and what its legacy is likely to be.

If the death of ITV News correspondent Terry Lloyd in Iraq in 2003 raised awareness about safety and risk in modern conflict, what can we learn from the reporting that took journalists right into the heart of the battle, the journalists who were held in the Rixos hotel and the competition between the channels? What are the pressures for both news executives and journalists in such circumstances?

Chaired by former BBC executive Vin Ray.

With:

Bill Neely, international editor for ITV News;

Sarah Whitehead, head of international news at Sky News;

Jon Williams, BBC’s world news editor.

Inigo Gilmore, award winning journalist and filmmaker who has worked across the world, with extensive experience in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. He won the Royal Television Society Award in 2011 for his work in Haiti last year, following earthquake.

Picture credit: Gwydion M. Williams

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 and Washington Bill Neely will discuss the stories that he has covered and the work and people that have inspired him.

The award winning journalist, who began his career at BBC Radio in Northern Ireland, was commended for his reporting from Haiti by BBC political editor Nick Robinson when he took part in our March Reflections discussion. 

He will be discussing a career that includes covering the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pakistan floods and most recently the events in Libya and offering  invaluable advice to aspiring journalists.

In association with BBC College of Journalism.

There are still a few tickets left for this Saturday’s unique opportunity to hear WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange in conversation with renowned Slovenian philosopher Slavoj

There are still a few tickets left for this Saturday’s unique opportunity to hear WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange in conversation with renowned Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. The discussion, which will be moderated by Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman, will focus on the ethics and philosophy behind the work of WikiLeaks and its effect on political institutions globally.

Next week Colin Freeman will be recounting his experience of being kidnapped by Somali pirates and Peter Greste who has recently been in the country for BBC’s Panorama will be talking about the Somali people’s struggle to forge a life in a lawless land.

For July’s First Wednesday, a panel of experts will be discussing the expansion of kill/capture missions in Afghanistan, their effect on the ground and how they level with counter-insurgency hearts and minds strategy.

Follow us on Twitter and catch up on any events you missed on the Forum blog or download our podcasts on iTunes.

ALL EVENTS ARE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

A year on from the first broadcast of  The Baha’is of Iran, which coincided with further persecution of the community,  BBC Persian will screening  the documentary and hosting a discussion on the plight of Baha’is with the producers of the film and a panel of experts.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson hailed Bill Neely as one of "the great artists" who could "turn television into magic and use words and pictures like few other people do" when he was at the Frontline Club in March. Next Wednesday we are delighted that the ITV News’ international editor Bill Neely will be with us to discuss his journalism and an award-winning career spanning the Troubles in Northern Ireland to the uprising in Libya.

This evening’s FRONTLINE CLUB SPECIAL: Focus on Israel – How will it respond to the Arab spring? has been postponed to a later date.

Follow us on Twitter and catch up on any events you missed on the Forum blog or download our podcasts on iTunes.

This report by Bill Neely showing the incredible rescue of Janette Samfour from the ruins of Port-au-Prince in January 2010 won the ITV News international editor a news coverage BAFTA in the same year.

Referring to the "art of the news package" BBC political editor Nick Robinson recently described Bill Neely as one of "the great artists" who could "turn television into magic and use words and pictures like few other people do".

To illustrate his point, Robinson chose Bill Neely‘s reporting of the rescue of Janette Samfour six days after the 12 January earthquake in Haiti, adding that: 

It’s easy to say that anybody who stumbles across somebody whose survived an earthquake could tell that story. Don’t you believe it. It reminds me of that old gag about footballers, the more I practice, the luckier I get. Bill Neely’s either bloody lucky because he still keeps coming across these amazing dramas, or he’s bloody good, and I know which one I think.

That capacity to see that one story as a statement of the wider thing and to stick with it.  Remember, he’s there for three hours, the temptation for the reporter would be to think ‘OK, that’s quite good, let’s get another sequence, then let’s do a piece to camera, then let’s do an ariel shot’.  But to come across this human drama and say let’s stick with it, the amount of guts that takes, with the newsroom saying, is this going to make a piece? What happens if she’d died? Would that make a piece? Or if they got her out in the dark? But he had that instinct to stick with it, stick with it, tell the story. 

Find out more about Bill Neely and his career – and pick up some advice on the craft of television journalism – at our Reflections event on 29 June. You can book here.

As awareness of the crisis afflicting the world’s oceans grows, in part as a result of campaigns such as The Fish Fight fronted by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, tomorrow evening we will be bringing together a panel of experts to discuss the problems and how we can begin to resolve them.

Next week we will be joined by award winning journalist Bill Neely of ITV News as he reflects on the past two decades covering stories from the troubles in Northern Ireland to the uprising in Libya. An evening of inspiration and insight into the craft of journalism.

Screenings in the month ahead include Amnesty! When They Are Free, which is an unprecedented look into the world of human rights organisation Amnesty International and its ability to affect change since its inception fifty years ago. Donor Unknown documents the funny, moving and provocative journey of JoEllen Marsh as she sets out to find her father and discovers 12 half-siblings and explores the strange power of genetic connections.

And if you are a member of the Club, don’t forget our member’s social evening on Thursday, which is sponsored by Chivas Regal and is a great opportunity for old and new members to meet and mingle.

Follow us on Twitter and catch up on any events you missed on the Forum blog or download our podcasts on iTunes.