Last month, at the Edinburgh Television Festival Dorothy Byrne, Channel 4’s highly respected Head of News and Current Affairs, delivered a funny, brutal and hard-hitting MacTaggart lecture that has been described as a clarion call for broadcast journalism to step up to the plate at a time when national and international democracy is being undermined. 

In her speech, Byrne called out television’s current lack of bravery, innovation and commitment and called on commissioners and producers to embrace serious analysis, respect its viewers and return to clever, controversial and difficult TV that challenged contemporary society and helped to shape society for the better.

Byrne cited television’s lack of diversity, its reliance on a posh white male elite and recalled its sexist past, arguing that the industry’s failure to become more ethnically diverse undermines its important role as a mediator between politicians and the public. At a time when politicians are increasingly unwilling to give in-depth interviews on television and radio, she called on them to hold themselves up to proper scrutiny and accountability..

At its heart was a serious message about the role and responsibility of the free press in a democracy and a plea for television journalists to stand up and speak truth to power.

Join Dorothy Byrne in conversation with Jodie Ginsberg, Chief Executive of Index on Censorship in what promises to be a hard-hitting, honest and illuminating discussion.

Speaker:

Dorothy Byrne is Head of News & Current Affairs at Channel Four Television. During her tenure, the Channel 4 News and current affairs programmes have won numerous BAFTA, RTS, Emmy Awards and others.

Dorothy was made a Fellow of The Royal Television Society for her outstanding contribution to television and received the Outstanding Contribution Award at the RTS Journalism Awards in 2018. She has received a BAFTA Scotland award for her services to television and has also won the Factual Award given by Women in Film and Television. She is the chair of the Ethical Journalism Network an alliance of reporters, editors and publishers that works to build trust in news media and strengthen journalism around the world through training, education and research.

She is a former World In Action producer and editor of ITV’s The Big Story. Before joining Channel 4 she also produced arts programmes and executive produced history series for the channel.  She is a Visiting Professor at De Montfort University where Channel Four supports an MA in Investigative Journalism. 

Chair:

Jodie Ginsberg is Chief Executive of Index on Censorship, a London-based organisation that has published work by censored writers and artists and campaigned globally on freedom of expression issues since 1972. Prior to joining Index, Jodie worked as a foreign correspondent and business journalist and was UK Bureau Chief for Reuters news agency. She sits on the council of global free expression network IFEX and the board of the Trust for The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and is a regular commentator in international media on freedom of expression issues.

Presented in partnership with the Ethical Journalism Network

  Watch the video stream of Dorothy Byrne: the MacTaggart Conversation

It has been 25 years since Rwanda slid into the abyss. When human beings are at their worst — as they most certainly were in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide — the world needs the institutions of journalism and the media to be at their best. According to Media and Mass Atrocity, in Rwanda, they fell short.

Confronted by Rwanda’s horrors, international news media at times turned away, or muddled the story when they did pay attention by casting it in a formulaic way as anarchic tribal warfare rather than an organised genocide. Hate media outlets in Rwanda played a role in laying the groundwork for genocide, and then encouraged the extermination campaign. 

The global media landscape has been utterly transformed since 1994. The first information and images of atrocities are now often transmitted via social media, by citizen journalists or eyewitnesses – enabled by the ubiquity of mobile phones. The increasing difficulty of journalists accessing conflict areas is forcing the media to innovate new ways of verifying, covering and understanding events. 

And in many quarters, the traditional news media business model continues to founder. Against that backdrop, it is more important than ever to examine the nexus between the media and the forces of mass atrocity.

Social media tools can be used to inform and engage, but also – in an echo of hate radio in Rwanda – can be used to demonize opponents and mobilize extremism. We are left with many troubling questions, still unresolved despite the passage of time since Rwanda. 

The panel will be preceded by some opening marks by the book’s editor, Allan Thompson.

Chair

Dickens Olewe is a Kenyan journalist working for the BBC, and a 2015 John S. Knight journalism fellow at Stanford University. During his fellowship he organised the first ever drone journalism conference, held in Silicon Valley with support from Center for Investigative Reporting and News Lab at Google. His interest is in using new technology for storytelling and integrating the public in the news reporting process. He contributes to BBC’s Future of News Report. He was part of the team of journalists chosen by Deutsche Welle Academy to develop a manifesto on how to use digital technology to promote freedom of expression in the global south. He also runs The Dickens Olewe podcast where he interviews guests on media, politics and technology in Africa. The latest podcast is a four-part series looking at the East African Community as it celebrates its 20^th anniversary this year.

Speakers

Idil Osman has worked for over 12 years as a national and international journalist for the BBC, the Guardian and the Voice of America, spending the majority of her career covering stories from the Horn of Africa. Through her work, she has developed a vast network of media contacts including those based in the region and the diaspora. She has authored publications that focus on media, migration, development, conflicts in the Horn of Africa and diaspora communities in Europe. She completed her PhD in Journalism and is an expert on diasporic media and development communications.

Simon Cottle, professor of media and communications at the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University, will reflect on what’s changed in the world of humanitarian crises and communications since the Rwandan genocide of 1994. He argues that today’s more complex and rapidly changing communications environment can open up new possibilities for progressive intervention prior to, during and following such murderous collective events. 

Alan Davis, Asia and Eurasia Director of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, will explain how hate media online in Myanmar – primarily on Facebook – grew out of a history of hate media prior to the explosion in internet access of recent years. Davis, who designed and led a media monitoring and reporting project on hate speech in Myanmar for IWPR, argues that the international community could and should have been better prepared and intervened sooner to reduce the impact of this hate media. He also attributes some of the hate media to the lack of media professionalism in a society accustomed to decades of oppressive censorship. 

  Watch the video stream of Media And Mass Atrocity: Lessons from Rwanda

Another News Story takes a fresh view of the European refugee crisis. The film opens in 2015 Greece as refugees arrive on the idyllic island of Lesbos and follows refugees into Hungary and Croatia and across Europe to a hoped-for sanctuary. Since 2015 the current refugee crisis has flooded every news and media outlet across the globe. Another News Story takes a unique approach to capturing this narrative. While still giving a groundfloor perspective of migrants fleeing Syria and Turkey and their struggle to find a country where they are welcome, director Orban Wallace simultaneously turns the camera on the journalists and the role they play in representing the crisis to the world. Wallace’s gripping debut feature raises important questions about what happens behind the camera, and how the life cycle of a news story starts and grows.

Another News Story has had 17 international film festival selections including Karlovy Vary, IDFA, Zurich and Glasgow among others. The UK theatrical release for the film is at the end of April.

Run Time: 84 mins

Trailer: http://www.anothernewsstory.com/

Ethical Journalism Network

The Ethical Journalism Network is an alliance of reporters, editors and publishers aiming to strengthen journalism around the world, working to build trust in news media through training, education and research.

The EJN has developed migration-reporting guidelines, which are available as an infographic and as a video have been used for training around Europe and have been presented to the United Nations in New York and other international forums.

The migration and media studies that the EJN has published or contributed to are:

How do media on both sides of the Mediterranean report on migration – A 17-country study commissioned by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development to produce a study analysing how media cover migration in Europe, Middle East and North Africa.
Fatal Journeys – Improving Data on Missing Migrants – Published by the IOM in 2017.
Refugees Images: Ethics in the Picture – From the EJN’s 2017 Ethics in the News report.
Moving Stories – An international review of how media cover migration published by the EJN in 2015.
To find out how to support the EJN visit: http://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/support

Podcasts are increasingly popular, with ‘Serial’ ‘S Town’ in the US attracting tens of millions of listeners. Technology means that programme-making is widely accessible and is bringing a new world of on-demand audio to all types of audiences – big and small.

This one-day workshop covers the production process from A to Z – taking it ‘from idea to ear’. It looks at how to refine the original idea, and the technical demands of recording and producing a podcast. It explains what’s needed to make a programme and how to keep the audience listening.

Content:

• Planning for podcast production – editorial and technical
• The differing types of online audio programmes
• Recording – equipment and technical guidelines
• Editing and production – instruction and guidelines
• Polishing the finished product (branding, music, podcast platforms).

Trainer

Richard Miron has considerable experience as a journalist and strategic communications professional. He was a reporter and producer for BBC News and Current Affairs for 17 years, including several years as a foreign correspondent. He later worked as a senior communications official for the UN in the Middle East and for the World Bank in Washington D.C. He now runs a consultancy ‘Earshot Strategies’ that provides a range of services to support organizations and individuals interested in podcasting. To find out more about Earshot Strategies click here.

Image: via Shutterstock

Podcasts are a great way to engage the public and hook audiences in. More personal and intimate than video, they are also simple to produce. In this one-day workshop, we’ll give you the tools you need to start making your own podcasts. We will be recording on smart phones.

Content:

• Introduction to audio. A few well-chosen words.
• Content and casting. So what’s it all about?
• Interviewing and the art of conversation.
• Editorial control. Who is steering the ship? Some journalism basics.
• Music, actuality, and the special bits.
• Recording basics on smart phones.

What to bring:

• A smart phone to record audio on.
• Pen and paper to take notes.

Trainers

Rosie Bartlett is a journalist and communications trainer with over 18 years of international media training and production experience for the BBC and global NGOs. At the BBC she produced international news programmes for the BBC World Service and digital stories for BBC Radio and Music online. Kate and Rosie are both digital trainees for the BBC’s World Service 2020 project training BBC staff around the globe

Kate Hoyland re-launched and ran the successful BBC Production Trainee Scheme, which receives upwards of three thousand applications yearly. She has 18 years experience as a journalist in the BBC World Service, where she specialised in international news before moving on to manage Radio and Production training, delivering leadership and media training to journalists from 22 international bureaux. Kate is currently producing a podcast series for UCL on interdisciplinary working. She works on social media accounts for the BBC.

Rosie Bartlett and Kate Hoyland deliver training courses for Quattrain. To find out more about their courses please click here. 

Image: via Shutterstock

Podcasts are a great way to engage the public and hook audiences in. More personal and intimate than video, they are also simple to produce. In this one-day workshop, we’ll give you the tools you need to start making your own podcasts. We will be recording on smart phones.

Content:

• Introduction to audio. A few well-chosen words.
• Content and casting. So what’s it all about?
• Interviewing and the art of conversation.
• Editorial control. Who is steering the ship? Some journalism basics.
• Music, actuality, and the special bits.
• Recording basics on smart phones.

What to bring:

• A smart phone to record audio on.
• Pen and paper to take notes.

Trainers

Rosie Bartlett is a journalist and communications trainer with over 18 years of international media training and production experience for the BBC and global NGOs. At the BBC she produced international news programmes for the BBC World Service and digital stories for BBC Radio and Music online. Rosie has worked with BBC’s Global Women in News to launch their training strategy and leads training for Sound Women.

Kate Hoyland re-launched and ran the successful BBC Production Trainee Scheme, which receives upwards of three thousand applications yearly. She has 18 years experience as a journalist in the BBC World Service, where she specialised in international news before moving on to manage Radio and Production training, delivering leadership and media training to journalists from 22 international bureaux. Kate is currently producing a podcast series for UCL on interdisciplinary working. She works on social media accounts for the BBC.

Rosie Bartlett and Kate Hoyland deliver training courses for Quattrain. To find out more about their courses please click here. 

Image: via Shutterstock

In covering stories of women recruited through social media, news outlets often fetishise female terrorists and contribute to stereotypes of radicalised women as femme fatals or individuals who have struggled to integrate into Western culture. Research increasingly suggests they are educated and highly politicised women who seek power and a sense of agency over their lives.

What role does the media play in influencing the decisions female extremists make and how can journalists better cover the issue?

Chaired by Flora Bagenal senior reporter for the Women and Girls Hub by News Deeply.

Speakers:

Nikita Malik is a Senior Researcher at Quilliam, where she heads research on women, children, and families against radicalisation. Nikita has presented findings to EU and UK Parliament, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the Department of State (DoS), and the EU Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN). She also heads Fempower”, a pioneering outreach program on gender extremism, providing training workshops to women in local communities, schools, and universities on the issues of honour based violence, forced marriage, FGM, and domestic abuse.

Fatima Zaman is currently delivering Prevent, part of the UK government’s counter terrorism strategy. She coordinates multi-agency efforts to prevent individuals from being drawn into
terrorism. She previously led ministerial policy work relating to counter terrorism. She is also a
global CVE Advocate at the Kofi Annan Foundation, working to counter extremism through peer-to-peer engagement.

Charlie Winter is a Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation. He studies terrorism, insurgency and innovation, with a focus on online and offline strategic communication. He is pursuing a PhD in War Studies at King’s College London, examining the outreach efforts of the Islamic State in a comparative historical context. Winter regularly consults for governments and often appears in international broadcast and print media. He is an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism.

Edit Schlaffer is a social scientist, writer, activist and holds a PhD from the University of Vienna. In 2002 she founded Women without Borders, an international research-based NGO, encouraging women to take the lead in their personal and public lives. Her research and activities focus on women as agents of change and as driving forces to stabilize an insecure world.

Presented in partnership with News Deeply.

The film, first released in May this year, follows four years in the parallel political lives of Jawhara Ettis and Emna Ben Jemaa – two women at the centre of Tunisia’s radical turn to democracy during the 2011 Arab Spring.

California-based Deeter took a Q&A after the 90-minute film, and led a workshop for film and journalism students the following evening.

‘A Revolution in Four Seasons’ is the culmination of six year’s work, when Deeter was living in Oman, Morocco and Tunisia as a Fulbright Scholar in 2010. When hard-line President Ben Ali was ousted by protesters at the start of 2011, the seeds of the Arab Spring revolution sprang up and Tunisia held its first ever free and fair election.

Asking questions about youth, democracy, social media and motherhood, ‘A Revolution’ captures some crucial perspectives of new Arab democracy in the digital age.

Deeter said the project took shape “happy accident” when she approached the Ennahda Islamist party and befriended Ennahda, who went on to be elected regional representative and contribute to the composition of Tunisia’s new constitution. Researching the political landscape soon brought Emna – a political activist who blogs, makes videos, and uses social media to promote secular liberal democracy – into the picture. In Deeter’s words, the film depicts a “clash of their ideals with reality” as excitement over unprecedented democratic elections contrasts with deeply-felt religious differences, and disputes over political processes.

The director told of her challenges during filming, including broken tripods, dialect barriers, and filming in near-50C heat. Deeter lived part of the time with her family, and sometimes wrote news stories to fund the project. ‘No one on the film was doing it for the money or the glamour!’.

‘Women need to be present in politics to represent their rights and points of view,’ a Tunisian man says at one point in the film. Despite being one of the first Arab nations to instigate female suffrage, Tunisia suffers from a paucity of women in office – a problem not yet overcome in the UK either.

The documentary is not shy about depicting many areas of the women’s life in political and family scenarios. The subjects’ trust in the filmmakers over the years comes through poignantly, as moments of marital unhappiness, physical discomfort whilst pregnant in the workplace, and honesty about unfavourable political outcomes are included in amongst scenes of momentous celebration.

Deeter admits that the editing process was a mammoth task; three talented editors were needed to craft a story that was detailed yet compelling for an American audience. Does the director feel the film can be called out for bias? “I feel pretty proud of the fact that we get slammed by both sides,” Deeter responded, explaining that viewers of both Islamists and secular persuasions have criticised sympathetic portrayals of their opponents.

Further information about the film can be found on its Facebook page and website.

Oo is one of his nation’s predominant emerging filmmakers and of the many talents being showcased at the Frontline Club’s ‘A Country in Motion: Films From Burma’ event. Organised by the Czech Centre, the films highlight the recent political, cultural and social transitions in Burma.

Four films were exhibited. The Little Finger, A Peaceful Land, I Wanna Go To School and A Buffalo Boy. Focusing on a range of issues including development, human rights, democracy, education and exploitation, the films provided an illuminating insight into life in modern day Myanmar.

Interesting and thought provoking screening at @frontlineclub learning about human rights and activism in #Myanmar pic.twitter.com/drL04LQmXX

— Haylea Campbell (@HayleaCampbell) November 10, 2016

Left to Right: Human rights campaigner, Igor Blaževič, Burmese MP, Susanna Hla Hla Soe (National League for Democracy Party), Former Czech ambassador to the UK, Pavel Seifter

Chaired by the former Czech ambassador to the UK, Pavel Seifter, the event drew on the remarkable work being produced by a selection of Burma’s emerging filmmakers. During the open discussion after the films’ airing, Seifter was joined on stage by Burmese MP Susanna Hla Hla Soe (National League for Democracy Party) and the internationally renowned human rights campaigner Igor Blaževič. Oo joined on Skype.

Addressing the crowd from his native Burma, Oo is broadly positive about the course of progress in his country. He cautions however that further change is needed and highlights aspects of Burmese life that remain problematic. Oo spoke of the need to tell stories that had not been possible to tell in the past, rationalising that as a result, many of the documentaries emerging out of Burma are testimonial in nature.

Igor Blaževič agreed that despite the political developments made, problems remain. He outlined four major problems facing the country today:

“First is the military… the military protects the constitution and the constitution protects the military. The second problem is ongoing civil war… there is profound disagreement between the ethnic minorities and those in power. The third problem is ethnic nationalism… and the fourth problem is that the country is economically captured by the oligarchy groups created under the military”.

Oo concurred that the Army represents a major obstacle to further progress in Myanmar: “Now there is a new distinction between the Army and the Government. They used to be the same thing. It is fine to criticise the Government but the Army remain hard to touch”. He explained that filmmakers still have to submit material to a censorship board which decides upon what may or may not be shown to the wider public. This process prevented a number of films containing material critical of the Army from being shown at the Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival in June this year.

MP Susanna Hla Hla Soe concluded: “The first challenge is the expectation of the people… They would like to see the new Myanamar happen, but change is slow”.

Former Czech ambassador to the UK, Pavel Seifter

Film Reviews:

The Little Finger

Produced by: Shune Lei Thar, Kaung Myat Thu Kyaw, Saw Reagan

The Little Finger portrays the tale of the Burmese democracy in its infancy, covering the 2015 election from the perspective of two women leading notably different lives. One of the women filmed was Susanna Hla Hla (a guest at the Frontline Club for the evening), a parliamentary candidate for the National League for Democracy party, headed by Aung San Suu Kyi. The other is a grass grower living and working in rural Burma.

The film exposes the flowering yet fragile state of Burmese democracy. The shots of voting day queues, an old man sitting patiently waiting to cast his vote, a young man taking a ‘selfie’ in the queue, contrast with the concerns expressed by NLD activists regarding election tampering and voter documentation malpractice.

The Little Finger reveals the intertwined excitement and nervousness of democracy in action. It is hopeful yet truthful, it doesn’t fail to expose the disappointment felt by those left out of the democratic process. “They never failed to collect our taxes but now they are saying we can’t vote,” says one man upon finding out he can’t be registered to vote due to residential status issues. A warts and all look at the democratic process in action — The Little Finger records the joy of those who have waited so long for the vote exercising their democratic right, and the pain felt by those who’s wait goes on.

A Peaceful Land

Produced by:Sai Kong Kham, Lamin Oo

The early shots of toy soldiers in the sand beautifully set the scene for the story that unfolds throughout A Peaceful Land. This is the tale of land taken, of an entire way of life disrupted. Drawing on a range of interviews with those impacted, the film documents the 2005 government initiated nation-wide campaign to plant Physic Nut – a bush-like tree, used for biodiesel production.

Following Government orders, the Army set about confiscating acres of farmland as part of the programme, forcing farmers to plant the trees and work the land appropriated.

Faced with hardship and injustice, four courageous farmers from Nat Mauk (Magway Division) stood up against the authorities and fought for their rights and land.

Following prolonged harassment and even in some cases imprisonment, the afflicted were offered miserly compensation from the Government in return for seized acreage. Many felt forced to accept the terms and as such lost their deep connection to their farmland.

Despite intense pressure from the authorities, one female farmer explains why she refused to give up her plot: “The money will run out in the end, but the farmland will never run out”.

The documentary is beautifully shot and tenderly portrays the widespread pain felt by Burmese farmers at their loss of land and community. The documentary closes with frames depicting earth eroding into a river beside rural fields, symbolising the farmers plight.

I Wanna Go to School

Produced by: Nyan Kyal Say 

A powerful, short animation about a Burmese brother and sister who dream of going to school together. The story demonstrates effectively the obstacles to education faced by children in Burma. It highlights the prevalence and impact of gender inequality, poverty, child labour and abuse. With one in five Burmese children not in education and one in three Burmese children working, the story told is sadly an everyday reality for many young boys and girls in Myanmar.
A Buffalo Boy
Produced by: Mai Ah Nway (Ta’ang Chitthu) 

A fiction film detailing the life of a small boy in a rural village in the Burmese countryside. The boy is caught in the midst of warring parents, with his father a destructive opium addict and his mother struggling to provide for the family. The boy longs for an education and to join the other children from his village at school but is instead forced to work for the family, performing tasks such as gathering water and organising the family home.

The film provides a potent insight into the life of this one young boy, carefully detailing the everyday defeats inflicted upon him which curtail his happiness and development. After an argument between his parents, his mother is arrested whilst trying to buy opium for his father. The boy is left alone with his dad and is soon after sold off to a stranger to finance his father’s habit. Hard hitting, raw and skilfully weaved together, this is the story of the innocence of youth lost.

Podcasts are a great way to engage the public and hook audiences in. More personal and intimate than video, they are also simple to produce. In this one-day workshop, we’ll give you the tools you need to start making your own podcasts. We will be recording on smart phones.

Content:

• Introduction to audio. A few well-chosen words.
• Content and casting. So what’s it all about?
• Interviewing and the art of conversation.
• Editorial control. Who is steering the ship? Some journalism basics.
• Music, actuality, and the special bits.
• Recording basics on smart phones.

What to bring:

• A laptop with an installed version of Adobe Audition. You can download a free trial here.
• A smart phone to record audio on.
• Pen and paper to take notes.

Trainers

Rosie Bartlett is a journalist and communications trainer with over 18 years of international media training and production experience for the BBC and global NGOs. At the BBC she produced international news programmes for the BBC World Service and digital stories for BBC Radio and Music online. Rosie has worked with BBC’s Global Women in News to launch their training strategy and leads training for Sound Women.

Kate Hoyland re-launched and ran the successful BBC Production Trainee Scheme, which receives upwards of three thousand applications yearly. She has 18 years experience as a journalist in the BBC World Service, where she specialised in international news before moving on to manage Radio and Production training, delivering leadership and media training to journalists from 22 international bureaux. Kate is currently producing a podcast series for UCL on interdisciplinary working. She works on social media accounts for the BBC.

Rosie Bartlett and Kate Hoyland deliver training courses for Quattrain. To find out more about their courses please click here. 

Image: via Shutterstock