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 in December 1989, to its eventual suspension in 2003, this outfit for freelance video reporters has spanned from the journalistic sublime to the ridiculous. The madcap ideas of flying into warzones by microlight or launching an extreme tourism business were balanced by such successes as getting the first images of Afghans fighting the Russians with Stinger missiles, proving that the Americans were supplying the mujahideen with modern equipment.

The spirit of FNTV was captured in the first image we saw of Rory Peck and Peter standing next to a shattered helicopter before a backdrop of the Afghan mountains. When asked if that was the helicopter that flew them in, Peter replied deadpan: “No, we actually walked across the border from Tajikistan.”

Such determination and innovation characterised the agency, which adapted to compete in an industry that often treated freelances as outsiders.

“We were the first group to start using these small cameras. We responded to the available technology, like the computer editing system and satellites. We were early adopters because that’s where the opportunity was to get into the news industry.” — Vaughan Smith

This resourcefulness resulted in one of FNTV’s central successes when Vaughan impersonated a British officer to circumvent the ‘grotesque news management’ of the reporter-embedding system during the Gulf War in 1991. This masquerade produced the only footage of rockets heading for Iraq, and in John Simpson’s words: “The best piece of combat footage I’ve ever seen.”

Peter’s recount of filming the civil war in Liberia touched on the humour of being chased down a street by gangs fresh from looting bridal and lighting shops – wearing full wedding gowns and lampshades on their heads – and the horror of witnessing the murder of a mother and child and the ethics of reporting in conflict.

“I tend to film things that sometimes are not very palatable, but I see it as my job to record these events…. It’s very important to stay neutral. My job it to witness it and film it…. It’s a very difficult position to be in and quite dangerous. The Afghans always kill for a purpose which you can figure out and avoid those situations, but in the case of Liberia, they would kill for no reason.” — Peter Jouvenal

Of course it’s a dangerous job. Vaughan maintains that he’s been shot more times than he’s been credited by the BBC, and not all of the FNTV cameramen survived – founding members Rory Peck and Nick della Casa both died in conflict – and absent friends were remembered last night.

“It’s not a safe job, but then, as Tira Shubart said to me, whoever said that journalism should be safe? Safe journalism is the kind of journalism you don’t want to be a part of.” — John Simpson

Created in 1989 by a small group of young British men and women, Frontline News Television was a pioneering international news agency for freelance video journalists that was 20 years ahead of its time. The agency closed in 2003, by which time half of its camera-people had been killed while filming around the world. 

FNTV founders Peter Jouvenal and the Frontline Club’s Vaughan Smith, in conversation with BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson, will tell the thrilling story of the agency with clips from the footage they and their colleagues recorded on the front line.

Frontline’s cameramen and women were the first to pick up small format, consumer, cameras. Their successes included securing the first western media interview with Bin Laden, the first film of the stinger missiles that altered the course of the 1980’s war in Afghanistan, key footage of the Romanian revolution, the only uncontrolled footage of the ground conflict in the first Gulf War and footage of the Kosovo conflict that led to British and NATO involvement. The dramatic story of the agency is told by David Loyn of the BBC in his book, recently published in paperback, Frontline: Reporting from the World’s Deadliest Places.

This event is free to attend but please register in advance by clicking the "book" link above. The event has been made possible through a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund with which the Frontline Club Charitable Trust is currently digitising and cataloguing 1,000 hours of FNTV footage.