Iran

September 30, 2011 7:00 PM

REACTIVE: The battle for press freedom in Iran

Almost two weeks after their arrest, little has been heard about the fate of the six Iranian filmmakers who are currently being held in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison with no access to their lawyers.
Accused of collaborating secretly with BBC Persian and illegally supplying content portraying Iran in a negative light, they have been condemned as “a group of terrorists, Bahais, communists and devil worshippers” by Iran’s Minister of Intelligence.

Join us at the Frontline Club for this reactive briefing to discuss the detainment of the filmmakers, the battle for press freedom in Iran and the regime’s relationship with foreign media.


September 27, 2011

The battle for press freedom in Iran, Martin Bell and Somalia: the week ahead at Frontline Club

ANNOUNCING REACTIVE EVENT: Following the arrest of six Iranian filmmakers accused of collaborating secretly with BBC Persian, we will be bringing together a reactive panel on Friday to discuss their detainment and the battle for press freedom in Iran. Join us this evening with veteran war correspondent Martin Bell as he reflects on a career that has seen […]


September 21, 2011

ForesightNews world briefing: UN General Assembly’s General Debate

By Jasper Smith, senior international and security affairs reporter, ForesightNews USA Once a year, the world’s leaders descend on New York for the UN’s blue ribbon event, the cumbersomely-titled UN General Assembly’s General Debate. This year, the build-up has been dominated by the Palestinian Authority’s planned bid to become the 194th member of the UN, […]


August 18, 2011

Humanising Iran: Insights with Kamin Mohammadi

By Helena Williams Iranian author and journalist Kamin Mohammadi explained her reasons for telling her family’s story without saturating her book The Cypress Tree in her homeland’s complex political history at the Frontline Club last night. “The greater truth I want to communicate about my country is a human truth – it’s not about politics,” said Mohammadi, adding: “the more […]


August 17, 2011 7:00 PM

Insight with Kamin Mohammadi: Rediscovering Iran

When nine-year-old Kamin Mohammadi fled to London with her family in June 1979 escaping Iran after the revolution that brought down the Shah little was she to know that she would not step foot in the country again for 17 years.

She will be joining us at the Frontline Club in conversation with Pooneh Ghoddoosi from BBC Persian TV to talk about her journey back to her homeland to find the family she left behind, and to rediscover her Iranian identity after 17 years away from the country that she loved.

As an Iranian exile living in Britain, Mohammadi struggled to fit in. She will be joining us at the Frontline Club to talk about her journey back to her homeland to find the family she left behind, and to rediscover her Iranian identity after almost 18 years away from the country that she loved.


July 21, 2011

ForesightNews world briefing: upcoming events 25-31 July

A weekly round up of world events from Monday, 25 July to Sunday, 31 July from ForesightNews The week starts off with two high-profile court hearings on Monday. Former Egyptian Interior Minister Habib al Adly is scheduled to go on trial in Cairo on charges of ordering the deaths of protesters, but the hearing has been […]


June 28, 2011 7:00 PM

THIRD PARTY: Screening – The Baha’is of Iran

Organised by BBC Persian

Followed by a Q&A.

In 2010, BBC Persian’s Kasra Naji and Rozita Riazati setout to focus attention on the plight of Baha’is in Iran; their goal was to help Iranians understand the Faith and to shed light on the extent of persecution suffered by its members in Iran. On 30 June 2010, the day the BBC Persian documentary Baha’is in Iran was first broadcast, 50 houses owned by Baha’is were demolished in a village northeast of Tehran – driving home the stark reality of the persecution suffered by Iranian Baha’is.


June 28, 2011

The week ahead at the Frontline Club: Assange and

This evening’s screening and panel discussion organised by BBC Perisan will shed light on the extent of persecution suffered by The Baha’is of Iran. Tomorrow we will be joined by award winning ITV News‘ international editor Bill Neely who will be talking about his recent work in Libya, the stories he has covered since he began his career and […]


June 28, 2011

The week ahead at the Frontline Club: Assange and Žižek, Somali pirates & kill/capture in Afghanistan

This evening’s screening and panel discussion organised by BBC Perisan will shed light on the extent of persecution suffered by The Baha’is of Iran. Tomorrow we will be joined by award winning ITV News‘ international editor Bill Neely who will be talking about his recent work in Libya, the stories he has covered since he began his career and […]


June 2, 2011

You say you want an Arab Revolution: the Green movement in Iran

By Gianluca Mezzofiore The current struggle for power in Iran and the impact of the Arab Spring on the country were the topics for an animated First Wednesday debate at the Frontline Club last night. Award-winning journalist Saeed Kamali Dehghan pointed out that nobody in the past 20 years dared to expose the Supreme Leader […]


June 1, 2011

The Frontline Club: What’s coming up in the week ahead

Tonight Paddy O’Connell of BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House will be back in the chair for June’s First Wednesday. There are a few tickets left so book now if you want to discuss the effect of the Arab Spring in Iran and the power struggle at the heart of Iran’s government. Tomorrow evening there is […]


February 14, 2011

Exploring the role of Twitter and social media in revolutions

I’m afraid I haven’t been able to follow events in Tunisia and Egypt as closely as I would have liked as I was determined to enjoy an overdue holiday and a break from computer screens. And my mission was largely accomplished. As part of an attempt to catch up, I’ve just been reading Jeff Jarvis, […]


November 15, 2010

Blogging backlash against proposal to escalate confrontation with Iran

Earlier this month bloggers rounded on a column written in the Washington Post which suggested that Barack Obama could revive the United States’ flagging economy by ramping up tensions with Iran. In an article in the Washington Post on 31 October, David Broder wrote that the President could "spend much of 2011 and 2012 orchestrating […]


October 28, 2010 7:00 PM

THIRD PARTY EVENT Iran today: Let the Swords Encircle Me

Based on more than thirty extended reporting trips by Scott Peterson to Iran, including the turbulent aftermath of the disputed June 2009 election, Let the Swords Encircle Me: Iran – A Journey Behind the Headlines is the definitive guide to this enigmatic nation, from the roots of its incendiary internal struggles to the rise and slide of Iran’s earthshaking 1979 Islamic Revolution.


August 17, 2010 7:00 PM

Can unarmed people still change the world?

Can everyday people change the world? With conflicts raging across the world and European governments imposing stringent austerity measures, people are wondering more and more how they can play a role in shaping their future.


August 10, 2010 7:00 PM

Online Protest: power to the people?

View in iTunes Social media has opened up new ways for people to communicate, organise and campaign. But in what ways are people using social media for political ends? Looking at examples from around the world we will be examining the ways in which new tools are being used and the ways they have been […]


July 21, 2010 7:00 PM

Focus on Iran: Detainment and conviction

Join us at the Frontline Club to examine the situation for foreigners and Iranians that are detained and convicted in Iran. Should the international community be putting more pressure on the Iranian government to justify their actions?


July 16, 2010

Shane Bauer: The forgotten journalist

By Andrew Sampson On the 30th of December last year, two French journalists were kidnapped by an Afghan ‘warlord’ whilst covering a story for France 3. When news was received of their capture, an immediate request was sent out to other news organisations not to release the journalists’ names due to safety concerns. Six months […]


September 11, 2009

Access Denied: Twitter, Iran and embedding journalists in online culture

You can now watch the event here.  The Iranian Election was the moment when Twitter “exploded into our consciousness as a really powerful newsgathering tool” Adrian Wells told the Frontline Club earlier this week. Sky’s Foreign Editor was discussing how media organisations cover ‘news black holes’ with Richard Sambrook, Head of Global News at the […]


June 30, 2009

Frontline Club events broadcast on Livestation

The Frontline Club is now broadcasting events from the forum in Paddington live on the Internet with Livestation.com. We’ve been testing the service quietly for the past few weeks and have found the video and audio quality are excellent. You’ll need to download some software to your PC/Mac and once you have you can tune […]


June 30, 2009

Live tonight – Reporting Iran

We’ll be discussing the situation in Iran following the disputed election results at the Frontline Club tonight. Specifically, how did hotel-bound foreign journalists report from Tehran and beyond during the election and days and weeks following? We start at 7pm GMT and as usual if you can’t join us in person please come and join […]


June 25, 2009

Strategic Communications: New Media

Here in the bunker – it is a rather swish conference room but there’s a serious shortage of natural light – we’ve been looking at new media and strategic communications. In a moment, three themes from the session and the morning’s discussion.  But if you want a frankly more interesting general overview of what the […]


June 22, 2009

Maziar Bahari arrested in Tehran

Maziar Bahari envoyé par Khanjar. – Explorez des lieux exotiques en vidéo. Newsweek reporter, film maker and Frontline Club regular Maziar Bahari has been detained in Tehran. Maziar has been living in the Islamic Republic for the past ten years. Foreign media have been barred from covering the post election protests and many journalists, including […]


June 19, 2009

Rumours are not confined to Twitter

The Washington Post appears to have inaccurately reported that "the Twitter interface does not support the use of Farsi". The ‘fact’ that Twitter didn’t support Farsi was news to me because I have been watching tweets come into my Twitter feed in Farsi. (Fairly useless from my point of view because I can’t read them, […]


June 18, 2009

Iran and those elections – Live tonight

We’re discussing the aftermath of the June 12 presidential elections in Iran tonight. We start at 7pm GMT/11am PST and as usual, if you can’t make it to the Club in person, do please join us online in what should be a fantastic debate. We’ll be streaming the event on the Frontline Club broadcast channel, […]


June 18, 2009

Going beyond the hashtag to follow Iran

Over on Slate Jack Shafer is concerned that his "cognitive colander isn’t big enough to strain out Iran information" on Twitter. For the last couple of days I’ve been tracking what has been going on in Iran and suffering from a similar problem. But hopefully this post might help. To begin with I fired up […]


June 17, 2009

Iran Election: links on media coverage 2

The same deal as yesterday but today instead:   Al Jazeera English Journalist uses Twitter to get commentary on Iran.   BBC Changing the website to green was NOT a gesture of support to the protesters. Director of Global News says UGC offers authenticity to BBC coverage. Have Your Say team interact with Twitterer. Jon […]


June 1, 2009

Update: Who is who in Iran’s elections?

Well, two days ago, when I wrote a post about upcoming presidential elections in Iran, I should have guessed it – I was stepping into a mine field 🙂 Ethnicity was always a very sensitive issue in Iran, and my speculations about ethnic background of Iranian presidential candidates received some feedback from my Iranian readers […]


May 30, 2009

Election time in Iran

I admit there are two things in Iran that we, Northern Azeris envy – the first is cheap petrol and the second is free an fair elections. No joke! Yesterday, American news magazine Time started one of its articles with this paragraph: The presidential candidate was greeted last Monday at the airport by a jubilant […]


May 12, 2009

Roxana Saberi and media attention

While the world welcomes the release of US/iranian journalist Roxana Saberi and the analysts pile in with their take of what it all means for US/Iranian relations, roughly 125 journalists remain behind bars around the world according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.  The Iranian-Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan, arrested in Tehran on November 2008, slips […]