BBC
Bill Neely: masterclass in using words, pictures and sound for TV news
frontlineclub on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free The international editor for ITV News, Bill Neely delivered a fascinating masterclass in television journalism last night at the Frontline Club. Part of a regular series of ‘Reflections’ events in association with the BBC College of Journalism, in which top journalists talk about their work and those who inspired […]
Insight with Zarghuna Kargar: The women of Afghanistan
Watch event here. By Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi Women would be the biggest losers if Afghanistan’s peace plan includes a deal with fundamentalist elements of the Taliban, according to Rachel Reid, who hosted Frontline’s talk with Afghan journalist Zarghuna Kargar. Reid sais she had lost hope that peace in Afghanistan would include progress for women. Reid, […]
BBC World Debate: “Is Homosexuality UnAfrican?”
Download this episode View in iTunes You can watch the Frontline event here. By Gianluca Mezzofiore After the killing of gay rights activist David Kato in Uganda in January, debate about homophobia in Africa has been reignited. Kato was the face of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) an advocacy group actively campaigning against the controversial Anti-Homosexuality […]
Aid and the media: A troubled relationship
Watch the event here. By Gianluca Mezzofiore A panel at the Frontline Club, chaired by Mark Galloway, director of International Broadcasting Trust, an educational and media charity which works on range of projects to promote media coverage of the developing world, discussed yesterday the problems linked with media and aid. “We have ups and downs […]
BBC Newsnight says MoD refused to provide figures for Sangin attacks
British forces have handed over responsibility for security in Sangin, Afghanistan to their U.S. counterparts. More than a hundred British soldiers lost their lives in the district. As part of their research for last night’s coverage of this story, BBC Newsnight wanted the figures for "significant attacks on coalition forces in Sangin". They were trying […]
Upcoming paper on the BBC’s coverage of the Mumbai attacks
Just a note to let you know that later this month I’ll be speaking about the BBC’s coverage of the Mumbai attacks in 2008. The paper is a case study of the BBC’s adoption of live text commentary to report breaking news. Indeed, Mumbai was the first time the BBC had used a ‘live-blogging’ format […]
Lindsey Hilsum on the passion and idealism of journalism
Download this episode View in iTunes By Nicole Green Live-streaming a phone call to Israeli authorities while standing on the rubble of Palestinian homes, or reporting on the victims of genocide in Rwanda, where women care for the families who murdered their own, are experiences few journalists can count in their reporting history. But that […]
John Simpson: BBC under threat from politicians and Rupert Murdoch
By Gouri Sharma John Simpson is in no doubt over the very real political and regulatory threats the BBC is facing and doesn’t trust either of the main UK political parties to protect the organisation. The BBC world affairs editor, who was at the Frontline Club on Wednesday night to talk about his latest book, […]
Mark Urban blogging for the BBC from Afghanistan
Bit snowed under (not literally – it’s cold-ish here at the moment, but snow is so rare in the UK it usually brings the country to a standstill) with PhD work so afraid blogging will be a bit more sporadic over the coming weeks, if not months. (Pop by again in October 2010!) Just thought […]
The front line in Afghanistan
The BBC’s Ian Pannell and cameraman Fred Scott are on the front line in Helmand. The British troops they film are taking part in Operation Panther’s Claw, which has cost the lives of seven British soldiers in the last week. I picked this up via Dr Ken Payne on the Kings of War blog, […]
Live tonight – Gillian Tett on the credit crisis
We’ll be discussing the credit crisis, financial journalism and scaremongering with Financial Times Assistant editor and journalist of the year Gillian Tett at the Frontline Club tonight. Gillian will be in discussion with BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders. We start at 7.30pm GMT and as usual we’ll be streaming the event live above and on […]
BBC reporter on covering Gaza
BBC Arabic Correspondent, Shahdi Al Kashif, reported from Gaza during the Israeli military attack at the turn of the year. On Wednesday, he talked to a small group of BBC journalists about the challenges he faced. Below I’ve paraphrased a few of the things he said. I’ve reordered some of his remarks. Reporting from a […]
#G20 – Twitter dominates mainstream media coverage
I’m feeling rather overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information on the G20 protests and I’m just sitting and watching. But maybe that’s my problem – there is so much to watch. I’m currently waiting for 2,383 queued tweets on a #G20 search of Twitterfall (and later I realised that I need to keep it […]
The BBC “failed” Kate Peyton
Kate Peyton was gunned down outside the Sahafi hotel in Mogadishu in November, 2005. An inquest into her death was held in November, 2008. Charles Peyton, the brother of Kate, has asked us to publish this from him. The views contained below do not represent those of the Frontline Club, The BBC failed my sister, […]
Gaza media coverage – BBC bits and bobs
Just a couple of other things I picked up today from the BBC. 1. Here’s Robin Lustig’s blog again, writing from a point of view on Gaza. “You want to know what it’s like in Gaza at the moment? It’s Hell on earth. But that’s nothing new – it’s always Hell on earth here. Since […]
Gaza media coverage – official sources and numbers
Journalists like using ‘official sources’ of information. The theory (take a look at Herbert Gans among others) is that (in a democracy) government spokespeople, the police, officials, press officers etc are more useful to a journalist than other sources. They have access to information, are able to find out data, know people that know people, […]
Gaza media coverage – BBC and blogs
My research looks at how the BBC reports war and terrorism and specifically whether blogs make any difference to the way they do it. So here’s a rough ‘this-is-what-I’ve-found-first-time-round’ draft of how the BBC is using blogs to report from Gaza. Editors’ blog On the Editors’ blog, James Stephenson has written a post on Reporting […]
Is RICU trying to influence the media?
Recently, Dr Andrew Garner from RICU gave a talk at King’s College London about the government’s counter terrorism strategy. There’s more information and background about RICU in a previous post, but just to reiterate for the purposes of what appears below, this is Garner’s personal view and not that of RICU or the UK Government. […]
BBC Radio 5 Interview
This link will take you to an MP3 of my interview yesterday with Chris Vallance on my way home from the airport. Light listening.
On the radio
Just popping in to post for Alex here… He’s back in Nairobi writing up the story he worked on in Somalia and he’s on deadline. Therefore, just a quick post from me to guide you to the BBC Radio 5 Live interview with Alex for the iPM show and, repeated again, for the Pods and […]
“Growing up fast”
Ben Anderson hits Helmand for the Daily Mail, As a BBC foreign correspondent, I’ve visited most of the world’s war zones – Iraq, Gaza, Congo and many more – but nothing prepared me for what I found when I flew into Kandahar airport to join up with a unit of the First Battalion Grenadier Guards […]
Saving Storyville
Over the last decade I have made half a dozen films for Storyville. That simple statement doesn’t begin to convey how crucial the BBC documentary strand has been for me – and, I know, for documentary-makers round the world. Many of us who ply the documentary trade have, I fancy, some fellow feeling with those […]
Behind the Release
The call came on March 12th. “I don’t want to worry you, but Alan Johnston has not been heard from for a couple of hours.” He had not conformed to his regular daily routine of calling his colleagues after he arrived home from leaving work. It was a routine which had been implemented after the […]
Beware Falling Coconuts
The title of this book comes from signs nailed to countless trees all over Asia. A bit like terrorism, the warning is both necessary (hundreds die each year after being hit) and useless (because there is no time to get out of the way). No falling coconut hit Clapham on the head during his stints […]
Al-Jazeera English (1)
Bad news is often good news for journalists. The assassination of Lebanese opposition leader Pierre Gemayel may have been exactly that for Al-Jazeera English, the Westernized cousin of the channel the Bush administration loves to hate. It wasn’t so much that AJE triumphed in its coverage of the Lebanese event but it did show signs […]