Pakistan
Taliban threaten to kill Beverly Geisbrecht
According to reports coming out of Pakistan the Taliban have threatened to kill Beverly Geisbrecht, the Canadian freelance journalist kidnapped in November 2008, if ransom demands are not met by March 30. Earlier this month a ransom demand of $375,000 was reportedly made. In a video taped message sent to the Miranshah Press Club earlier […]
$375,000 ransom demand for Beverly Giesbrecht
The Globe & Mail reports that a ransom demand of $375,000 has been made by the Taliban kidnappers of Beverly Giesbrecht who has been held hostage since November 2008. The paper says the demand came during an interview with a man calling himself Qari on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border who said only money would secure her […]
Kidnapped journalist on video
A videotape of Beverly Giesbrecht, a freelance journalist who was kidnapped almost three months ago in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region, surfaced on Monday according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. The reporter, who also goes by the name of Khadija Abdul Qahaar and publishes Jihad Unspun, was kidnapped in November, 2008 in the Bannu district of […]
Mosa Khankhel killed in Swat valley
Mosa Khankhel, a journalist with GEO TV in Pakistan, was shot and killed by attackers in the Taliban controlled area of Swat valley, 100 miles northwest of Islamabad today. The attackers subsequently tried to behead him. Reporters without borders express outrage at the killing, “We want to express our full solidarity with journalists in the […]
LIVE event: Insight with Tariq Ali on Pakistan
You can now watch the event here. Tariq Ali, the writer, filmmaker and political activist, will be in conversation with journalist Charles Glass at the Frontline Club in London tonight. Ali’s latest book, The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power, weighs the prospects of those contending for power in the aftermath of […]
Beverly Giesbrecht ransom deal reported
According to unnamed sources in English-language Pakistani News International, a ransom demand of $150,000 has been made for the release of Canadian journalist Beverly Giesbrecht, also known as Khadija Abdul Qahaar, who was kidnapped in Pakistan in November 2008.
Two journalists killed in Pakistan
Two journalists were among seven killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Government Polytechnic College in Dera Ismail Khan in northern Pakistan yesterday, The suicide bomber struck when police and forensic experts were collecting evidence after cordoning off the area around the teashop. Officials said the head and legs of a man […]
Live event: Mumbai – India’s 9/11
View in iTunes Tonight we discuss the recent attacks in Mumbai at the Frontline Club – Tue, 26 Dec at 7pm UK time. We’ll be broadcasting the event on the Frontline Club live channel which you can see above, What will these attacks mean for the ongoing “war on terror” and will India now be […]
Peshawar off limits to foreign correspondents
Sami Yousafzai has reported from the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan since September 11, 2001. However, he says he’s never been in more danger. The Afghan journalist, who was attacked along with a Japanese journalist last week, spoke about safety from his hospital bed this week, “I think divine intervention saved me. The gunman […]
Beverly Giesbrecht kidnapped in Pakistan
Beverly Giesbrecht, a Canadian freelance journalist also know as Khadija Abdul Qahaar, was on a commission with Al-Jazeera when she was kidnapped on Tuesday. According to a report by AFP the 52 year old was seized at gunpoint in Bannu district of Pakistan which borders Afghanistan. "The government of Canada is aware of the kidnapping […]
Two journalists shot in Pakistan
An Afghan journalist and a Japanese journalist were shot in the Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar today. Motoki Yodsukura 四倉幹木さん, a reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, was shot in the foot and is said to be in a stable condition. However the condition of Abdul Sami Yousafzai, the Afghan journalist, is said to […]
Daniel Pearl jam session
FODfest, or Friends of Danny, is a concert tour to celebrate the life of Daniel Pearl, the WSJ journalist murdered in Pakistan in 2002. The first show takes place on what would have been Pearl’s 45th birthday on Friday, Oct. 10, at 7:30 p.m., at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, reports the […]
Asra Nomani on tracking down Daniel Pearl suspects
Asra Nomani, a journalist and activist who teaches at Georgetown University, talks to Murali Krishnan at the Indo-Asian News Service about ‘The Pearl Project’. The aim of the project is to track down the estimated 19 suspects still at large in the Daniel Pearl murder case – the Wall Street journalist was killed in Pakistan […]
Journalist Victims’ Fund announced
This week in Pakistan, the Federal Information Minister Sherry Rehman announced the launch of the Journalist Victims’ Fund to help journalists working on the frontline, “Cameramen and photo journalists on frontline, in particular, those who work in conflict zones have to suffer. Their instruments are insured but their organisations don’t get insurance policy for them,†[…]
Mushtaq Yusufzai collects Kate Webb Award
Mushtaq Yusufzai, the Pakistani journalist who was announced the inaugural winner of the Kate Webb Award last month, picked up his award at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Hong Kong last night. He won the award for his reports from Pakistan’s tribal belt, “It is very difficult now to work independently in the tribal areas. […]
John Moore on Pakistan
[video:brightcove:1593364051] John Moore talks about his work at the Frontline Club. The photographer has worked in Pakistan for over two years and was present when Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. He is interviewed by Frontline Club member Christina Lamb.
Fasih Ahmed wins New York Press Club Award
Fasih Ahmed has won the New York Press Club’s Best Spot News Award 2007 for coverage of the Benazir Bhutto assassination for Newsweek. â€I am very pleased to have been acknowledged by my peers in journalism,†said Mr Ahmed. This is an award for democracy and for Pakistan. Mr Ahmed was the Inaugural Daniel Pearl […]
Mushtaq Yusufzai wins inaugural Kate Webb Award
Pakistani journalist Mushtaq Yusufzai has won the naugural Kate Webb Award for his reports from the Pakistans tribal belt areas home to a number of Al-Qaeda loyalists. The award was presented by Agence France-Presse and was announced today. the 32 year old reporter has previously been wounded by the Taliban and arrested during his work. […]
Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Global Nuclear Weapons Conspiracy
Nuclear weapons and weapons-systems are never politically-neutral. Nor have they ever been developed openly or debated in democratically-elected parliaments. The Los Alamos project in New Mexico was a top-secret operation. In Britain, the decision was kept secret even from the Labour Cabinet. Likewise the French. The Israelis were so angered by Mordechai Vanunu revealing some […]
Where’s the war?
You turn up for a war and the war doesn’t show up. Frontline club member, and fellow blogger here, Ben Hammersley along with the world’s press corps didn’t find the story he was expecting in Pakistan this week, This is a strange job. Most people, upon seeing impending trouble, tend to run the other way. […]
Ben Hammersley covers Pakistan elections
Founding Frontline club member and From the Frontline blogger Ben Hammersley is on the move. He heads to Pakistan today for a week to cover the upcoming elections. He’ll be blogging along the way and you can follow what he’s up to as soon as his blog reawakens here. Ben has more on his personal […]
Journalist murdered in Quetta
Paramedical workers carry the body of famous journalist Dr Chishti Mujahid on an ambulance – PakTribune According to The Daily Times Dr. Chishti Mujahid, a senior journalist and press photographer, was shot dead in Quetta on Saturday morning. The banned militant group, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), has claimed responsibility for the murder. Dr. Mujahid […]
“I am here to take you to the airport”
In today’s Washington Post, freelance reporter Nicholas Schmidle talks about the dangers of reporting from Pakistan and how he was forced to leave, The police came for me on a cold, rainy Tuesday night last month. They stood in front of my home in Islamabad, four men with hoods pulled over their heads in the […]
Bikinis to Islamabad
Chief foreign correspondent for CBS Lara Logan secured an exclusive with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for the 60 Minutes show, but not all her luggage made it with her from near her hometown in South Africa, The interview capped a frantic week-and-a-half for Ms. Logan, who was vacationing on a beach near her South African […]
Afshin Rattsani remembers Bhutto
Frontline club member and Al Jazeera journalist Afshin Rattansi recalls meeting Benazir Bhutto on the steps of the club opposite Mickey’s fish and chip bar after her Q&A session in July 2007, It was quite a scene. Members of her security detail – I assume – milled about in front of Mickey’s Fish and Chip […]
John Moore in Rawalpindi
The New York Times uses a combination of images, audio and text to rapidly create a very powerful and informative multimedia report from Getty’s John Moore who was at the scene of Benazir Bhutto’s assasination in Rawalpindi yesterday. via Ben
Benazir Bhutto 1953 – 2007
[video:brightcove:1111466957] Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, was assasinated earlier today in Rawalpindi. Six months ago, at the Frontline Club, she was interviewed by George Arney of the BBC World Servive about the future for her country.
Pakistan Teeters
“We’re watching a lot of cookery programmes and cricket!” cried one of my oldest Pakistani friends when I arrived at her house a week after General Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of emergency rule. All Pakistan’s private news channels were taken off air on Saturday November 3rd when the general announced his second coup. Yet fuzzy TV […]
Fighting the Militants
The recent attempted bombings in London and Glasgow have highlighted the fact that Britain remains a prime target for al-Qaeda. Outside Iraq and Afghanistan, Britain is al-Qaeda’s most popular target, having faced more attempted attacks than any other country. Leaving aside various ineffectual plots, fundraising and propaganda efforts, the so-called Doctors’ Plot was at least […]