Safety
#safetystream for freelancers
Our first #safetystream took place at the Frontline Club on Tuesday 22 October with the Frontline Freelance Register and the Rory Peck Trust. In a series of live-streamed panel discussion, freelancers and experts delivered safety tips and guides for freelancers working in conflict zones on risk assessment, communications plans and digital security. You can watch […]
Published: Newsgathering Safety and the Welfare of Freelancers
Today we are pleased to announce the publication of our white paper, Newsgathering Safety and the Welfare of Freelancers. A year ago, we invited freelancers, editors, managers, trainers and safety advisors to come together and discuss the issues of safety in the field. Since then, professionals from across the industry have been collaborating and sharing their experiences […]
Top 14 tips for secure mobile communications
Mobile networks in even the most benign democracies are required by law to build monitoring systems into their infrastructure. The powers that be can then use this data in a number of ways, ranging from disclosure, where historical records are released under a government request, to real time interception of location, numbers called and when you […]
Fixers: Explaining countries, cultures and revolutions
By Merryn Johnson Last night’s talk looked at the future of fixers in foreign reporting and at the relationships that develop when the ‘mad circus of the international press’ arrives to cover a news story, desperately needing to hide their ignorance of the country, culture and language. The discussion was chaired by Charles Glass, broadcaster, […]
Whoever said that journalism should be safe?
By Merryn Johnson 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 […]
The First Freelance News Safety Survey
The Frontline Club’s News Safety Initiative was launched on 8 May 2012 with a meeting of news industry decision-makers, leading practitioners and freelances, at the Frontline Club. The meeting was a great success and it was clear that everyone wanted us to take the best ideas forward.
Launch of Frontline Club journalism safety initiative
Editors, producers, practitioners and others involved in the news industry will gather at the Frontline Club in early May to discuss issues of safety.
Are cheap, local hires saving or ruining foreign reporting?
By Helena Williams Foreign reporting is changing. With news outlets’ budgets tightening, and competition, pressure and risks on the rise, foreign journalists working in conflict countries are abandoning traditional methods of reporting in favour of using cheap, local hires to get the story: “It used to be that you were a local journalist, and treated […]
Freelance News Safety Survey
From Vaughan Smith of the Frontline Club, Dear Colleague, I am convinced that there is an exciting opportunity, post embed-free Libya, for a practitioner-led initiative to move the industry forward on news safety. So in April this year the Frontline Club is hosting workshops, bringing news management, leading practitioners and experienced freelances together to discuss […]
Journalists killed as CPJ’s ‘Attacks on the Press’ is released
By Helena Williams No one who attended last night’s discussion at the Frontline Club on the safety of journalists was under any illusion that the issue was not an important one, but few there could have anticipated that it would be so topical. News of the death of Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin, a regular at the […]
‘Shooting vs. Shooting’ screening comes under fire
By Helena Williams A documentary on journalist casualties during the Iraq war came under fire last night as members of the audience questioned the director’s stance on the US military. Greek journalist Nikos Megrelis’ 2011 film, ‘Shooting vs. Shooting’, centres around the killing of Western journalists by American soldiers in Iraq and suggests that […]
BBC Editor says he was advised to pull journalists from Libya by Foreign Office
On the eve of the fall of Sirte, the BBC’s World News Editor has revealed that the Foreign Office “strongly recommended” to broadcasters that they pull their journalists out of Libya prior to the start of NATO’s bombing campaign. Speaking at yesterday evening’s Frontline Club event on the pressures of reporting conflict, Jon Williams said […]
Reporting conflict: competition, pressure and risks
View in iTunes Watch the event here. By Helena Williams In a year where 100 journalists have been killed so far while trying to tell the story, and as the media’s coverage of events rocking the Middle East have been brought into sharp relief, it seems high time to examine the delicate relationship between ensuring the […]
Martin Bell: Neutrality, safety and how not to do television news
Watch the event here. By Millie Cartwright Veteran war correspondent Martin Bell was at the Frontline Club last night to look back on his long career as a journalist and share some pearls of wisdom for aspiring foreign correspondents. Bell, who later went on to become MP for Tatton, a UNICEF ambassador and prolific writer, […]
BBC appeal for release of detained Tajikistan reporter
The BBC World Service is “highly concerned” about the safety of their correspondent in Tajikistan, Urunboy Usmonov, who has been detained in the country for a week without regular access to his lawyer. A statement was made by the BBC on June 16 condemning the detention and demanding the immediate release of Usmonov. But despite […]
The time for silence is over: Journalists and sexual violence
One of the most striking aspects of the accounts of sexual assault the Committee to Protect Journalists has documented is the concerns the women and men expressed about speaking about them. Umar Cheema, a prominent political reporter for Pakistan’s, The News, who spoke to the CPJ about his abduction, torture and sexual assault in 2010, said […]
Frontline: reporting from the world’s deadliest places
A newly revised and updated edition of Frontline by David Loyn was published this week. The acclaimed book chronicles the work of the Frontline news agency, founded by journalists Rory Peck, Peter Jouvenal, Vaughan Smith and Nicholas Della Casa. First published in 2005, the latest edition features a foreword from BBC world affairs editor John […]
Monkeys, demons and the dude
It wasn’t much of a surprise when the words “we’re taking indirect from the mountain” burst over the radio. The day had been long and so perhaps the threat had slipped to the back of my mind but as the message crackled over the interference I realised I’d spent the whole day anticipating it. Those […]
And now, since I promised . . .
. . . Here’s that shooting incident. Well yes, I admit I may have used the cheapest of soap opera tactics to entice you to this second entry, and although it was hardly a cliff hanger, if you were expecting bullets ricocheting from walls as I ran for cover with a cacophony of explosions ringing […]
Afghanistan: the brittle compact between military and media
Vaughan Smith argues that news management by the military is a risky business. Smith founded the Frontline Club in London in 2003 and during the 1990s he ran Frontline Television News. He filmed the only uncontrolled footage of the Gulf War in 1991 after bluffing his way into an active-duty unit while disguised as a […]
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 […]
Wikileaks video portrays the dangers of reporting the war on terror
By Ewan Palmer Last night Wikileaks revealed a shocking video of two US military helicopters killing a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad, including two staff members of Reuters. The footage was shot in 2007 and shows an unprovoked attack filmed from one of two Apache military helicopters. Two children were also […]
Journalists and kidnap: the modern dangers of reporting from the frontline
“When you get it right you win awards. When you get it wrong people say you’re naive.” That’s how freelance journalist Sean Langan describes the dilemma facing journalists working in hostile conflict zones every day. In a sense, just to be there reporting from a war zone is a risk – but if there were […]
First Wednesday: The challenges of telling the full story of war in Afghanistan
Download this episode View in iTunes Watch the full event here. By Heather Christie Media coverage of the conflict in Afghanistan is misinforming the public because it’s too heavily influenced by military strategy, practical challenges, and cultural preconceptions. That was the clear message at March’s first Wednesday event at the Frontline Club on Afghanistan and […]
Freed from Somalia
Freelance journalists Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan are finally free and in Kenya after being held hostage in Somalia for over one year. The duo were snatched on the outskirts of Mogadishu in August, 2008. It’s a story we have followed very closely since day one, "I’m so happy to be free; it feels like […]
So You Wanna be a Stringer?
I spent five years as a stringer for various British, American and Irish news organisations in Africa. I built my portfolio up from scratch until I was the first port of call for up to a dozen newspapers and radio stations. The money was good, the hours flexible enough for the occasional 18 holes in […]
About the Fixers’ Fund
Ajmal, a 24-year old journalist from Kabul, was taken hostage by the Taliban in Helmand province on March 4, 2007. He was working with the La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo and their driver Sayed Agha. Jon Lee Anderson wrote about the murder for the Frontline Club Magazine and his article inspired the creation of the […]
Lighting and Electrical Safety for Video
The Trainer says……“The Frontline camera and directing courses are an excellent way for people already in media jobs to get the new skills and confidence that are now essential in an evolving and demanding workplace. The courses are also a great introduction for people curious about entering any field where these skills are needed.” Many […]
Petition to release journalists held in Somalia
A group of six Canadian media organisations have banded together to petition the Canadian government and help raise awareness of the kidnap of freelance journalists Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan in Somalia over one year ago, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) is launching a campaign, joined by the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ), Canadian […]
Kidnapped journalists in Somalia moved
Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan, the two freelance journalists who were kidnapped well over one year ago on the outskirts of Mogadishu, have been moved "for security reasons" according to reports coming out of Somalia, "It is true that Lindhout and Brennan are not in Mogadishu," said [Ambroise Pierre, head of the Africa desk for […]