insight
Michael Žantovský on Havel: Dissident, Playwright and Philosopher
By Tom Adams On 3 November the Frontline Club hosted an event organised by the Czech Centre London, the insight with Michael Žantovský was part of the ‘Made in Prague’ festival season. Michael Žantovský, who is the current Czech Ambassador to the Court of St James, was discussing his new book called Havel: A Life. Václav Havel was elected as President […]
Insight with Jonathan Powell: Talking to Terrorists
The rise of the Islamic State (IS) has once again thrown into question how governments deal with the threat of terrorist organisations. Around the world governments consistently proclaim that they will never ‘negotiate with evil’. And yet is the public rhetoric always in line with what is actually going on behind closed doors? Jonathan Powell has spent nearly two decades mediating between governments and terrorist organisations. He will be joining us in conversation with roving foreign correspondent for The Times, Anthony Loyd, to reflect on the current situation and what we can learn from a history of clandestine communication.
Insight with Kathy Eldon: Dying to Tell the Story
By Hodan Yusuf – Pankhurst, freelance multimedia journalist Kathy Eldon is a journalist, activist, and author who has transformed a personal tragedy into a positive force for good. She spoke at the Frontline Club on 5 November about her son, Dan Eldon, a 22-year-old photojournalist who was one of four journalists killed in Somalia on the 12 […]
Insight with Kathy Eldon: Dying to Tell the Story
Dan Eldon was a 22-year-old photojournalist working in Mogadishu, Somalia, when he was killed in 1993. His mother, Kathy Eldon, heart broken by her son’s death, turned her mind to how she could transform the horror of what happened to him into a positive force for good. She will be joining us to talk about her journey, how she travelled to Somalia to try and understand why her son had been killed and how his life inspired her and her daughter, Amy Eldon Turteltaub, to start the Creative Visions Foundation, to support creative activists who use media and the arts to create social impact.
First Wednesday: Has NSA spying “reached too far”?
The latest revelations from whistleblower Edward Snowden have further exposed the extent of the US National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance. As pressure mounts on Washington and the release of information continues, join us to explore what the files reveal and the consequences of this diplomatic storm. We will be examining the actions of the intelligence services and asking whether they are aligned with protecting national security or as US Secretary of State John Kerry has said, that in some cases their “actions have reached too far”.
Insight with Paul Danahar: The New Middle East
Nearly three years after the start of the revolution in Tunisia, which was followed by uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa, many are beginning to examine what has changed in the region. One of those that has had a front row seat of this recent history is the BBC’s Middle East Bureau Chief, Paul Danahar. He will be joining us in conversation with BBC Arabic’s Samir Farah, to share his insight and analysis of events and what he feels the future holds for the region and it’s relationship with the West.
Insight with Anabel Hernández: The Mexican Drug Lords and Their Godfathers
Anabel Hernández is one of Mexico’s leading investigative journalists. It was the kidnap and murder of her father and the subsequent refusal by the police to investigate unless her family paid a bribe that led her to journalism. She will be joining us in conversation with Ed Vulliamy, a writer for The Guardian and Observer, and author of Amexica: War Along the Borderline, to talk about the work she does recording and investigating the shocking brutality of narco violence and the complexity of the cartels, their rivalries and their links to government and business.
FULLY BOOKED Insight with Jeremy Bowen: The Arab Uprisings
BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen reflects on the past two years of game-changing moments in the history of the Middle East.
Alan Cowell in conversation with Charles Glass – The Paris Correspondent
Join us at the Frontline Club for an evening with long time New York Times correspondent Alan Cowell who went from having the distinction of being the last correspondent to date to file by carrier pigeon to heading the New York Times web-based breaking news operation in Paris. It is this tradition that is documented in his new novel The Paris Correspondent and that he will be discussing with broadcaster, journalist and writer Charles Glass.
FULLY BOOKED In conversation with Lindsey Hilsum: Libya in the Time of Revolution
Channel 4 News’ international editor Lindsey Hilsum will be joining us in conversation with BBC Arabic presenter Rasha Qandeel to discuss Libya and her new book charting the country’s history from the beginnings of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime to the dictator’s squalid end.
A criminal fate in North Korea
By Rosie Scammell Shin Dong-Hyuk is the only known person born in a North Korean prison camp to escape. On Tuesday night he told a packed audience that they must help the 200,000 remaining: “The first thing that I remember being told by the prison guard was that we were supposed to be dead a […]
Behind the wall of secrecy: Escape from Camp 14
View event here. View in iTunes By Jim Treadway A packed house heard the touching and frightening story of Shin Dong-hyuk at the Frontline Club, told in Blaine Harden’s recently published book Escape from Camp 14: One man’s remarkable odyssey from North Korea to freedom in the West. Shin Dong-hyuk is one of only three known prisoners […]
FULLY BOOKED Behind the wall of secrecy: Escape from Camp 14
Little is known about the prison camps of North Korea where it is estimated that 200,000 are imprisoned. Shin Dong-Hyuk is the only person born into one of these camps that has ever escaped.
He will be joining us at the Frontline Club with Blaine Harden whose book Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West recounts this extraordinary journey.
FULLY BOOKED Insight with Ahmed Rashid – Pakistan on the Brink: The Future of America, Pakistan, and Afghanistan
As we approach the one year anniversary of the death of Osama Bin Laden, Ahmed Rashid will be joining senior BBC presenter and special correspondent Lyse Doucet to discuss the future for Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States.
FULLY BOOKED Wael Ghonim in conversation with Ben Hammersley: Revolution 2.0
Named one of Time magazine’s top 100 most influential people, Wael Ghonim, is credited with having sparked Egypt’s revolution with a Facebook page he dedicated to a victim of the regime’s violence.
The former Google executive will be talking to Ben Hammersley, Wired UK’s, editor at large about the revolution and the role of technology in mobilising people to take to the streets. He will also be bringing us up to date with what’s been happening since the jubilant celebrations a year ago and his work since he left Google in April this year.
Wael Ghonim in conversation with Ben Hammersley: Revolution 2.0
Named one of Time magazine’s top 100 most influential people, Wael Ghonim, is credited with having sparked Egypt’s revolution with a Facebook page he dedicated to a victim of the regime’s violence.
The former Google executive will be talking to Ben Hammersley, Wired UK’s, editor at large about the revolution and the role of technology in mobilising people to take to the streets. He will also be bringing us up to date with what’s been happening since the jubilant celebrations a year ago and his work since he left Google in April this year.
Insight with Jonathan Steele: The craft of the foreign correspondent
Jonathan Steele has been covering global events for the Guardian for over forty years. From the civil rights movement in Mississippi and Alabama to his extensive coverage of the past 30 years of Afghan history, his work has won him recognition as one of the greatest foreign correspondents of his generation.
He will be joining us at the Frontline Club in conversation with freelance journalist Tom Finn who is currently based in Sana’a, Yemen to reflect on his 40-year career, which has taken him to Eastern Europe, Washington correspondent and Kabul, Afghanistan throughout the Soviet period until 1992.
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.
Insight with Wilbert Rideau: In the Place of Justice
In 1961 Wilbert Rideau was a nineteen year old African-American living in Louisiana, the deep south of segregated America. An eighth-grade dropout despaired by the dead-end and small-town future his life held for him he set out to rob a local bank. The robbery went very wrong and Rideau found himself sentenced to death row. Award winning journalist Wilbert Rideau will be joining us at the Frontline Club in conversation with Afua Hirsch, the Guardian’s legal affairs correspondent to recount his extraordinary story and the work he now does educating people about the realities of the world behind bars.
Insight with Gary Younge: Who are we – and should it matter?
Join Gary Younge at the Frontline Club to discuss his book Who Are We – and Should it Matter in the 21st Century? which takes in Sarah Palin, Tiger Woods and the Danish cartoon controversy and calls forthe differences between us to be talked about “properly”.