Journalism
The Resonance and Peculiarity of Vietnam
By Benedict Nagle-Taylor Photograph: Chris King An opening clip from Michael Nicholson’s ITV series, Back to the Front was shown to set the scene for the evening and was followed by our panellists recalling their experiences of Vietnam, from their initial bewilderment of its size and complexity, to their realisation of the graphic carnage around […]
Reporting Vietnam: ‘We don’t only work for the news, we work for the memory’
By Gouri Sharma The only victory for the media during the Vietnam War was that the public decided it never wanted to see those images and stories again. That was a central theme at a Frontline event on Friday to mark the 35 years of the end of the Vietnam war. If you couldn’t be […]
How Wikileaks is changing journalism
Tensions were revealed in the relationship between some of the news organisations that collaborated with the whistleblowing organisation Wikileaks in publishing the Afghan War Diary when its founder Julian Assange spoke at a Frontline Club event last night. Speaking via Skype at a discussion hosted by Paddy O’Connell, presenter of BBC Broadcasting House, Assange said […]
Social networking and journalism: Power to the people?
By Julie Tomlin and Sirena Bergman How have Facebook, Twitter and blogs changed changed grassroots politics? This was the question tackled at the club on Tuesday, at an event moderated by Deborah Bonello, founder of Mexicoreporter.com and video journalist for the Financial Times. If you couldn’t be with us for this event, you can watch […]
WikiLeaks founder at the Frontline: ‘We will fill the journalism vacuum’
Download this episode View in iTunes Watch the whole event here. By Heather Christie “We’re not an organisation concerned with protecting troops,” said Julian Assange. “We’re an organisation concerned with protecting human beings.” The founder of WikiLeaks, the secretive whistle-blowing website, did not mince his words at last night’s Frontline Club talk. Rather, he […]
Wikileaks founder defends Afghan War Diary files at the Frontline
Download this episode View in iTunes The founder of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks today described the release of more than 90,000 classified US military documents on the war in Afghanistan as the equivalent to the East German Stasi secret police opening up its files after the collapse of communism. Julian Assange was speaking at the Frontline […]
Ian Parry Photography Scholarship 2010 Winner Announced
On Friday, the Frontline Club hosted the Ian Parry Scholarship judging session.
The esteemed judges awarded Sebastian Liste the 2010 scholarship for his work focusing on homeless families in Brazil.
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 […]
Any difference between PR and journalism?
Watch the full event here. “PR has always been the get-out for journalists who want to make more money,” said Martin Veitch who is due to join Bite Communications. “Those who wanted to drink more would become journalists instead.” This arguably outdated vision of the intrinsic differences between journalism and PR is what promted Frontline […]
What can the West do about the ‘information black hole’ in Sri Lanka?
By Jasper Jackson More than 30,000 civilians may have died in the final days of the Sri Lankan civil war, according to the International Crisis Group. But an “information black hole” created by the Sri Lankan government has prevented the world from uncovering the actions of both state forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil […]
Insight with Gary Younge: Race, identity, extremism and who we are
By Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi When people talk about young British Muslim extremists, we should consider the "disruptive capacity that alienation can bring out in someone is on the way to where these bombers come from". That’s according to journalist Gary Younge who appeared at the Frontline club on Tuesday to talk about identity and his work. […]
Axing the handouts for ‘subsidy junkie’ regional media
Watch the full event here. Journalists need skills other than subbing and writing: they need to fill a niche and to stop being afraid of dealing with money. And with the new Lib-Con government finally and conclusively shutting the door on the idea of giving over public funds to support innovative multimedia regional franchises (Independently […]
Photography and Slander in Uzbekistan
In February this year, the Uzbek documentary-maker and photographer, Umida Akhmedova, was sentenced by a Tashkent court for “slandering the nation”. William Wheeler takes a closer look at the case.
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 […]
The Times paywall is just the start – but will readers pay?
Pic credit: Chris King By Patrick Smith One way to boost newspaper revenues as print circulation and advertising revenues fall through the floor is to charge readers to read stuff online. The only problem is: will a generation that has grown up with free news content – that believes in a free web – cough […]
Inconvenient timing: Selling the climate change story after climategate
While last autumn’s climategate scandal has not completely decimated the public’s belief in global warming, campaigners and scientists need to reach out to unconventional audiences and getter better at communicating the facts if they want to tell – and sell – the climate change story. That was the consensus at last night’s Frontline Club discussion […]
What would Orwell say? How the web is championing top quality journalism
For all the scaremongering, hand-wringing and hair-pulling that has taken place over the last few years, the state of journalism is in fact alive and well and even aided by the internet revolution. But anyone at Wednesday’s Frontline event with three writers shortlisted for the Orwell Prize could see that great stories still can and […]
Orwell Prize event: read our profiles of Peter Hitchens, Amelia Gentleman and John Arlidge
The annual Orwell Prize rewards journalists who most closely follow George Orwell’s aim of making “political writing into an art”. And it’s that art we’ll be celebrating on Wednesday 12 May at an exclusive panel discussion with three writers shortlisted for this year’s prize. Here we look at the life and work of our special […]
Neil MacFarquhar’s tales of ordinary Middle Eastern life
"When you work for the New York Times, people expect you to know everything," according to Neil MacFarquhar. The journalist remembered: "Like the time I was at a dinner party in San Francisco and a woman came up to me and asked ‘Are there any normal people in the Middle East? People like you and […]
Superinjunctions at the Frontline: Heated debate on libel cost controls
By Jasper Jackson The threat to freedom of speech from costly libel cases and the "chilling" fear of legal action could be alleviated by reforming the system to deal with smaller cases faster and cap the maximum costs lawyers can charge. That was at least one agreement in an otherwise combative debate amongst the panel […]
Rise of the superinjunction: why libel reform matters to journalism
Download this episode View in iTunes By Ewan Palmer and Patrick Smith The shark-infested waters of UK media law could be about to get a little safer, thanks to Ministry of Justice reforms to curb extortionate lawyer success fees earned through "no win no fee" conditional fee arrangement cases (CFA). But Jack Straw’s quick-fire […]
Haiti photographs: Too shocking or a necessity?
The earthquake in Haiti is thought to have killed more than 200 000 people and has seen some harrowing imaged published around the world in an attempt to show the true extent of the devastation. Were the images of death and suffering too shocking to be shown in the first place or were journalists merely […]
Going Solo: Freelance multimedia journalism is nothing to be scared of
By Jasper Jackson Journalists embarking on a freelance career should not be afraid of going it alone, but they must take advantage of new technology and multimedia toll to get noticed, according to a Frontline Club panel of freelance experts. If you couldn’t make the event, here is a video of the whole thing in […]
Going solo: Is this the time for freelancers and hyperlocal?
By Ewan Palmer By now it’s unlikely that journalists want to hear any more about how their industry is in turmoil. So how about suggesting ideas to sustain the craft: is the future in freelancing? Does it lie in entrepreneurialism? From employment to self-employed Working for yourself is an obvious solution for the […]
On Expenses
I know no-one will believe me when I say this, but I’ve never been very creative with my expenses. In fact my first ever claim, at The Press and Journal, was returned by my news editor for "letting the side down". A swift tutorial in high teas, good dinners and elevenses followed. A new claim […]
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, […]
Journalists and kidnap: what happens to the freelances?
BBC journalist Alan Johnston said on his release after 114 days of captivity that he received a "psychological boost" from hearing messages of support from colleagues and well-wishers around the world on the radio he was allowed to listen to. In contrast to the sustained public campaign for his freedom, the kidnap of Canadian freelance […]
Timothy Garton Ash on Europe, Obama and the ignorance of George W Bush
Download this episode View in iTunes By Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi The rise of China, not Islamist terrorism, is the story of our time, declared Timothy Garton Ash at the Frontline Club last night. If you missed the event, you can watch the whole thing here… “The story of the next 20 years is about China, […]
Richard Sambrook on the future of journalism and leaving the BBC
View in iTunes By Michael Haddon With a career spanning 30 years at the BBC, Richard Sambrook, director of the organisation’s global news division, has revealed how he once carried a resignation letter with him every day, in the expectation it would eventually have to be offered. That was in the torrid time after the Hutton Report into […]
Changing sides: BBC’s Richard Sambrook joins growing list of journalists who abandon the newsroom for PR
What is it that makes them switch? Higher salaries? Shorter hours? Whatever it is, there’s no shortage of senior BBC journalists making the move from the newsroom to the world of PR. The latest is Richard Sambrook, one of the highest-ranking journalists in the corporation, who is leaving the Beeb after 30 years to join […]