The Frontline Club

Following a new report on journalist safety and the launch of Committee to Protect Journalist’s new Emergencies Response Team, this evening will bring together a variety of perspectives on how the safety landscape for journalists and media workers has changed in recent years. The speakers will discuss the new threats facing journalists, what work has been done to address them, and what work remains to be done.

Chaired by Vaughan Smith, co-founder of the Frontline Freelance Register and Founder of the Frontline Club Charitable Trust.

Speakers:

Colin Pereira, CPJ’s journalist safety specialist

Neil Breakwell, London Bureau Chief for VICE News

Nevine Mabro, Head of Foreign News and Foreign Films at Channel 4 News

Alison Baskerville, Freelance British documentary photographer and FFR affiliate

Maria Salazar Ferro, Emergencies Director for CPJ, will make introductory remarks about the new report and emergencies response team.

Of the many questions that remain as Brexit negotiations commence are the status of EU nationals resident in the UK, and how Europeans will be economically and socially impacted by the UK’s exit of the EU. Attempts to force the government to give all EU citizens in the UK permanent residency after Britain leaves the bloc have been defeated.

EU-27 governments and the Brussels institutions have been tough on the bloc’s negotiating position and are now waiting to hear what the UK wants. Meanwhile official reaction on the continent to the high court’s ruling on article 50 has been quiet, with national governments regarding the decision as an internal matter.

We will be joined by EU correspondents and European journalists to discuss European reactions to Brexit negotiations and explore how UK press coverage matches up to sentiments on the continent.

Chaired by Simon Wilson, Editor, BBC Europe Bureau

Speakers (full panel announced soon)

Joris Luyendijk is a Dutch journalist and author of Swimming with Sharks: My Journey Into the World of the Bankers. He used to write the Guardian‘s Banking Blog, which looked at the world of finance from an anthropological perspective.

Alex Barker is Brussels Bureau Chief for the Financial Times

Sonia Stolper is UK and Ireland Correspondent for Libération.

Phil Cox was the first filmmaker to cover the Darfur conflict in 2004, winning a Rory Peck Award. In 2016 he tracked down his old friend and Darfuri fixer Daoud Hari to New York City where Daoud was driving a Yellow Cab.

With international sanctions against Sudan about to be lifted and recent allegations of chemical weapons attacks against civilians by the government, Daoud and Phil decided to go back into Darfur to investigate human rights abuses, with the support of Channel 4 News and the US online platform Field of Vision.

The Sudanese government offered a bounty for their capture and the pair eventually were kidnapped and endured 40 days imprisonment and torture in cage cells in Khartoum. Following concerted diplomatic intervention by the UK and US governments, Hari was released on 18 January 2017, followed by Cox’s release on 1 February 2017. This compelling documentary comprises footage shot during their captivity that was smuggled out of the country.

Speakers

Panel Leader: Sarah Giaziri

Director: Phil Cox

Producer: Giovanna Stopponi

Dame Rosalind Marsden is an Associate Fellow at Chatham House. She was previously the British Ambassador to Sudan (2007-10) and the EU Special Representative for Sudan and South Sudan (2010-13)”. During her FCO career, she also served as Director-General (Asia-Pacific), Consul-General in Basra and Ambassador to Afghanistan

Read Phil’s article in the Guardian about it here:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/05/captured-in-darfur-south-sudan

From the ORAMA Festival, a forum on immersive journalism held at the Frontline Club comes a Q&A with Catherine Feltham.

Catherine Feltham is a film producer and director at Water Aid's production unit. She directed the award winning short documentary 'Across the Tracks'.

ORAMA Festival gathers decision makers in the journalism industry to discuss how Immersive technology will shape the future of newsrooms.

'The Current Landscape of Immersive Journalism' features Louis Jebb, CEO of Immersiv.ly, Natalie Whittle, Associate Editor FT Magazine Weekend and Camilla Schick, a video journalist at the New York Times.

We are delighted to present the fourth talk in our series of events investigating corruption and dirty money in London: interrogating its origins, its launderers and how it gets spent. Hosted by investigative journalist Oliver Bullough, Kleptoscope unites journalists, campaigners, academics and others to discuss the latest research into the UK’s role as an enabler of global kleptocracy.

Kleptoscope returns with an evening focussed on Nigeria, a country criticised by former Prime Minister David Cameron as “fantastically corrupt”. Our panel of experts will address the roots of Nigerian corruption, ask why so much of the stolen money ends up in London, and discuss why more isn’t being done to give it back.

Host:

Oliver Bullough is an award-winning journalist and the author of two books about Russian history and politics, The Last Man in Russia and Let Our Fame be Great. He is also an expert guide for the Kleptocracy Tours initiative, which exposes money laundering via property in London.

Speakers:

Chibundu Onuzo is a Nigerian novelist, whose recently-published book Welcome to Lagos is a blackly-comic exploration of corrupt officials, scam artists, idealistic liberals and more in the greatest city in Africa. The Guardian praised its “Nollywood-like storylines and clever turns in plot”, while The Economist loved the way that the words of the “rich and poor, urban and rural, privileged and powerless, Muslim and Christian, Igbo and Yoruba collide to spectacular effect”.

Eva Anderson is a Senior Legal Research Officer at Transparency International’s Defence & Security Team. She has previously worked at Goldman Sachs, the Financial Services Authority, and as a forensic investigator at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. She is a qualified barrister, and an expert in the difficulties faced in attempting to recover the proceeds of corruption that have been stashed in the West.

Matthew Page was, until recently, the US intelligence community’s top Nigeria expert, advising the White House, the State Department, the Pentagon and more. His book Nigeria: what everyone needs to know will be published later this year by Oxford University Press.

In the wake of Brexit and the 2016 US election, the public on both sides of the Atlantic have turned to the media with a newly critical eye. As the public respond to rapid political changes in Europe and America, a digital-age quandary is emerging around editorial policies of newspapers during times of political transition.

How have cuts within the industry, the decline of newspapers and the turn to online news impacted the quality of reporting? What role have the news and social media played in recent political events? And how can journalism maintain its integrity in a time when unverified information circulates on social media under the guise of ‘news’?

Readers across the political spectrum are calling for new standards of accuracy and impartiality. In a new series of exclusive talks hosted by journalist Roy Greenslade, we are bringing together today’s leading news editors to discuss editorial policies and press freedom in an era of polarising politics.

Speakers:

Roy Greenslade is one of Britain’s foremost media teachers. He is a leading commentator and columnist on the media, and currently blogs for The Guardian. As a journalist he rose to the highest levels of management in a career taking in The Sun, the Sunday Times, and culminating in the editorship of the Daily Mirror.

Emma Tucker is Deputy Editor of The Times. Emma joined The Times from the Financial Times where she started her career as a graduate trainee eventually becoming Editor of the Weekend FT. During her career with the FT, Emma spent four years as UK Economics Reporter before moving to Brussels in order to cover the European Union.

Human rights campaigner Steve Crawshaw has been an eye witness to some of the most dramatic demonstrations of recent years. His forthcoming book, Street Spirit: The Power of Protest and Mischief provides unique commentary on the power of non-violent protest, drawing on Crawshaw‘s experience reporting on the east European revolutions, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Balkan wars — as well as a clutch of unusual examples from his work with human rights activists in recent years.

Among the many instances of imaginative defiance explored, Crawshaw discovers the surprising impact of Lego figures in Siberia, red-hatted dwarves in Poland and a donkey holding a press conference in Azerbaijan – not to mention the story of how Darth Vader helped to effect a global arms treaty.

But how effective are humour and creativity in bringing about social change?

This discussion was chaired by Channel 4 News Correspondent Fatima Manji.

Steve Crawshaw is a senior advocacy adviser at Amnesty International. He was previously London director and UN advocacy director of Human Rights Watch. He joined The Independent at launch and reported on the east European revolutions, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Balkan wars. Interviewees ranged from Slobodan Milosevic to Aung San Suu Kyi. His previous books include Small Acts of Resistance (co-authored with John Jackson, 2010, foreword by Vaclav Havel), Easier Fatherland: Germany and the Twenty-First Century (2004) and Goodbye to the USSR (1992).

Fatima Manji is a News Correspondent and regularly reports on a range of national and international stories. Her broadcasting has included telling the story of the migration crisis from the borders of Europe, interviewing victims of ISIS atrocities in Iraq and challenging politicians here in the UK during the referendum campaign. She also occasionally presents the programme from the studio. Fatima has won a number of awards for her journalism and in 2015 she was a finalist for the Royal Television Society’s Young Journalist of the Year. During the last General Election she presented Britain’s first ever Alternative Election Debate featuring young party leaders facing a live audience on Channel 4. Fatima joined Channel 4 News in 2012 and previously worked as a reporter and video journalist at the BBC.

In a series of dramatic events, former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh headed into political exile, ending a 22-year authoritarian reign and a post-election political standoff that led to regional military intervention. An adviser to the new president claims the exiled ruler shipped out luxury vehicles by cargo plane and stole 11 million dollars from the country.

After over two decades in power, Mr Jammeh was defeated in December’s election by Adama Barrow but went on to challenge the results. The former president stepped down peacefully after West African troops had been sent to Gambia in support of Mr Barrow, with the threat of military action from regional states looming.

The transfer of power in The Gambia has been celebrated as a democratic coup, with many urging other leaders across the continent– including those in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Zimbabwe – to follow the “Gambian example” rather than clinging on to power after their constitutional term limits expire. Was it an exception, or proof that African leaders are increasingly willing to demand — and enforce — democracy in the region?

Chaired by James Copnall, Africa Editor for the BBC World Service. He was previously the BBC correspondent for Ivory Coast (2004-7), Morocco (2008-9) and Sudan and South Sudan (2009-12). He is the author of A Poisonous Thorn in our Hearts, a book about Sudan and South Sudan after the 2011 separation.

Jerome Starkey was The Times‘ Africa correspondent for five years from 2012 until he was deported from Kenya last year. His last assignment was in Gambia to cover the military showdown when President Yayha Jammeh refused to step down. Before that he lived in Afghanistan, from 2006-2012, initially as a freelancer and later as a stringer for The Times. He was appointed countryside correspondent in February.

Ludovica Iaccino is an international news reporter at IBTimes UK covering foreign affairs and news in regions such as Africa and the Middle East. She has previously reported from Malawi, Rwanda, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and Lebanon. Ludovica is the author of The Silence of Nyamata, a historical novel on the 1994 Rwandan genocide. A photojournalist, she also collaborates with the websites IecoAfrica and Words in the Bucket

Murtala Touray is a Gambian with over two decades of experience working across West Africa with public, NGO and private entities including the regional body, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria. Murtala holds a Master’s degree in African Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Bradford and provides advisory service on political, social and security risks facing business and humanitarian operations in West Africa.

Nic Cheeseman is Professor of Democracy at Birmingham University. He was the joint editor of African Affairs, the #1 journal in Area Studies, for four years and is one of the editors of The African Affairs Reader (OUP, 2017) along with Lindsay Whitfield and Carl Death. Professor Cheeseman’s research interests focus on African politics and democratization, especially elections, political parties and forms of political mobilization. He is the author of a monograph, Democracy in Africa: Successes, failures and the struggle for political reform (CUP, 2015) and more than 30 book chapters and journal articles. Nic also writes a regular column for Kenya’s Sunday Nation newspaper, is the founding editor of the Oxford Encyclopaedia of African Politics (OUP), and a writer for, and advisor to, Kofi Annan’s African Progress Panel.

In the lead up to the US presidential elections, the US government formally accused Russia of political hacking. The US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper stated that the stealing and leaking of emails from the Democratic National Committee and other institutions was intended to interfere with the election process. Posted on WikiLeaks and other websites that publish classified information from anonymous sources, the leaks led to suggestions that these online platforms are linked to senior Russian officials.

But did Russia actually launch ‘cyber warfare’ on the US, and how grounded are the C.I.A.’s conclusions? Join us for a discussion on what the hacking debate has revealed about relations between the two countries and the new role of cyber conflict in international relations.

Chaired by journalist Andrew Jack. Andrew Jack has worked as a journalist at the Financial Times since 1990. He currently runs the curated content team, which guides busy readers through the best news and analysis from the FT and the rest of the web. He was previously deputy editor of the analysis section, pharmaceuticals correspondent, Moscow bureau chief, Paris correspondent, financial correspondent, general reporter and corporate reporter.

Speakers:

Luke Harding is an award-winning foreign correspondent with The Guardian, who has reported from Delhi, Berlin and Moscow and covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. He is the author of Mafia State: How One Reporter Became an Enemy of the Brutal New Russia, and A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Account of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia’s War with the West.

Victor Balagaddde is former editor of Kommersant UK, the only Russian language newspaper focusing on business and politics in Great Britain. He has also written for New Style, a Russian language magazine published in London and the Ukrainian Kharkovsky Courier.

Edward Lucas is a British journalist working for The Economist, the London-based global news weekly. He was the Moscow bureau chief from 1998 to 2002, and thereafter the central and east European correspondent.

Roland Oliphant covers Russia and the former Soviet Union for the Telegraph. He has reported on the Ukrainian revolution and civil war from Kiev, Crimea, and Eastern Ukraine

Nigel Inkster has worked at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) since 2007. His current title is Director of Future Conflict and Cyber Security. His research portfolio includes transnational terrorism, insurgency, transnational organised crime, cyber security, intelligence and security and the evolving character of conflict. Before joining IISS he served for thirty-one years in the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) retiring in 2006 as Assistant Chief and Director of Operations and Intelligence.