The Frontline Club

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Eritrea has the most censored press in the world –behind North Korea and Azerbaijan. Since the government banned private press in 2001, many journalists have been abducted or imprisoned without trial, including those who had reported on divisions within the ruling party.

Over the years, officials have offered inconsistent explanations for the arrests – accusing the journalists of involvement in anti-state conspiracies or skirting military service. Meanwhile, fragments of information smuggled out of the country by Eritreans fleeing into exile help to create an alarming picture of the dangers faced by journalists who report stories that fall outside official state communications.

Has Eritrea become Africa’s North Korea? With only state communication remaining, contacting the outside world has become nearly impossible. What was once a relatively unknown and under-reported country is now at the forefront of the EU’s mind, as Eritreans make up a significant number of those entering Europe on dangerous crossings. Who are Eritrea’s forgotten journalists, and how did this extreme stifling of press freedom come to be?

This event, held at the Frontline Club in partnership with English PEN was chaired by Dr Idil Osman. She has worked for over a decade as a national and international journalist for the BBC, the Guardian and the Voice of America. She’s now a Research Associate and Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Development Studies at SOAS.

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. The terms ‘post-truth’ and ‘misinformation’ circulate in heated discussions around the problematic relationship between news organisations and social media platforms. A digital-age quandary is emerging around the responsibilities of news outlets to debunk erroneous articles circulating online.

How have cuts within the industry and the turn to online readership impacted the phenomenon of ‘fake news’? And how can journalism maintain its integrity in a time when unverified information circulates on social media under the guise of fact?

Readers across the political spectrum are calling for new standards of accuracy and impartiality. In a monthly series of exclusive talks hosted by media analyst Roy Greenslade, we are bringing together today’s leading news editors to discuss the new challenges facing the online journalism industry.

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.

Host:

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.

Speakers:

Ben de Pear is Editor of Channel 4 News. Previously Head of Foreign News, has led an award-winning team of foreign correspondents, including those that produced the BAFTA-winning coverage from the 2011 Japan earthquake. He also led the programme’s investigation into the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war which has prompted a UN investigation and global calls for a war crimes tribunal.

Rory Cellan-Jones has been a BBC reporter on business and economics for nearly 30 years. For the last decade he has been the BBC’s Technology Correspondent, charged with widening the Corporation’s coverage of the impact of technology on business and society. He has also presented a number of Radio 4 documentaries, including The Secret History of Social Networking and The Force of Google, an investigation into the power of Google’s search algorithm.

Madhumita Murgia is a prize-winning journalist and editor with expertise in the fields of technology and science. As the FT’s European tech correspondent, she reports on major news, trends and innovations in global technologies, and their impact on Europe. She was formerly head of the Telegraph’s technology section, where she wrote a weekly column on the business of technology, and has written features about data privacy, security and digital health for publications such as Wired, Newsweek and BBC Future.

Owen Bennett is Deputy Political Editor of The Huffington Post UK and a critically acclaimed author. His second book, ‘The Brexit Club: The Inside Story of The Leave Campaign’s Shock Victory’ was published in 2016, and was described as “a riveting inside account” of the referendum by The Observer. Bennett is a regular contributor to the BBC and Sky News and has also written for the New Statesman website and other political blogs.

After more than a decade of the war on terror, security specialists thought that Islamist paramilitary movements were in decline. Yet the threat from ISIS in Syria and Iraq, Boko Haram in Nigeria, al-Qaida in Yemen, the chaos in Libya and the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan have all shown that to be wishful thinking.

The changing nature of conflict in the 21st century now requires a new toolbox. Are we using old methods for new problems in an age of irregular war? How can discourse surrounding international relations and conflict resolution respond to global terrorist movements and the permuting role of technology in warfare?

By exploring the timely question of intervention versus non-intervention, and examining the changing nature of warfare and technology, this discussion presents a comprehensive overview of new thinking on international diplomacy and the complexities of peace-making in the age of ‘irregular war’.

Chaired by Jenny Kleeman, British documentary film-maker and journalist who is best known for her work on Channel 4’s foreign affairs series Unreported World.

Into a year teeming with global volatility, David Cameron introduced another giant unknown, rolling the dice on Britainʼs most important economic relationship: its 43-year-old membership of the EU.

In European capitals this was seen as an existential threat to the entire European project, while Eurosceptics across the UK saw it as the perfect moment to pull up the drawbridge. The political establishment fired back with a barrage of government data, third-country endorsements and world bodiesʼ opinions, unsure whether these long-trusted political weapons weren’t firing blanks.

Prime Minister Theresa May has announced she will trigger the formal Brexit negotiation process by the end of March 2017. Drawing on analysis of official and off-the-record meetings with senior politicians as well as with ordinary voters, we will be joined by a panel of experts to discuss where post-referendum Britain is heading, how we got here, and what lessons might be learned.

Chaired by Jamie Coomarasamy, presenter on BBC World Service programme Newshour.

When the bombs rain down, the Syrian Civil Defence rushes in. In a place where public services no longer function these unarmed volunteers risk their lives to help anyone in need – regardless of their religion or politics. Known as the White Helmets these volunteer rescue workers operate in the most dangerous place on earth.

As the conflict in Syria worsens, ordinary people are paying the highest price. More than 50 bombs and mortars a day land on some neighbourhoods in Syria. Many are rusty barrels filled with nails and explosives, rolled out the back of government helicopters — bakeries and markets are the most commonly hit targets. When this happens the White Helmets rush in to search for life in the rubble – fully aware that more bombs may fall on the same site. These volunteers have saved 82,000 lives – and this number is growing daily.

Since this event at the Frontline Club the film won the Oscar for Documentary Short Story.

Presented by the London Press Club and Index on Censorship the Frontline Club hosted a discussion examining the changing role of the foreign correspondent within a rapidly evolving media landscape.

In the past twenty years budget cuts across the foreign news industry have seen the near-demise of Western foreign correspondents posted abroad. In their place, local-national stringers have become increasingly important providers of foreign news stories. While the nature of conflicts changes and reporting from high-risk zones becomes more dangerous, the traditional model of the foreign correspondent has shifted. The majority of foreign news is no longer gathered by traditional foreign correspondents posted abroad, but by local nationals who were born and raised in the country they report on.

Is the foreign correspondent an endangered species in the news industry? What new models of foreign reporting are emerging alongside new information-gathering technologies? We will be joined by an expert panel to discuss trends in the industry and the future role of the foreign correspondent.

This event was chaired by Rachael Jolley, editor of Index on Censorship magazine.

She was joined by Kim Sengupta, Defence Correspondent at The Independent. Dr Haider Al Safi, a London-based Iraqi journalist and media consultant covering middle eastern politics. He started working as a journalist in 2003 during the American invasion of Iraq and ran the office for The Independent newspaper in Baghdad. Together with his colleagues he covered stories from all over Iraq exposing him to the dangers of war – he was caught in cross-fire, kidnapped and witnessed suicide attacks. He is Executive Producer of Hard-Talk Arabic.

Caroline Lees is a former news and foreign correspondent who has worked as South Asia correspondent for the Sunday Times, covering Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Kashmir and other areas. She has also covered many parts of Africa, including Eritrea for the Economist, the fall of Mobutu in the then Zaire and refugee camps in Goma. She has been an assistant foreign editor at the Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, foreign editor at the Sunday Express and Scotland on Sunday. She is now a researcher at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, and is editor of a Europe-wide network of journalism research platforms, the European Journalism Observatory.

Samira Shackle is a London-based freelance journalist who has reported extensively on Pakistan over the last five years, for publications including the Guardian, Times, Independent, and New Statesman. She has also reported from India, Bangladesh and Kenya for a range of British and international outlets. In 2015 she was shortlisted in the foreign correspondent category in the Words By Woman awards and the New Voices category of the One World Media awards. She was the 2015 recipient of the Times’ Richard Beeston fellowship for foreign reporting.

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

After two successful Kleptoscope talks discussing the former Soviet Union and the Middle East, we come closer to home, with an exploration of Britain’s offshore tax havens. The Channel Islands, Cayman Islands and others pay host to enormous capital flows, as well as untold thousands of shell companies, but are they are they as dubious as they are painted?

Hosted by investigative journalist Oliver Bullough, Kleptoscope #3 will bust myths and uncover the facts about Britain’s big companies hiding away from view.

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.

Professor Ronen Palan is one of the world’s leading academic experts on tax havens . He will sketch out the dimensions of the offshore world.

Professor Anastasia Nesvetailova, also of City University, specialises in the way the finance industry uses offshore jurisdictions.

John Christensen worked as an economic adviser to the States of Jersey, before founding the Tax Justice Network. He is a top campaigner against tax havens, and has done more than almost anyone to put them in the international spotlight.

Do Not Resist is an urgent and powerful exploration of the rapid militarisation of the police in the United States.

Craig Atkinson filmed his directorial debut over two years and in 11 states. Through keen and thoughtful observances, Atkinson deftly presents the characters and stories that comprise this pressing issue. The result reveals a rare and surprising look into the increasingly disturbing realities of American police culture.

This screening was followed by a Q&A with director Craig Atkinson via Skype.

90% of the goods we consume in the West are manufactured in far-off lands and brought to us by ship. The cargo shipping industry is a key player in world economy and forms the basis of our very model of modern civilisation; without it, it would be impossible to fulfil the ever-increasing demands of our societies.

Yet the functioning and regulations of this business remain largely obscure to many, and its hidden costs affect us all. Due to their size, freight ships no longer fit in traditional city harbours; they have moved out of the public’s eye, behind barriers and check points. The film answers questions such as: Who pulls the strings in this multi-billion dollar business? To what extent does the industry control our policy makers? How does it affect the environment above and below the water-line? And what’s life like for modern seafarers?

Taking us on a journey over seas and oceans, the newest film from veteran director Denis Delestrac (Banking Nature) reveals in an audacious and gripping investigation the many faces of worldwide freight shipping and sheds light on the consequences of an all-but-visible industry.

The ideological and physical implementation of borders has become a key element of debate around the global refugee crisis. In the past decade, forty thousand people died trying to cross international borders, with deaths along the shores of Europe only accounting for half of the shocking total. At the same time, military-industrial complexes have expanded to further secure and police border zones across the world.

In Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move Reece Jones presents a major new analysis of the refugee crisis, focusing on how borders are constructed and policed, examining state efforts to contain populations and control access to resources and opportunities.

We were joined by a panel of experts to discuss the relationship between security projects, conflict along borders and the refugee crisis.

Chair:

May Bulman is a London-based journalist currently working for The Independent with a main focus on covering the situation in the Calais ‘jungle’ and the wider refugee crisis in Europe. She finished her Masters in journalism at City University in June and has since written on a freelance basis for several publications including The Times, The Mirror and The Independent. She is currently reporting on the imminent demolition of the camp in Calais and the fate of its residents. May believes accurate and effective reporting on the refugee crisis is a crucial job for journalists in Europe and around the world at the moment.

Speakers:

Reece Jones is a Professor of Geography at the University of Hawaii in Manoa, and the author of Border Walls: Security and the War on Terror in the United States, India, and Israel.

Professor Heaven Crawley leads research on migration and human security at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University. She specialises in aspects of international migration, including policy, public attitudes and the experience of refugees and asylum-seekers.

Elinor Raikes is the Regional Representative for International Rescue Committee’s response to the European refugee crisis. Elinor rejoined the IRC into this role after working as an independent consultant for DFID and others in 2014-15. She was previously with the IRC for six years and during that time worked for many years in DR Congo as well as in Chad, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe. Prior to the IRC, Elinor worked for Save the Children. IRC’s programming in Europe began in 2015 with a large-scale emergency response in Greece and in Serbia. Today, the IRC has a developed emergency response and is working to expand support to local actors to improve preparedness; and, is expanding its provision of technical assistance working with a large network of partners in order to respond to the unique protection needs of the context; is also developing technical assistance on policy and services to ensure the effective and positive integration of refugees and asylum-seekers.

Richard Savage is the Global Emergency Response Security Manager for Save the Children International. He has provided security analysis and oversight for SCI’s refugee relief efforts in Greece and for the newly established STC maritime rescue operation in the Mediterranean. Richard also has several years’ experience providing security management for INGO relief operations inside Syria and for the regional refugee response. He holds a Master’s degree in Security, Conflict and International Development. In addition to Richard’s extensive experience in the humanitarian sector, he comes with 20 years of security experience including service in the British Army, as well as the private security sector.