The Frontline Club

Last year we celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, but the legacy of war and communism lives on in eastern Europe. In the new issue of Granta – No Man’s Land – Peter Pomerantsev writes about propaganda in Ukraine’s Donbass region, where pro-Russian activists battle with pro-Ukrainian, pro-democracy activists and Ukrainian nationalists, whilst Philip Ó Ceallaigh tells the devastating story of the Communist destruction of Old Bucharest.

Both writers encounter people who are longing for a strong leader to bring back security and pride. They will be joining us to discuss whether, following the challenges to democratic structures in Russia, Hungary, and most recently Poland, eastern Europe’s new democracies are at risk.

Chaired by author and journalist Oliver Bullough, who lived and worked in Russia from 1999 – 2006. He is author of two books about Russian history and politics: The Last Man in Russia and Let Our Fame Be Great.

With:

Peter Pomerantsev, the author of Nothing is True and Nothing is Possible, Adventures in Modern Russia. He is a senior fellow at the Legatum Institute, where he runs a project on contemporary propaganda and how to deal with it.

Philip Ó Ceallaigh is the author of two collections of short stories, Notes from a Turkish Whorehouse and The Pleasant Light of Day. At present he is working on a book about the Jewish world of Eastern Europe and its destruction, as witnessed by its writers.

This event was organised by Granta

Janine Di Giovanni spoke at the Frontline Club on Wednesday 17th February 2016.

The renowned war reporter discussed Russian airstrikes in Syria, young reporters cutting their teeth in Syria and Daesh, or Islamic State.

In this roundup Adam Barr selects the best bits from that conversation.

It is half a decade since Egypt’s revolution first erupted, promising something more than a binary choice between Islamism and military authoritarianism. Yet since the unrest began we have seen the Muslim Brotherhood rise to power, only to be overthrown by an army strongman – but is this just the start?

What has become of the big ideas at the root of the uprising – about democracy, sovereignty, social justice and resistance? How can a country so divided between two irreconcilable political orders continue its revolution? Join us to discuss where the Arab World’s most populous nation stands today, as well as its possibilities for the future.

Chaired by Rasha Qandeel, BBC Arabic journalist and presenter on NewsNight and HARDtalk. She joined the BBC in 2003 and since 2011 has covered the Arab uprisings, with a focus on events in Egypt.

The panel:

Jack Shenker is a journalist based in London and Cairo, whose reporting has spanned the globe. He is the former Egypt correspondent for the Guardian and author of The Egyptians – A Radical Story.

Dr Omar Ashour is a senior lecturer in Security Studies in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter. He is an associate fellow at Chatham House and was involved in the process of security sector reform in Egypt and Libya between 2011 and 2013.

Sherif Azer is an Egyptian human rights defender and an expert in online activism in Egypt. He has worked in the field of human rights for eleven years – for organisations including Front Line Defenders and the International Network for Freedom of Expression (IFEX) – and is currently the assistant secretary general for the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights.

Hossam Abdalla is a leading fertility specialist, heading Britain’s largest fertility clinic. He is also a political activist and was one of leaders of the student movements in the seventies. He is a supporter of the 25th January revolution in Egypt and has been a contributor to many programs debating the revolution.

As violence continues to spread throughout the Middle East, a growing number of young Muslims in Europe are leaving their home towns to fight for ISIS.

In the last year alone over 400 young Belgians have traveled to Syria. In My Jihad, directed by Mark De Visscher, reporter Rudi Vranckx visits the region of Vilvoorde to investigate why young Belgians from the area are becoming radicalised, and how the Muslim community is working to combat this trend.

“Everyone in Vilvoorde knows someone who’s left” explains Moad, a young Belgian Muslim. In the last year a number of Moad’s schoolmates have left Belgium for Syria to take up arms for ISIS. What is driving these young men to turn their backs on their families and their friends to sacrifice everything? Moad believes that “it’s a shared responsibility… there is nowhere else here for young Muslims to go.”

The film also introduces Imad, a youth counsellor. Like many other Muslims in Vilvoord, Imad has responded to cases of radicalisation by engaging with the local Muslim youth through charity; offering them guidance and support to create a sense of belonging within the community. One of Imad’s pupils explains, “ISIS is an ideology. You cannot bombard an ideology… an ideology has to be fought intellectually.”

Encouraging residents of Vilvoorde to voice their own perspectives, director Mark De Visscher creates a moving and revealing portrait of a small community confronting extremism. My Jihad offers a fascinating and topical insight into a growing issue, providing a valuable perspective on the impacts of extremism for Muslim communities in Europe.

More than 20 global leaders – including former presidents, prime ministers and Nobel Prize winners – will meet in London on 23 January to champion the world’s young people by bidding to reverse a dangerous decline in financing for education, particularly in conflict zones.

Following this meeting, the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Rt Hon Gordon Brown; the chair of the Global Partnership for Education and former Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard; and the head of the Overseas Development Institute, Kevin Watkins, will be in conversation at the Frontline Club. The discussion will be chaired by foreign correspondent David Loyn, and will focus on how the international community must fund 1 million school places for Syrian refugee children. The event takes place just 10 days ahead of a major United Nations-sponsored Syria relief funding conference, also being held in London.

The International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity is supported by the Government of Norway and Prime Minister Erna Solberg and co-convened by President Michelle Bachelet of Chile, President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, President Peter Mutharika of Malawi and the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova. It will review the future of global education, which currently leaves 124 million young people out of school. The selection of this diverse group of individuals comes at a crucial time, when more children are out of school than a year ago and increased conflict has forced millions of children out of the classrooms – becoming refugees with no prospects of education. The Commission will explore how over the next 15 to 20 years, education could lead to greater economic growth, better health outcomes, and improved global security.

Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen who was captured by American forces in Afghanistan in 2002 and spent a decade imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, tells his own story in this documentary portrait from directors Patrick Reed and Michelle Shephard.

In prison Khadr struggled to endure the inhumane conditions and the demoralising improbability of release. In the outside world, public outcry mounted as the US and Canadian governments refused to take action. It took the relentless work of Dennis Edney, Khadr’s lawyer of over a decade, to advance the case. Finally repatriated to Canada in 2012, and released in May of this year, Khadr then faces the Harper government’s attempt to overturn his bail.

Featuring unprecedented access to former fellow inmates, family members, and government officials, Guantanamo’s Child acquaints us with an incredibly resilient young person who grew up in a tragic setting and analyses the political implications of his case.

Investigating a life that has sparked some of the most heated political debates in recent history, filmmakers Patrick Reed and Michelle Shephard reveal a young man who is cautiously ready for another chapter of his life. And for the first time, Omar Khadr himself tells us his side of the story.

Discussion to be moderated by Richard Gizbert, presenter of Al Jazeera English’s The Listening Post, a weekly show that looks at news coverage by the world’s media. Gizbert has also spent 25 years working in the media world as a foreign correspondent, covering stories around the world.

Panelists:

Moazzam Begg is one of nine British citizens who were held at Camp X-Ray, Guantánamo Bay by the US government. He was released on January 25 2005 without charge. He is the director of outreach for advocacy group CAGE and author of Enemy Combatant. This year he was imprisoned by the British government on charges relating to Syria, his case was later dropped.

Michelle Shephard is an investigative reporter with the Toronto Star, author and filmmaker. With patrick Reed she co-directed Guantanamo’s Child, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2015. Shephard has been awarded the Michener Award for public service journalism and won Canada’s top newspaper prize, the National Newspaper Award, three times. In 2011, she was an associate producer on the Oscar-nominated documentary Under Fire: Journalists in Combat. She produced the National Film Board documentary, “Prisoners of the Absurd,” which premiered at Amsterdam’s film festival in 2014.

Cori Crider heads the Abuses in Counter-Terrorism team at international NGO Reprieve. A U.S. lawyer, Cori has spent a decade investigating and litigating the most serious violations of the ‘war on terror’: Guantánamo, CIA rendition and torture, and civilian deaths from drone attacks in undeclared war zones.

She devised Reprieve’s challenge to abusive force-feeding at Guantánamo, which resulted in the first disclosure of videotapes of the process. She also developed Reprieve’s project investigating the drone war in Yemen: her team exposed key details of a drone strike on a wedding convoy, and brought a Yemeni man whose innocent relatives died in an attack to Washington, D.C. She represents two Libyan families whom U.S. and British intelligence ‘rendered’ to the dungeons of dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Cori regularly gives print and broadcast interviews on counter-terror abuses and has written for the Guardian, CNN, al Jazeera, and the Huffington Post.

The first weekly roundup podcast from the Frontline Club.

Featuring extracts from Eyewitness: Professionalising Citizen Journalism, US Election Year: What is in Store? and Guantanamo’s Child Q&A.

Presented, edited, produced and mixed by Adam Barr

In November 2006 ex KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko was murdered in London. Last week a British inquiry concluded that President Vladimir Putin had probably approved a 2006 Russian intelligence operation to murder Litvinenko using radioactive Polonium-210 in London.

The finding prompted a diplomatic row between London and Moscow but as yet has not resulted in any concrete actions.

A month before his death in November 2006 Litvinenko had spoken out at the Frontline Club claiming Putin was responsible for the death of journalist, writer, and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya known for her opposition to the Second Chechen War and Vladimir Putin.

With this in mind we spoke to Luke Harding, The Guardian’s Moscow correspondent between 2007 and 2011 and author of 'Mafia State: How one reporter became an enemy of the brutal new Russia'. His book entitled 'A Very Expensive Poison' comes out on March the 17th of this year.

It is election year in the US and one man has dominated the headlines. Six months ago, the prospect of Donald Trump as presidential candidate might have been something to joke about but it is now looking increasingly like a reality. What does this mean for the Republican Party?

With the Republican race dominating much of the spotlight, what about the Democrats? Are we set to see the first female president in the White House? With primaries about to begin, we will be looking at the battles going on in both parties and who we might see come out on top.

What does the rise of Trump mean for politics in the US? We will be looking at the political landscape in the lead up to the November presidential election.

Chaired by Michael Goldfarb, journalist author and broadcaster. He has reported for The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR and Global Post.

The panel:

Xenia Wickett is the head of the US Programme at Chatham House and the dean of the Academy for Leadership in International Affairs, Chatham House’s new leadership training initiative. Prior to this she was the executive director of the PeaceNexus Foundation and from 2005 to 2009 she was at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center.

Adam Brookes is an independent journalist and author based in Washington, DC. For many years, he reported for BBC News on American politics and the economy, with a special focus on defence and security. He contributed to the BBC’s coverage of three presidential elections – in ’04, ’06, and ‘12.

Peter Trubowitz is professor of international relations and director of the US Centre at the London School of Economics and associate fellow at Chatham House. Before joining the LSE, he was professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin. His most recent book is Politics and Strategy: Partisan Ambition and American Statecraft.

William Lowery is a New York qualified lawyer and works for an international law firm in London. He is the vice-chair of Republicans Overseas UK, an organisation that represents and promotes the interests of Americans living, working, and studying in the United Kingdom.

With shrinking editorial budgets, greater risks and lack of access it is becoming increasingly difficult for established media outlets to offer a full picture of events. Can citizen journalists fill the void?

A few organisations are working to address this reality: Nuba Reports mentors and trains filmmakers in Sudan’s conflict zones. Organisations such as Syria Deeply and Tehran Bureau aggregate and report from hard-to-access areas using a dedicated network on the ground. The human rights organisation Videre trains oppressed communities to document abuses and violations on camera.

Everyday there are even more places and stories that foreign correspondents cannot access. While the outside perspective they bring is critical, local insights are equally valuable. This discussion will bring together a few key players working on new models of foreign reporting to address the issues of verification and bias, and of which technology is working and which isn’t. They will discuss the challenges faced and delve into what the future of this new reporting holds.

Chaired by Trevor Snapp, the director of programs at Nuba Reports, a media startup in Sudan pioneering ways to tell stories of life amidst war. Over the last decade he has covered stories around the world, producing documentaries for Al Jazeera and VICE, and reporting for NPR and Newsweek. His photographs have been featured in The New York Times and The Guardian amongst others.

The panel:

John D McHugh is the co-founder of Verifeye Media, a technology driven visual news agency that represents freelance journalists and accidental eyewitnesses, delivering verified eyewitness media from the centre of a story to newsrooms, in real-time. McHugh is an award winning photojournalist and filmmaker with extensive knowledge of foreign reporting, especially from conflict zones.

Basia Cummings is a commissioning editor on the Guardian’s world networks, focused on in-depth coverage of under-reported regions, including Africa, North Korea and the post-Soviet states

Jacqueline Geis is the chief operating officer of Videre est Credere, an organisation that equips activists in hard-to-access areas with the cameras, technology, and support to visually document human rights violations safely and effectively.

Thant Sin is currently studying for a master’s degree in Media in Development at the School of Oriental Studies in London. He is a regular contributor to the citizen media website, Global Voices, and covers the latest events in Myanmar. Before beginning his studies in London, Sin worked in the development sector in Myanmar – travelling the country to work with displaced peoples.