The Frontline Club

In 2008 the Indian Government launched an initiative to train 500 million of the rural poor to work in its growing industrial sector. Migrants from the rural areas of India now make up a significant percentage of the country’s labour force.

Seduced by the opportunity to be independent, many hopeful young women, like best friends Bhanu and Bhutu, try their luck working for garment factories. As part of a wider recruitment and training scheme, these factories are monitored by mediating advocates such as British academic Orlanda. Her task is to bring in women from the impoverished countryside to Bangalore and other manufacturing centres, where she believes they can be “empowered” by the national economic boom.

Yet the women’s relative inexperience leaves them susceptible to exploitation, putting Orlanda’s capitalist optimism to the test. Documentary filmmaker Chloe Ruthven, who is also the protagonist’s sister, follows Orlanda as she and the workers are confronted with the brutal reality of sweatshop conditions and deliberate corporate negligence.

In 2008 the Indian Government launched an initiative to train 500 million of the rural poor to work in its growing industrial sector. Migrants from the rural areas of India now make up a significant percentage of the country’s labour force.

Seduced by the opportunity to be independent, many hopeful young women, like best friends Bhanu and Bhutu, try their luck working for garment factories. As part of a wider recruitment and training scheme, these factories are monitored by mediating advocates such as British academic Orlanda. Her task is to bring in women from the impoverished countryside to Bangalore and other manufacturing centres, where she believes they can be “empowered” by the national economic boom.

Yet the women’s relative inexperience leaves them susceptible to exploitation, putting Orlanda’s capitalist optimism to the test. Documentary filmmaker Chloe Ruthven, who is also the protagonist’s sister, follows Orlanda as she and the workers are confronted with the brutal reality of sweatshop conditions and deliberate corporate negligence.

The second part of the evening will see a panel of experts reflect on the events in Marikana and their consequences in South Africa, as well as what the report reveals about who should be held accountable.

Chaired by Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society and journalist with 30 years of experience covering Africa for various publications including The Independent, The Times and The Economist. He is author of Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles.

The panel:

Andrew Feinstein is a writer, campaigner and former ANC Member of Parliament. He is author of After the Party: A Personal and Political Journey Inside the ANC and The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade.

Dr Desné Masie is an analyst of geopolitical economy and the client manager for southern Africa at Africa Matters Limited. She was the corporate relationship manager of the Royal African Society and a senior editor at the Financial Mail in Johannesburg.

James Nichol is a criminal lawyer representing the families of those who were killed by police during the Marikana strike. Previously he worked closely on Bridgewater, Wallace and Rowe with investigative journalists Paul Foot and Margaret Renn. He helped represent Arthur Scargill and miners in the 1984-85 strike and had clients in the Bloody Sunday inquiry.

Jack Shenker is a journalist and author based in London and Cairo. Formerly Egypt correspondent for The Guardian, his work has also covered Gaza, Central Asia, Southern Africa, the US, the UK and the Indian subcontinent, and been published in a wide range of newspapers and magazines around the world.

On 16 August 2012, South African police opened fire on a large crowd of men who were on strike from the Marikana platinum mine. The police action resulted in 112 people being shot and 34 killed.

Nearly three years on from the massacre and as the Marikana Commission are due to publish their inquiry into what happened, we will be holding a special two-part event to explore politics, power and platinum in South Africa.

For the first part of the evening, photographer Jason Larkin and writer Jack Shenker will present Platinum. The publication examines the Marikana massacre and the physical and political context of the communities involved in South Africa’s platinum mining industry. Combining large-format posters and a wide-ranging and incisive essay in English and Xhosa, the publication breaks with traditional formats and brings new perspectives to an important and little-understood history.

The second part of the evening will see a panel of experts reflect on the events in Marikana and their consequences in South Africa, as well as what the report reveals about who should be held accountable.

Chaired by Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society and journalist with 30 years of experience covering Africa for various publications including The Independent, The Times and The Economist. He is author of Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles.

The panel:

Andrew Feinstein is a writer, campaigner and former ANC Member of Parliament. He is author of After the Party: A Personal and Political Journey Inside the ANC and The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade.

Dr Desné Masie is an analyst of geopolitical economy and the client manager for southern Africa at Africa Matters Limited. She was the corporate relationship manager of the Royal African Society and a senior editor at the Financial Mail in Johannesburg.

James Nichol is a criminal lawyer representing the families of those who were killed by police during the Marikana strike. Previously he worked closely on Bridgewater, Wallace and Rowe with investigative journalists Paul Foot and Margaret Renn. He helped represent Arthur Scargill and miners in the 1984-85 strike and had clients in the Bloody Sunday inquiry.

Jack Shenker is a journalist and author based in London and Cairo. Formerly Egypt correspondent for The Guardian, his work has also covered Gaza, Central Asia, Southern Africa, the US, the UK and the Indian subcontinent, and been published in a wide range of newspapers and magazines around the world.

On 16 August 2012, South African police opened fire on a large crowd of men who were on strike from the Marikana platinum mine. The police action resulted in 112 people being shot and 34 killed.

Nearly three years on from the massacre and as the Marikana Commission are due to publish their inquiry into what happened, we will be holding a special two-part event to explore politics, power and platinum in South Africa.

For the first part of the evening, photographer Jason Larkin and writer Jack Shenker will present Platinum. The publication examines the Marikana massacre and the physical and political context of the communities involved in South Africa’s platinum mining industry. Combining large-format posters and a wide-ranging and incisive essay in English and Xhosa, the publication breaks with traditional formats and brings new perspectives to an important and little-understood history.

In September 2012, the tiny prairie town of Leith, North Dakota, saw its population of 24 grow by one. Trouble had come to town. The newcomer was Craig Cobb, a notorious white supremacist. Quietly snapping up plots of land, he planned to take over the town government and establish Cobbsville, a haven for white separatists. In organising a rally of supremacists and neo-Nazis and courting them to take up residence, Cobb does not endear himself to Leith. Tensions soar as his behaviour becomes increasingly more threatening, and the residents desperately look for ways to expel their unwanted neighbour.

Welcome to Leith is a fascinating and suspenseful story about race, civil liberties and freedom in the United States, playing out in the shadow of the biggest oil boom in North Dakota’s history. Underpinning this stranger-than-fiction documentary is the question of how we wrestle with our democratic principles when they’re pushed to the limit.

Welcome to Leith received the Filmmaker to Filmmaker Award at the 2015 HotDocs International Film Festival.

Acts of journalism should be shielded from targeted surveillance, data retention and handover of material connected to confidential sources. This is a key early finding from a recent study commissioned by UNESCO on the state of journalistic source protection in 121 countries.

Early findings from the study, Protecting Journalism Sources in the Digital Age, authored by Australian journalist and journalism academic Julie Posetti, indicate that legal source protection frameworks in many of the countries studied are outdated and need strengthening. It also shows that they are being eroded by national security and anti-terrorism legislation; undercut by surveillance – both mass and targeted; and jeopardised both by mandatory data retention policies and pressure applied to third party intermediaries to release data.

UNESCO commissioned the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) to undertake the study and Posetti led the project in her capacity as WAN-IFRA Research Fellow.

In an event in partnership with the Foreign Press Association, we will be joined by the author of the study and other experts to discuss the implications of the findings and what needs to be done to ensure journalists can fully protect their sources.

Chaired by journalist, writer and Foreign Press Association President, Paola Totaro.

The panel:

Julie Posetti is an Australian journalist and journalism academic. A former news editor, presenter and political reporter with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Posetti is currently based in Paris as a research fellow with the World Editors Forum and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. She is completing a PhD on “The Twitterisation of Journalism” at the University of Wollongong, Australia, where she teaches social journalism, radio, TV and multimedia storytelling. She recently completed a major UNESCO-commissioned study of journalistic source protection in the digital era in 121 countries for WAN-IFRA.

Gavin Millar QC has a broad practice spanning media, information, public, criminal, employment and discrimination law. He is a noted specialist in all areas of media law including defamation, privacy, breach of confidence, publishing contempts and reporting restrictions. He often represents media outlets, journalists and politicians in both civil and criminal proceedings.

Jonathan Calvert is the longest serving editor of the The Sunday Times’ Insight team in its 50 year history, having held the job for a decade. His first scoop for the team was exposing the cash for questions scandal as an undercover Insight reporter in 1994, and he soon after became investigations editor at The Observer where he oversaw a string of major exclusives. Since returning to The Sunday Times he has headed a long line of exclusives – most recently the Fifa files investigation which made waves around the world.

Paul Myers is a BBC internet research specialist. He joined the BBC in 1995 as a news information researcher. He also runs The Internet Research Clinic, a website dedicated to directing journalists to the best research links, apps and resources. His role in the BBC Academy sees him organise and deliver training courses related to internet investigation, data journalism, freedom of information, reporting statistics, working with social media, web design and image production. He has worked with leading programmes like Panorama, Watchdog, national news bulletins, BBC Online, local & national radio and the World Service.

In September 2012, the tiny prairie town of Leith, North Dakota, saw its population of 24 grow by one. Trouble had come to town. The newcomer was Craig Cobb, a notorious white supremacist. Quietly snapping up plots of land, he planned to take over the town government and establish Cobbsville, a haven for white separatists. In organising a rally of supremacists and neo-Nazis and courting them to take up residence, Cobb does not endear himself to Leith. Tensions soar as his behaviour becomes increasingly more threatening, and the residents desperately look for ways to expel their unwanted neighbour.

Welcome to Leith is a fascinating and suspenseful story about race, civil liberties and freedom in the United States, playing out in the shadow of the biggest oil boom in North Dakota’s history. Underpinning this stranger-than-fiction documentary is the question of how we wrestle with our democratic principles when they’re pushed to the limit.

Welcome to Leith received the Filmmaker to Filmmaker Award at the 2015 HotDocs International Film Festival.

Acts of journalism should be shielded from targeted surveillance, data retention and handover of material connected to confidential sources. This is a key early finding from a recent study commissioned by UNESCO on the state of journalistic source protection in 121 countries.

Early findings from the study, Protecting Journalism Sources in the Digital Age, authored by Australian journalist and journalism academic Julie Posetti, indicate that legal source protection frameworks in many of the countries studied are outdated and need strengthening. It also shows that they are being eroded by national security and anti-terrorism legislation; undercut by surveillance – both mass and targeted; and jeopardised both by mandatory data retention policies and pressure applied to third party intermediaries to release data.

UNESCO commissioned the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) to undertake the study and Posetti led the project in her capacity as WAN-IFRA Research Fellow.

In an event in partnership with the Foreign Press Association, we will be joined by the author of the study and other experts to discuss the implications of the findings and what needs to be done to ensure journalists can fully protect their sources.

Chaired by journalist, writer and Foreign Press Association President, Paola Totaro.

The panel:

Julie Posetti is an Australian journalist and journalism academic. A former news editor, presenter and political reporter with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Posetti is currently based in Paris as a research fellow with the World Editors Forum and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. She is completing a PhD on “The Twitterisation of Journalism” at the University of Wollongong, Australia, where she teaches social journalism, radio, TV and multimedia storytelling. She recently completed a major UNESCO-commissioned study of journalistic source protection in the digital era in 121 countries for WAN-IFRA.

Gavin Millar QC has a broad practice spanning media, information, public, criminal, employment and discrimination law. He is a noted specialist in all areas of media law including defamation, privacy, breach of confidence, publishing contempts and reporting restrictions. He often represents media outlets, journalists and politicians in both civil and criminal proceedings.

Jonathan Calvert is the longest serving editor of the The Sunday Times’ Insight team in its 50 year history, having held the job for a decade. His first scoop for the team was exposing the cash for questions scandal as an undercover Insight reporter in 1994, and he soon after became investigations editor at The Observer where he oversaw a string of major exclusives. Since returning to The Sunday Times he has headed a long line of exclusives – most recently the Fifa files investigation which made waves around the world.

Paul Myers is a BBC internet research specialist. He joined the BBC in 1995 as a news information researcher. He also runs The Internet Research Clinic, a website dedicated to directing journalists to the best research links, apps and resources. His role in the BBC Academy sees him organise and deliver training courses related to internet investigation, data journalism, freedom of information, reporting statistics, working with social media, web design and image production. He has worked with leading programmes like Panorama, Watchdog, national news bulletins, BBC Online, local & national radio and the World Service.