The Frontline Club

Across much of the world people face a daily battle with corruption. Infiltrating corporations, governments, the military and civil service, both on a local level and internationally, it is often seen as a symptom rather than the cause of unrest and hardship. It is therefore often relegated to the back of the queue when tackling a country’s problems.

We will be joined by Sarah Chayes and Tom Burgis, whose investigations have taken them deep into the workings of corrupt systems across Africa, Afghanistan and elsewhere. From the local power brokers to the international corporations, they will be discussing what they discovered about how corrupt systems operate, the implications locally and globally, and what can be done to more effectively tackle them.

Chaired by Owen Bennett-Jones, freelance journalist and host of Newshour on the BBC World Service. As a correspondent with the BBC he has reported from over 60 countries. He is author of Pakistan: Eye of the Storm and his first novel Target Britain.

Sarah Chayes is a senior associate in the Democracy and Rule of Law Program and the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment. Formerly special adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, she is an expert in kleptocracy, anti-corruption, South Asia policy and civil-military relations. As an award-winning former NPR correspondent she covered the fall of the Taliban, then left journalism but remained in Afghanistan for a decade in order to contribute to the reconstruction of the country. Chayes is author of The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban, and more recently Thieves of State.

Tom Burgis is investigations correspondent at the Financial Times, formerly the newspaper’s Johannesburg correspondent and West Africa correspondent. He has reported on Africa since 2006 and is one of the only foreign journalists to have done back-to-back postings in southern and western Africa. He has been nominated for Young Journalist of the Year, and in 2013 won the RSL Jerwood Award for a first work of non-fiction in progress. He is also the recipient of the prestigious Financial Times Jones-Mauthner prize for ‘his superb reporting and exposé of corruption in mineral-rich Angola and Guinea’. He is author of The Looting Machine: Warlords, Tycoons, Smugglers and the Systematic Theft of Africa’s Wealth.

Across much of the world people face a daily battle with corruption. Infiltrating corporations, governments, the military and civil service, both on a local level and internationally, it is often seen as a symptom rather than the cause of unrest and hardship. It is therefore often relegated to the back of the queue when tackling a country’s problems.

We will be joined by Sarah Chayes and Tom Burgis, whose investigations have taken them deep into the workings of corrupt systems across Africa, Afghanistan and elsewhere. From the local power brokers to the international corporations, they will be discussing what they discovered about how corrupt systems operate, the implications locally and globally, and what can be done to more effectively tackle them.

Chaired by Owen Bennett-Jones, freelance journalist and host of Newshour on the BBC World Service. As a correspondent with the BBC he has reported from over 60 countries. He is author of Pakistan: Eye of the Storm and his first novel Target Britain.

Sarah Chayes is a senior associate in the Democracy and Rule of Law Program and the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment. Formerly special adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, she is an expert in kleptocracy, anti-corruption, South Asia policy and civil-military relations. As an award-winning former NPR correspondent she covered the fall of the Taliban, then left journalism but remained in Afghanistan for a decade in order to contribute to the reconstruction of the country. Chayes is author of The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban, and more recently Thieves of State.

Tom Burgis is investigations correspondent at the Financial Times, formerly the newspaper’s Johannesburg correspondent and West Africa correspondent. He has reported on Africa since 2006 and is one of the only foreign journalists to have done back-to-back postings in southern and western Africa. He has been nominated for Young Journalist of the Year, and in 2013 won the RSL Jerwood Award for a first work of non-fiction in progress. He is also the recipient of the prestigious Financial Times Jones-Mauthner prize for ‘his superb reporting and exposé of corruption in mineral-rich Angola and Guinea’. He is author of The Looting Machine: Warlords, Tycoons, Smugglers and the Systematic Theft of Africa’s Wealth.

Hyeonseo Lee was just seventeen when she fled North Korea. She found herself in China, alone and with no identity. Her mother’s first words over the telephone to her lost daughter were “Don’t come back”.

In her memoir The Girl with Seven Names, Lee recounts her life inside the secretive and brutal communist regime: the ‘self-criticism’ classes in primary school; forcibly joining the Youth Corps aged nine; and witnessing public executions of people who had not mourned enough for the death of Kim Il-Sung. She describes her escape and brave efforts to persuade her mother and brother to join her.

We are pleased to welcome Hyeonseo Lee to the Frontline Club to share her insight into growing up North Korea, the story of her escape and how she went on to rebuild her life and discover her identity. She will be talking to Paul French, an author and a widely published analyst and commentator on Asia, Asian politics and current affairs. He is author of North Korea: State of Paranoia and the international bestseller Midnight in Peking.

Hyeonseo Lee lived in North Korea until her escape in 1997. She arrived in Seoul in 2008, where she currently lives, and has recently graduated from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. As a student, she was a Young Leader at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a journalist at the Ministry for Unification and a selected member of the ‘English for the Future’ programme at the British Embassy in Seoul. She is an international campaigner for North Korean human rights and refugee issues and speaks on the subject all over the world, including at the UN and the Oslo Freedom Forum.

Hyeonseo Lee was just seventeen when she fled North Korea. She found herself in China, alone and with no identity. Her mother’s first words over the telephone to her lost daughter were “Don’t come back”.

In her memoir The Girl with Seven Names, Lee recounts her life inside the secretive and brutal communist regime: the ‘self-criticism’ classes in primary school; forcibly joining the Youth Corps aged nine; and witnessing public executions of people who had not mourned enough for the death of Kim Il-Sung. She describes her escape and brave efforts to persuade her mother and brother to join her.

We are pleased to welcome Hyeonseo Lee to the Frontline Club to share her insight into growing up North Korea, the story of her escape and how she went on to rebuild her life and discover her identity. She will be talking to Paul French, an author and a widely published analyst and commentator on Asia, Asian politics and current affairs. He is author of North Korea: State of Paranoia and the international bestseller Midnight in Peking.

Hyeonseo Lee lived in North Korea until her escape in 1997. She arrived in Seoul in 2008, where she currently lives, and has recently graduated from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. As a student, she was a Young Leader at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a journalist at the Ministry for Unification and a selected member of the ‘English for the Future’ programme at the British Embassy in Seoul. She is an international campaigner for North Korean human rights and refugee issues and speaks on the subject all over the world, including at the UN and the Oslo Freedom Forum.

Samar Yazbek was a well-known journalist, presenter on Syrian television and a celebrated novelist when she fell foul of the Assad regime, leaving her no choice but to flee. She was forced to watch from afar as a peaceful uprising turned into violent conflict and her country burned.

Yakbek Cover

In the Summer of 2012 she squeezed through a gap in the fence on the Turkish border and found herself back in her homeland. This was the first of several dangerous clandestine trips to the North of the country, where she set about documenting the struggle of men, women and children simply trying to stay alive.

Weaving together stories of hardship and brutality with touches of humanity, her new book The Crossing is testimony to the appalling reality that is Syria today. She will be joining us in conversation with Syrian writer and broadcaster, Rana Kabbani, to share her observations and what she has heard from the Syrian people about their hopes and fears for the future.

Samar Yazbek studied Arabic literature before spending a decade as a journalist for various newspapers including Al-Hayat and presenting a cultural programme for Syrian television. In 2010, as a recognition of her fiction writing, the Hay Festival named her as one of the Beirut39, a group of Arab writers under the age of 40. Following the uprising against the Assad regime, Yazbek was forced into exile and now lives in Paris with her daughter.

Samar Yazbek was a well-known journalist, presenter on Syrian television and a celebrated novelist when she fell foul of the Assad regime, leaving her no choice but to flee. She was forced to watch from afar as a peaceful uprising turned into violent conflict and her country burned.

Yakbek Cover

In the Summer of 2012 she squeezed through a gap in the fence on the Turkish border and found herself back in her homeland. This was the first of several dangerous clandestine trips to the North of the country, where she set about documenting the struggle of men, women and children simply trying to stay alive.

Weaving together stories of hardship and brutality with touches of humanity, her new book The Crossing is testimony to the appalling reality that is Syria today. She will be joining us in conversation with Syrian writer and broadcaster, Rana Kabbani, to share her observations and what she has heard from the Syrian people about their hopes and fears for the future.

Samar Yazbek studied Arabic literature before spending a decade as a journalist for various newspapers including Al-Hayat and presenting a cultural programme for Syrian television. In 2010, as a recognition of her fiction writing, the Hay Festival named her as one of the Beirut39, a group of Arab writers under the age of 40. Following the uprising against the Assad regime, Yazbek was forced into exile and now lives in Paris with her daughter.

This event is organised by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) and the Frontline Freelance Register (FFR).

Every year, women journalists are killed, assaulted, threatened and defamed – all in pursuit of the truth. Many of these journalists face not only the implicit dangers of hostile environments, but cultural and social prejudices that would keep them silent.

Now more than ever, female journalists are responsible for covering the world’s most challenging hostile environments yet remain under represented in the global news media at large; identifying the types of threats women journalists face and how to address those threats is key to greater gender equality in the global news media.

News Reporting and Navigating Risk will be a moderated discussion with accomplished journalists who have reported from hostile environments around the world about their experiences with a focus on best practices for security, emotional self care, and access to medical, mental health, and emergency resources.

Chaired by Elisa Lees Munoz, the executive director of the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF).

The panel:

Alison Baskerville is an FFR board member and a documentary photographer.

Nadine Marroushi has worked for 8 years as a journalist writing about the Middle East and Africa.

Richard Spencer is the Middle East editor for The Telegraph.

This event is organised by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) and the Frontline Freelance Register (FFR).

Every year, women journalists are killed, assaulted, threatened and defamed – all in pursuit of the truth. Many of these journalists face not only the implicit dangers of hostile environments, but cultural and social prejudices that would keep them silent.

Now more than ever, female journalists are responsible for covering the world’s most challenging hostile environments yet remain under represented in the global news media at large; identifying the types of threats women journalists face and how to address those threats is key to greater gender equality in the global news media.

News Reporting and Navigating Risk will be a moderated discussion with accomplished journalists who have reported from hostile environments around the world about their experiences with a focus on best practices for security, emotional self care, and access to medical, mental health, and emergency resources.

Chaired by Elisa Lees Munoz, the executive director of the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF).

The panel:

Alison Baskerville is an FFR board member and a documentary photographer.

Nadine Marroushi has worked for 8 years as a journalist writing about the Middle East and Africa.

Richard Spencer is the Middle East editor for The Telegraph.

Compassion and self-affirmation are discovered by a man as he manages a mental asylum run by its own patients in Juárez, Mexico – the world’s most violent city. Juárez, a city that borders the United States, is at once a place of diverse culture and tradition and a site of desperation and rampant poverty.

Ill and weathered by decades of drug use, police cast Josué out of the deadly streets of Juárez into the desert, where they left him in a mental asylum governed by its own patients. Six years later, Josué manages the asylum. Now it is his job to give medicine to the sick; to help them walk; to assist them in recovering from the same trauma he experienced while living on the streets.

Attempting to reconcile his broken history, Josué dreams of his estranged daughter in California – who he last saw 22 years ago. He asks Aitken to look for his daughter, who posts pictures on the internet in the hope that she will reach out. Josué and his daughter make contact and agree to meet. The itinerant father knows he cannot explain his absence, but perhaps forgiveness can lead to a new beginning.

Ed Vulliamy is a writer for The Guardian and The Observer. In 2013, he won the award for literary reporting named after the Polish writer Ryszard Kapuściński for his book Amexica: War Along the Borderline, a vivid dissection of the violent US-Mexico ‘war on drugs’.

Compassion and self-affirmation are discovered by a man as he manages a mental asylum run by its own patients in Juárez, Mexico – the world’s most violent city. Juárez, a city that borders the United States, is at once a place of diverse culture and tradition and a site of desperation and rampant poverty.

Ill and weathered by decades of drug use, police cast Josué out of the deadly streets of Juárez into the desert, where they left him in a mental asylum governed by its own patients. Six years later, Josué manages the asylum. Now it is his job to give medicine to the sick; to help them walk; to assist them in recovering from the same trauma he experienced while living on the streets.

Attempting to reconcile his broken history, Josué dreams of his estranged daughter in California – who he last saw 22 years ago. He asks Aitken to look for his daughter, who posts pictures on the internet in the hope that she will reach out. Josué and his daughter make contact and agree to meet. The itinerant father knows he cannot explain his absence, but perhaps forgiveness can lead to a new beginning.

Ed Vulliamy is a writer for The Guardian and The Observer. In 2013, he won the award for literary reporting named after the Polish writer Ryszard Kapuściński for his book Amexica: War Along the Borderline, a vivid dissection of the violent US-Mexico ‘war on drugs’.