The Frontline Club

Members of the Frontline Club, the Scientific Exploration Society and all those with a wish to add value and purpose to their travels are invited to a special evening to introduce a new collaboration and to meet some of the foremost pioneering explorers of our time.

With both journalists and explorers operating in high-risk environments with the shared objectives of investigating issues and reporting findings, these two communities, represented by The Scientific Exploration Society and the Frontline Club, are launching an exciting new initiative to begin working more closely together.

The evening’s panel discussion and audience Q&A, identifies the mutual risks, priorities and opportunities for journalism and exploration. Panelists include leading lights from both communities with explorers Andrew Mitchell and Pen Hadow joined by Frontline Club founder Vaughan Smith.

In the months ahead, the initiative will bring together the two communities in a series of presentations, debates, skills workshops, and social events to enhance the safety and productivity of all parties.

Chaired by Vaughan Smith, founder of the Frontline Club, an award-winning independent cameraman and a member of the board of representatives for the Frontline Freelance Register (FFR).

The panel:

Andrew Mitchell is a rainforest explorer & advocate. He is the chairman of the Scientific Exploration Society, a forest canopy explorer, founder of the Global Canopy Programme, co-founder of Earthwatch Europe, and Personal Advisor to HRH The Prince of Wales’ Rainforest Project.

Pen Hadow is an arctic ocean explorer & advocate. He is the founder and leader of the multi-award winning Catlin Arctic Survey (2007-2013), an international research programme on the Arctic Ocean, and the associated environmental research-sponsorship agency, Geo Mission. A decade on, Hadow remains the only person to have reached the North Geographic Pole, solo and without resupply, from Canada.

Ryan Burke is the SES Explorer 2014. Canadian born Burke is a 2nd year DPhil Candidate at Oxford, who is carrying out a detailed study of the Gelada monkey in the Ethiopian highlands to establish their potential role as a keystone species in the Afroalpine ecosystem. He will tell us about the challenges and benefits of using drones to capture and classify imagery of this stunning ecosystem, and will show some of his fantastic images, a sneak preview of which can be seen at http://ryanjburke.ca/.

Oliver Steeds is an investigative journalist and adventurer. He’s reported for Channel 4 (Dispatches, Unreported World, News), ABC (Nightline), NBC (Today), Al Jazeera (People & Power, Witness, Earthrise). He has led numerous expeditions, hosting 4 series for the Discovery Channels worldwide and the Travel Channel in the US. Steeds is also a director of the educational social enterprise – Digital Explorer – that brings the front lines of journalism and exploration to the classrooms of the world.

Freelance journalists are being relied upon more and more, it is imperative that they have the resources and training to protect themselves, as well as to help them get the story.

Following our event in New York with the Overseas Press Club of America (OPC), they will be coming to London to continue the discussion.

We will be bringing together a panel of freelance journalists and editors to examine what more needs to be done to make sure freelancers are supported by the news industry and have the resources available to prepare themselves for the risks of front-line reporting.

Chaired by Vaughan Smith, founder of the Frontline Club, an award-winning independent cameraman and a member of the board of representatives for the Frontline Freelance Register (FFR).

The panel:

David Williams is deputy global news editor at Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Marcus Mabry, editor at large of The New York Times and president of the Overseas Press Club of America (OPC). Previously he worked for the The New York Times and International Herald Tribune in in London and Paris, and was the associate national editor.

Ben De Pear is the editor of Channel 4 News and a member of the board of trustees for Rory Peck Trust.

Emma Beals is an independent multimedia journalist covering Syria and Iraq. She is a member of the board of representatives for the Frontline Freelance Register (FFR).

Freelance journalists are being relied upon more and more, it is imperative that they have the resources and training to protect themselves, as well as to help them get the story.

Following our event in New York with the Overseas Press Club of America (OPC), they will be coming to London to continue the discussion.

We will be bringing together a panel of freelance journalists and editors to examine what more needs to be done to make sure freelancers are supported by the news industry and have the resources available to prepare themselves for the risks of front-line reporting.

Chaired by Vaughan Smith, founder of the Frontline Club, an award-winning independent cameraman and a member of the board of representatives for the Frontline Freelance Register (FFR).

The panel:

David Williams is deputy global news editor at Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Marcus Mabry, editor at large of The New York Times and president of the Overseas Press Club of America (OPC). Previously he worked for the The New York Times and International Herald Tribune in in London and Paris, and was the associate national editor.

Ben De Pear is the editor of Channel 4 News and a member of the board of trustees for Rory Peck Trust.

Emma Beals is an independent multimedia journalist covering Syria and Iraq. She is a member of the board of representatives for the Frontline Freelance Register (FFR).

Freelance journalists are being relied upon more and more, it is imperative that they have the resources and training to protect themselves, as well as to help them get the story.

Following our event in New York with the Overseas Press Club of America (OPC), they will be coming to London to continue the discussion.

We will be bringing together a panel of freelance journalists and editors to examine what more needs to be done to make sure freelancers are supported by the news industry and have the resources available to prepare themselves for the risks of front-line reporting.

Chaired by Vaughan Smith, founder of the Frontline Club, an award-winning independent cameraman and a member of the board of representatives for the Frontline Freelance Register (FFR).

The panel:

David Williams is deputy global news editor at Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Marcus Mabry, editor at large of The New York Times and president of the Overseas Press Club of America (OPC). Previously he worked for the The New York Times and International Herald Tribune in in London and Paris, and was the associate national editor.

Ben De Pear is the editor of Channel 4 News and a member of the board of trustees for Rory Peck Trust.

Emma Beals is an independent multimedia journalist covering Syria and Iraq. She is a member of the board of representatives for the Frontline Freelance Register (FFR).

In May 2014, Thailand underwent its 12th successful military coup since the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in 1932. This time, there has been no promise of a quick return to civilian rule; a spokesperson for the National Council of Peace and Order has stated that in Thailand’s current situation, normal democratic principles cannot be applied. In August, King Bhumibol officially endorsed General Prayuth Chan-ocha as the country’s Prime Minister.

As the country’s plans for political reform begin to take shape, we will be discussing the normalisation of coups in Thailand, the problematic issue of the country’s ageing king and the perennial conflict between the Thai elite and the rural majority.

We will be joined by a panel of experts to examine the root causes of Thailand’s ongoing political crisis and what actions, if any, can be taken to resolve it.

Chaired by Simon Baptist, chief economist and Asia Regional Director at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The panel:

Andrew MacGregor Marshall is a journalist, political risk consultant and corporate investigator, focusing mainly on Southeast Asia. He spent 17 years as a correspondent for Reuters, covering amongst others conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and political upheaval in Thailand. He is author of A Kingdom in Crisis.

Claudio Sopranzetti is a postdoctoral fellow at Oxford University All Souls College and the author of Red Journeys: Inside the Thai Red-Shirt Movement.

Eugénie Mérieau is a lecturer in political sciences and law at the University of Sciences-Po in Paris. She is also a political columnist for TV and print media. She recently published The Red-Shirts of Thailand.

Junya ‘Lek’ Yimprasert (via Skype) is a Thai labour rights activist who writes about exploitation at the bottom of supply chains. After the crackdown by military forces in Bangkok in May 2010 she wrote Why I don’t love the King and was charged with lès majesté. She is now a political refugee in Europe, she continues to denounce openly the military junta and interference of Monarchy in political life in Thailand.

In May 2014, Thailand underwent its 12th successful military coup since the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in 1932. This time, there has been no promise of a quick return to civilian rule; a spokesperson for the National Council of Peace and Order has stated that in Thailand’s current situation, normal democratic principles cannot be applied. In August, King Bhumibol officially endorsed General Prayuth Chan-ocha as the country’s Prime Minister.

As the country’s plans for political reform begin to take shape, we will be discussing the normalisation of coups in Thailand, the problematic issue of the country’s ageing king and the perennial conflict between the Thai elite and the rural majority.

We will be joined by a panel of experts to examine the root causes of Thailand’s ongoing political crisis and what actions, if any, can be taken to resolve it.

Chaired by Simon Baptist, chief economist and Asia Regional Director at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The panel:

Andrew MacGregor Marshall is a journalist, political risk consultant and corporate investigator, focusing mainly on Southeast Asia. He spent 17 years as a correspondent for Reuters, covering amongst others conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and political upheaval in Thailand. He is author of A Kingdom in Crisis.

Claudio Sopranzetti is a postdoctoral fellow at Oxford University All Souls College and the author of Red Journeys: Inside the Thai Red-Shirt Movement.

Eugénie Mérieau is a lecturer in political sciences and law at the University of Sciences-Po in Paris. She is also a political columnist for TV and print media. She recently published The Red-Shirts of Thailand.

Junya ‘Lek’ Yimprasert (via Skype) is a Thai labour rights activist who writes about exploitation at the bottom of supply chains. After the crackdown by military forces in Bangkok in May 2010 she wrote Why I don’t love the King and was charged with lès majesté. She is now a political refugee in Europe, she continues to denounce openly the military junta and interference of Monarchy in political life in Thailand.

In 1944, John G. Morris was a young picture editor working in London for Life magazine, overseeing the photographic reportage of World War II. Normally confined to the picture desk, in June of that year he went to France to coordinate the coverage of the D-Day landings – of which the work of his friend Robert Capa became so famed.

Morris’s 14 rolls of black-and-white film from the four weeks he spent in north-western France were never intended for publication. The negatives and contact sheets remained in his personal archive until a long-time friend from Contact Press Images, Robert Pledge, rediscovered them and curated their exhibition at Visa pour l’image in 2013.

These images, now published in Quelque part en France: l’été 1944 de John G. Morris (Somewhere in France: John G. Morris and the Summer of 1944), provide a personal perspective of the Allied troops advancing toward German strongholds.

Morris, now 97, will be joining us in conversation with Robert Pledge, the co-founder of the international independent picture agency Contact Press Images, to present his images and discuss his world of photographic reportage.

“I was photographing the margins of the war but they kind of held up a picture of what war is really like.” — John G. Morris

In 1944, John G. Morris was a young picture editor working in London for Life magazine, overseeing the photographic reportage of World War II. Normally confined to the picture desk, in June of that year he went to France to coordinate the coverage of the D-Day landings – of which the work of his friend Robert Capa became so famed.

Morris’s 14 rolls of black-and-white film from the four weeks he spent in north-western France were never intended for publication. The negatives and contact sheets remained in his personal archive until a long-time friend from Contact Press Images, Robert Pledge, rediscovered them and curated their exhibition at Visa pour l’image in 2013.

These images, now published in Quelque part en France: l’été 1944 de John G. Morris (Somewhere in France: John G. Morris and the Summer of 1944), provide a personal perspective of the Allied troops advancing toward German strongholds.

Morris, now 97, will be joining us in conversation with Robert Pledge, the co-founder of the international independent picture agency Contact Press Images, to present his images and discuss his world of photographic reportage.

“I was photographing the margins of the war but they kind of held up a picture of what war is really like.” — John G. Morris

In 1944, John G. Morris was a young picture editor working in London for Life magazine, overseeing the photographic reportage of World War II. Normally confined to the picture desk, in June of that year he went to France to coordinate the coverage of the D-Day landings – of which the work of his friend Robert Capa became so famed.

Morris’s 14 rolls of black-and-white film from the four weeks he spent in north-western France were never intended for publication. The negatives and contact sheets remained in his personal archive until a long-time friend from Contact Press Images, Robert Pledge, rediscovered them and curated their exhibition at Visa pour l’image in 2013.

These images, now published in Quelque part en France: l’été 1944 de John G. Morris (Somewhere in France: John G. Morris and the Summer of 1944), provide a personal perspective of the Allied troops advancing toward German strongholds.

Morris, now 97, will be joining us in conversation with Robert Pledge, the co-founder of the international independent picture agency Contact Press Images, to present his images and discuss his world of photographic reportage.

“I was photographing the margins of the war but they kind of held up a picture of what war is really like.” — John G. Morris

Anonymous, a group of hackers, activists and technologists, came to the fore in 2008 when they attacked the church of Scientology. Since then their coordinated collective action has come up against global corporations and supported the Arab revolutionaries, but how much do we know about who they are and what motivates them?

Six years ago Gabriella Coleman, an anthropologist, set out to study the rise of this global phenomenon just as some of its members were turning to political protest and dangerous disruption.

Coleman will be joining us in conversation with Ben Hammersley, presenter of the new BBC World News series Cybercrime with Ben Hammersley, to share her story of becoming an Anonymous confidante, interpreter, and erstwhile mouthpiece. She will be talking about the motivations of the group, the meaning of digital activism and the many facets of culture in the Internet age.

Gabriella Coleman holds the Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy at McGill University. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, she researches, writes about, and teaches on computer hackers and digital activism. She is the author of Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking and most recently Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous.