The Frontline Club

The latest revelations from whistleblower Edward Snowden have further exposed the extent of the US National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance. Amidst this new release of files are allegations that the NSA spied on its allies in Europe and engaged in widespread tapping of phone calls made by prominent European politicians.

European countries summoned US ambassadors and an EU delegation met with officials in Washington to convey their concerns. Will diplomatic tensions lead to any change in US surveillance practice and should we be surprised by these latest revelations?

As pressure mounts on Washington and the release of information continues, join us to explore what the files reveal and the consequences of this diplomatic storm. We will be examining the actions of the intelligence services and asking whether they are aligned with protecting national security or as US Secretary of State John Kerry has said, that in some cases their “actions have reached too far”.

Chaired by Owen Bennett-Jones, freelance journalist and a 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. He has also written for the Financial Times, The Guardian, The New Republic and the London Review of Books.

The panel:

Nigel Inkster is director of transnational threats and political risk at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). He served in the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) from 1975 to 2006, and spent seven years on the Board of SIS, the last two as assistant chief and director for operations and intelligence.

Steven Erlanger is London bureau chief for The New York Times. Previously he has served as bureau chief in Paris, Jerusalem, Berlin, Moscow, Bangkok and Central Europe and the Balkans. He has also been cultural news editor, chief diplomatic correspondent based in Washington, Moscow correspondent and Southeast Asia correspondent.

James Rubin is a visiting scholar at Oxford University’s Rothermere American Institute, a contributing editor of The New Republic and a commentator, lecturer and analyst on world affairs and US foreign policy. He served under President Clinton as assistant secretary of state for public affairs and chief spokesman for the State Department from 1997 – 2000.

Christoph Scheuermann is London bureau chief for German weekly Der Spiegel. He was previously a reporter at the magazine’s national desk in Hamburg, covering terrorism, extremism and current affairs.

Julian Borger is The Guardian‘s diplomatic editor. He was previously a correspondent in the US, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen will also be leading a day-long workshop on independent documentary journalism and self publishing at the Frontline Club on Saturday 2 November. For more information click here.

Photographer Rob Hornstra and writer/filmmaker Arnold van Bruggen have been working together since 2009 to tell the story of Sochi, Russia, the site of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. Together their images and text reveals a telling portrait of this complex region.

In a talk chaired by BBC Radio Current Affairs presenter Lucy Ash, Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen will present images from The Sochi Project and speak about the wider Caucasus region and its contrast with the glamour of the Olympic Games. They will also be discussing their approach to self-publishing.

Both based in the Netherlands, they have returned repeatedly to this region as committed practitioners of “slow journalism”. Over four years, they have established a solid foundation of research on, and engagement with, this small yet incredibly complicated corner of the world, documenting changes as it finds itself in the glare of international media.

The Sochi Project is a dynamic mix of documentary photography, film and reportage about a world in flux; a world full of different realities within a small but extraordinary geographic area.

Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen will also be leading a day-long workshop on independent documentary journalism and self publishing at the Frontline Club on Saturday 2 November. For more information click here.

Photographer Rob Hornstra and writer/filmmaker Arnold van Bruggen have been working together since 2009 to tell the story of Sochi, Russia, the site of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. Together their images and text reveals a telling portrait of this complex region.

In a talk chaired by BBC Radio Current Affairs presenter Lucy Ash, Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen will present images from The Sochi Project and speak about the wider Caucasus region and its contrast with the glamour of the Olympic Games. They will also be discussing their approach to self-publishing.

Both based in the Netherlands, they have returned repeatedly to this region as committed practitioners of “slow journalism”. Over four years, they have established a solid foundation of research on, and engagement with, this small yet incredibly complicated corner of the world, documenting changes as it finds itself in the glare of international media.

The Sochi Project is a dynamic mix of documentary photography, film and reportage about a world in flux; a world full of different realities within a small but extraordinary geographic area.

Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen will also be leading a day-long workshop on independent documentary journalism and self publishing at the Frontline Club on Saturday 2 November. For more information click here.

Photographer Rob Hornstra and writer/filmmaker Arnold van Bruggen have been working together since 2009 to tell the story of Sochi, Russia, the site of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. Together their images and text reveals a telling portrait of this complex region.

In a talk chaired by BBC Radio Current Affairs presenter Lucy Ash, Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen will present images from The Sochi Project and speak about the wider Caucasus region and its contrast with the glamour of the Olympic Games. They will also be discussing their approach to self-publishing.

Both based in the Netherlands, they have returned repeatedly to this region as committed practitioners of “slow journalism”. Over four years, they have established a solid foundation of research on, and engagement with, this small yet incredibly complicated corner of the world, documenting changes as it finds itself in the glare of international media.

The Sochi Project is a dynamic mix of documentary photography, film and reportage about a world in flux; a world full of different realities within a small but extraordinary geographic area.

October will mark the tenth year that Mikhail Khodorkovsky has spent behind bars. Once Russia’s richest and most successful businessman, he was arrested and imprisoned a decade ago, on charges that many regard as politically motivated. Since then he has faced new charges extending his sentence and although he is due for release in August 2014, doubts remain about whether this will take place.

We will be examining the Khodorkovsky case and, following the charges against Alexei Navalny, we will be looking at the wider issue of imprisonment of opposition figures in Russia. Will the ramping up of protests and support for Alexei Navalny force a change in the conduct of Russian politics?

A selection of Khodorkovsky’s writing will be adapted for an exclusive performance on the night, directed by Noah Birksted-Breen, the artistic director of the Sputnik Theatre Company. Birksted-Breen has previously directed a production of Elena Gremina’s play One Hour and Eighteen Minutes, dealing with the death of renowned Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky. More information on Birksted-Breen and the Sputnik Theatre Company can be found here: sputniktheatre.co.uk. It will be performed by Jonathan McGuinness, who is currently appearing in The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas at the Royal Court Theatre.

Chaired by Edward Lucas, the international editor of The Economist and author of Deception: Spies, Lies and how Russia Dupes the West. He has covered Russia and Central and Eastern Europe for more than 20 years.

The panel:

Sir Tony Brenton is a former British Diplomat, he served as Ambassador to Russia from 2004-2008. In 2009 He became a Fellow of Wolfson College Cambridge and is currently writing a book on Russian history.

Ben Judah reported for Reuters in Moscow before joining the European Council on Foreign Relations in London as a Russia analyst. He is currently a visiting fellow at the European Stability Initiative and is author of Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell in and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin.

Tonia Samsonova is a foreign correspondent working for Russian radio station Echo Moskvy, she is also a host on TVRain, an independent online TV channel. In 2013 she moved to London to investigate Russian corruption.

October will mark the tenth year that Mikhail Khodorkovsky has spent behind bars. Once Russia’s richest and most successful businessman, he was arrested and imprisoned a decade ago, on charges that many regard as politically motivated. Since then he has faced new charges extending his sentence and although he is due for release in August 2014, doubts remain about whether this will take place.

We will be examining the Khodorkovsky case and, following the charges against Alexei Navalny, we will be looking at the wider issue of imprisonment of opposition figures in Russia. Will the ramping up of protests and support for Alexei Navalny force a change in the conduct of Russian politics?

A selection of Khodorkovsky’s writing will be adapted for an exclusive performance on the night, directed by Noah Birksted-Breen, the artistic director of the Sputnik Theatre Company. Birksted-Breen has previously directed a production of Elena Gremina’s play One Hour and Eighteen Minutes, dealing with the death of renowned Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky. More information on Birksted-Breen and the Sputnik Theatre Company can be found here: sputniktheatre.co.uk. It will be performed by Jonathan McGuinness, who is currently appearing in The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas at the Royal Court Theatre.

Chaired by Edward Lucas, the international editor of The Economist and author of Deception: Spies, Lies and how Russia Dupes the West. He has covered Russia and Central and Eastern Europe for more than 20 years.

The panel:

Sir Tony Brenton is a former British Diplomat, he served as Ambassador to Russia from 2004-2008. In 2009 He became a Fellow of Wolfson College Cambridge and is currently writing a book on Russian history.

Ben Judah reported for Reuters in Moscow before joining the European Council on Foreign Relations in London as a Russia analyst. He is currently a visiting fellow at the European Stability Initiative and is author of Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell in and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin.

Tonia Samsonova is a foreign correspondent working for Russian radio station Echo Moskvy, she is also a host on TVRain, an independent online TV channel. In 2013 she moved to London to investigate Russian corruption.

How long is the shadow of a battle, an explosion, a revolution? What stories arise in the wake of devastation? The latest issue of Granta magazine explores the aftermath and legacy of conflict in fiction, poetry, reportage and memoir. To mark the publication of Granta 125: After the War, two of Britain’s foremost journalists and foreign correspondents discuss the craft, conditions and issues surrounding writing about post-conflict situations.

Chaired by Roma Tearne, a Sri Lankan born artist, film maker and novelist. She trained at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art and has published five novels. Her latest novel, The Road To Urbino, was long-listed for the Asian Man Booker prize.

Lindsey Hilsum is an internationally respected and admired communicator from the world’s most dangerous flashpoints. She is International Editor for Channel 4 News and has covered the major conflicts and international events of the past two decades. She spent most of 2011 reporting on the Arab Spring, primarily in Libya but also in Egypt and Bahrain, and is the author of Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution. In ‘The Rainy Season’, published in Granta’s After the War issue, she returns to Rwanda twenty years after witnessing the beginning of genocide.

Frances Harrison worked for many years as a foreign correspondent for the BBC posted in South Asia, South East Asia and Iran. From 2000-2004 she was the resident BBC Correspondent in Sri Lanka. She has worked at Amnesty International as Head of News and is the author of Still Counting the Dead: Survivors of Sri Lanka’s Hidden War.

How long is the shadow of a battle, an explosion, a revolution? What stories arise in the wake of devastation? The latest issue of Granta magazine explores the aftermath and legacy of conflict in fiction, poetry, reportage and memoir. To mark the publication of Granta 125: After the War, two of Britain’s foremost journalists and foreign correspondents discuss the craft, conditions and issues surrounding writing about post-conflict situations.

Chaired by Roma Tearne, a Sri Lankan born artist, film maker and novelist. She trained at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art and has published five novels. Her latest novel, The Road To Urbino, was long-listed for the Asian Man Booker prize.

Lindsey Hilsum is an internationally respected and admired communicator from the world’s most dangerous flashpoints. She is International Editor for Channel 4 News and has covered the major conflicts and international events of the past two decades. She spent most of 2011 reporting on the Arab Spring, primarily in Libya but also in Egypt and Bahrain, and is the author of Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution. In ‘The Rainy Season’, published in Granta’s After the War issue, she returns to Rwanda twenty years after witnessing the beginning of genocide.

Frances Harrison worked for many years as a foreign correspondent for the BBC posted in South Asia, South East Asia and Iran. From 2000-2004 she was the resident BBC Correspondent in Sri Lanka. She has worked at Amnesty International as Head of News and is the author of Still Counting the Dead: Survivors of Sri Lanka’s Hidden War.

How long is the shadow of a battle, an explosion, a revolution? What stories arise in the wake of devastation? The latest issue of Granta magazine explores the aftermath and legacy of conflict in fiction, poetry, reportage and memoir. To mark the publication of Granta 125: After the War, two of Britain’s foremost journalists and foreign correspondents discuss the craft, conditions and issues surrounding writing about post-conflict situations.

Chaired by Roma Tearne, a Sri Lankan born artist, film maker and novelist. She trained at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art and has published five novels. Her latest novel, The Road To Urbino, was long-listed for the Asian Man Booker prize.

Lindsey Hilsum is an internationally respected and admired communicator from the world’s most dangerous flashpoints. She is International Editor for Channel 4 News and has covered the major conflicts and international events of the past two decades. She spent most of 2011 reporting on the Arab Spring, primarily in Libya but also in Egypt and Bahrain, and is the author of Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution. In ‘The Rainy Season’, published in Granta’s After the War issue, she returns to Rwanda twenty years after witnessing the beginning of genocide.

Frances Harrison worked for many years as a foreign correspondent for the BBC posted in South Asia, South East Asia and Iran. From 2000-2004 she was the resident BBC Correspondent in Sri Lanka. She has worked at Amnesty International as Head of News and is the author of Still Counting the Dead: Survivors of Sri Lanka’s Hidden War.

A talented and courageous writer, and one of the most influential radical journalists of his generation, Alexander Cockburn was most at home in the political and cultural battlegrounds of the US. In a career that spanned 40 years he wrote for an array of publications, co-edited CounterPunch and was the author of a number of titles, including Corruptions of Empire, The Golden Age Is in Us, Imperial Crusades and co-author with Susanna Hecht of The Fate of the Forest.

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He began his career in journalism writing for the student newspaper Cherwell at the University of Oxford. After a few years freelancing for the New Left Review, the New Statesman and others he crossed the pond in 1972. From 1973 he was a writer with the Village Voice, originating its Press Clips column. He went on to write for The Nation and a selection of other titles in the US and the UK.

Join us to look back on Alexander Cockburn’s extraordinary career, exploring his view of America and his style of radical journalism. We will also hear readings from his final work, A Colossal Wreck: A Road Trip Through Political Scandal, Corruption, and American Culture, finished shortly before his death in July 2012.

Chaired by Charles Glass, a broadcaster, journalist and writer, who began his journalistic career in 1973 at the ABC News Beirut bureau and was chief Middle East correspondent from 1983 to 1993. Since then, he has been a freelance writer, regularly covering the Middle East, the Balkans, Southeast Asia and the Mediterranean region.

With:

Journalist and brother of Alexander Cockburn, Patrick Cockburn. He has been a Middle East correspondent since 1979, first for the Financial Times, then for The Independent. He is author of several books including The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq and Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Battle for the Future of Iraq.

Ellin Stein is a journalist and author, her book That’s Not Funny That’s Sick: The National Lampoon and the Comedy Insurgents Who Captured the Mainstream was published in June. She has written for publications including The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent, The New York Times, Variety and the Village Voice. She currently teaches in the department of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths College.

Joe Paff studied politics and philosophy at Berkeley from 1957-66. Over the next decade he taught at Berkeley, Toronto and Stanford. In 1975 he moved to Petrolia, California where he created the first high school in the area and now roasts Goldrush Coffee. He is the president of CounterPunch.

Robin Blackburn teaches at the University of Essex and at the New School in New York. He is a former editor of the New Left Review and is the author of many books, including The Making of New World Slavery, The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, Age Shock, Banking on Death, and The American Crucible.