The Frontline Club

In 1948, as Burma gained independence, a young man named Ed Law-Yone founded The Nation newspaper. It went on to become Burma’s leading English-language daily and a hugely influential voice in the country. Ed Law-Yone, the editor and proprietor, became a major player within the political elite, but following the military coup of 1962 the paper was closed and he was imprisoned.

After five years he fled to Thailand to form a government–in-exile and to try to ignite a revolution. He was unsuccessful and later settled in the US where he died in 1980. He did not live to see the Burma he dreamed of but he entrusted his daughter, Wendy Law-Yone, to tell his remarkable story.

It was not until 20 years after his death that Wendy Law-Yone found the confidence to unearth her father’s manuscripts. She will be joining us in conversation with the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall to talk about the unique portrait of Burma she discovered.

Wendy Law-Yone was born in Mandalay, Burma, in 1947. She fled after the 1962 coup, settling in the US where she published two novels The Coffin Tree and Irrawaddy Tango. She came to the UK on a David T.K. Wong creative writing fellowship at the University of East Anglia, and has been here ever since. In 2010 she published her third novel The Road to Wanting and her memoir Golden Parasol: A Daughter’s Memoir of Burma has just been released.

In 1948, as Burma gained independence, a young man named Ed Law-Yone founded The Nation newspaper. It went on to become Burma’s leading English-language daily and a hugely influential voice in the country. Ed Law-Yone, the editor and proprietor, became a major player within the political elite, but following the military coup of 1962 the paper was closed and he was imprisoned.

After five years he fled to Thailand to form a government–in-exile and to try to ignite a revolution. He was unsuccessful and later settled in the US where he died in 1980. He did not live to see the Burma he dreamed of but he entrusted his daughter, Wendy Law-Yone, to tell his remarkable story.

It was not until 20 years after his death that Wendy Law-Yone found the confidence to unearth her father’s manuscripts. She will be joining us in conversation with the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall to talk about the unique portrait of Burma she discovered.

Wendy Law-Yone was born in Mandalay, Burma, in 1947. She fled after the 1962 coup, settling in the US where she published two novels The Coffin Tree and Irrawaddy Tango. She came to the UK on a David T.K. Wong creative writing fellowship at the University of East Anglia, and has been here ever since. In 2010 she published her third novel The Road to Wanting and her memoir Golden Parasol: A Daughter’s Memoir of Burma has just been released.

In 1948, as Burma gained independence, a young man named Ed Law-Yone founded The Nation newspaper. It went on to become Burma’s leading English-language daily and a hugely influential voice in the country. Ed Law-Yone, the editor and proprietor, became a major player within the political elite, but following the military coup of 1962 the paper was closed and he was imprisoned.

After five years he fled to Thailand to form a government–in-exile and to try to ignite a revolution. He was unsuccessful and later settled in the US where he died in 1980. He did not live to see the Burma he dreamed of but he entrusted his daughter, Wendy Law-Yone, to tell his remarkable story.

It was not until 20 years after his death that Wendy Law-Yone found the confidence to unearth her father’s manuscripts. She will be joining us in conversation with the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall to talk about the unique portrait of Burma she discovered.

Wendy Law-Yone was born in Mandalay, Burma, in 1947. She fled after the 1962 coup, settling in the US where she published two novels The Coffin Tree and Irrawaddy Tango. She came to the UK on a David T.K. Wong creative writing fellowship at the University of East Anglia, and has been here ever since. In 2010 she published her third novel The Road to Wanting and her memoir Golden Parasol: A Daughter’s Memoir of Burma has just been released.

Thursday 6 June 2013

Paul Conroy first met Marie Colvin in March 2003 in Syria. He was attempting to smuggle himself across the Tigris on a raft made of tubes stolen from lorries, with the aim to get into Iraq to cover the final assault on Baghdad. A firm friendship was forged over their many shared interests: sailing, whiskey, and their extraordinary dedication to covering the atrocities of war.

Having worked together in Libya in 2011, they were a natural pairing for an assignment to Homs. They were determined to cover the Syrian regime’s brutal crackdown and the devastating impact this was having on civilians.

Paul Conroy will be joining us in conversation with international editor at Channel 4 News, Lindsey Hilsum, to talk about Under The Wire. Offering a testimony of war reportage, and a personal account of the final assignment he embarked on with Marie Colvin, one of the foremost journalists of our generation.

Paul Conroy is a former soldier who spent seven years with the Royal Artillery. He developed a passion for photography and first became involved in journalism on a mission to the Balkans. He has since worked extensively as both a photojournalist and filmmaker in combat zones around the world, producing footage from conflicts in the Balkans, Iraq, Democratic Republic Congo, Rwanda and most notably Libya and Syria.

Thursday 6 June 2013

Paul Conroy first met Marie Colvin in March 2003 in Syria. He was attempting to smuggle himself across the Tigris on a raft made of tubes stolen from lorries, with the aim to get into Iraq to cover the final assault on Baghdad. A firm friendship was forged over their many shared interests: sailing, whiskey, and their extraordinary dedication to covering the atrocities of war.

Having worked together in Libya in 2011, they were a natural pairing for an assignment to Homs. They were determined to cover the Syrian regime’s brutal crackdown and the devastating impact this was having on civilians.

Paul Conroy will be joining us in conversation with international editor at Channel 4 News, Lindsey Hilsum, to talk about Under The Wire. Offering a testimony of war reportage, and a personal account of the final assignment he embarked on with Marie Colvin, one of the foremost journalists of our generation.

Paul Conroy is a former soldier who spent seven years with the Royal Artillery. He developed a passion for photography and first became involved in journalism on a mission to the Balkans. He has since worked extensively as both a photojournalist and filmmaker in combat zones around the world, producing footage from conflicts in the Balkans, Iraq, Democratic Republic Congo, Rwanda and most notably Libya and Syria.

Thursday 6 June 2013

Paul Conroy first met Marie Colvin in March 2003 in Syria. He was attempting to smuggle himself across the Tigris on a raft made of tubes stolen from lorries, with the aim to get into Iraq to cover the final assault on Baghdad. A firm friendship was forged over their many shared interests: sailing, whiskey, and their extraordinary dedication to covering the atrocities of war.

Having worked together in Libya in 2011, they were a natural pairing for an assignment to Homs. They were determined to cover the Syrian regime’s brutal crackdown and the devastating impact this was having on civilians.

Paul Conroy will be joining us in conversation with international editor at Channel 4 News, Lindsey Hilsum, to talk about Under The Wire. Offering a testimony of war reportage, and a personal account of the final assignment he embarked on with Marie Colvin, one of the foremost journalists of our generation.

Paul Conroy is a former soldier who spent seven years with the Royal Artillery. He developed a passion for photography and first became involved in journalism on a mission to the Balkans. He has since worked extensively as both a photojournalist and filmmaker in combat zones around the world, producing footage from conflicts in the Balkans, Iraq, Democratic Republic Congo, Rwanda and most notably Libya and Syria.

Wednesday 5 June 2013

On 14 June Iranians will go to to the polls to vote for a president to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but what significance does this election hold? Iran’s Guardian Council has approved eight candidates from the list of more than 600 hopefuls. Two notable exclusions were leading contenders Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei.

We will be joined by a panel of experts to ask if these disqualifications signal a demise of hope for peaceful change in Iran and a move towards absolute dictatorship. What does this mean for the reform movement?

Join us to analyse the approaching election, the main players and what the result will mean for the future of Iran.

Chaired by Martin Fletcher, former assistant editor and foreign editor of The Times. He covered the 2009 presidential election in Iran.

The panel:

Kelly Golnoush Niknejad is founder and editor-in-chief of the award-winning Tehran Bureau, which is hosted by the Guardian. She is also the inaugural recipient of the Innovator Award from Columbia Journalism School for “inspiring, creating, developing, or implementing new ideas that further the cause of journalism”.

Roberto Toscano was the Italian Ambassador to Iran for five years (2003-2008). As a career diplomat, he has served in a number of other posts (India, Chile, USSR, Spain, United States, as well as at Italy’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations at Geneva). He is the author of books and articles on human rights, peacekeeping, conflict prevention, ethics and international relations.

Saeed Barzin has been an Iran analyst with BBC Persian Service and the BBC Monitoring service since 2006. He has written extensively on Iranian politics, media and society for general audiences, internal BBC customers and UK government officials. Over the past 15 years he has written for a number of current affairs journals and has published several books, including the Political Biography of Mehdi Bazargan which was among the top ten best-selling books in Iran in mid 1990s.

Roger Cohen is a journalist, author and op-ed columnist for The New York Times. He joined The New York Times in 1990 where he was a foreign correspondent for more than a decade before becoming acting foreign editor on 11 September 2001, and foreign editor six months later. Since 2004, he has written a column for the International Herald Tribune and 2009 he was named a columnist of The New York Times. He is author of Hearts Grown Brutal: Sagas of Sarajevo and Soldiers and Slaves: American POWs Trapped by the Nazis’ Final Gamble, he has also co-written a biography of General Norman Schwarzkopf, In the Eye of the Storm.

This session is in association with BBC Persian Service.

Wednesday 5 June 2013

On 14 June Iranians will go to to the polls to vote for a president to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but what significance does this election hold? Iran’s Guardian Council has approved eight candidates from the list of more than 600 hopefuls. Two notable exclusions were leading contenders Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei.

We will be joined by a panel of experts to ask if these disqualifications signal a demise of hope for peaceful change in Iran and a move towards absolute dictatorship. What does this mean for the reform movement?

Join us to analyse the approaching election, the main players and what the result will mean for the future of Iran.

Chaired by Martin Fletcher, former assistant editor and foreign editor of The Times. He covered the 2009 presidential election in Iran.

The panel:

Kelly Golnoush Niknejad is founder and editor-in-chief of the award-winning Tehran Bureau, which is hosted by the Guardian. She is also the inaugural recipient of the Innovator Award from Columbia Journalism School for “inspiring, creating, developing, or implementing new ideas that further the cause of journalism”.

Roberto Toscano was the Italian Ambassador to Iran for five years (2003-2008). As a career diplomat, he has served in a number of other posts (India, Chile, USSR, Spain, United States, as well as at Italy’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations at Geneva). He is the author of books and articles on human rights, peacekeeping, conflict prevention, ethics and international relations.

Saeed Barzin has been an Iran analyst with BBC Persian Service and the BBC Monitoring service since 2006. He has written extensively on Iranian politics, media and society for general audiences, internal BBC customers and UK government officials. Over the past 15 years he has written for a number of current affairs journals and has published several books, including the Political Biography of Mehdi Bazargan which was among the top ten best-selling books in Iran in mid 1990s.

Roger Cohen is a journalist, author and op-ed columnist for The New York Times. He joined The New York Times in 1990 where he was a foreign correspondent for more than a decade before becoming acting foreign editor on 11 September 2001, and foreign editor six months later. Since 2004, he has written a column for the International Herald Tribune and 2009 he was named a columnist of The New York Times. He is author of Hearts Grown Brutal: Sagas of Sarajevo and Soldiers and Slaves: American POWs Trapped by the Nazis’ Final Gamble, he has also co-written a biography of General Norman Schwarzkopf, In the Eye of the Storm.

This session is in association with BBC Persian Service.

Wednesday 5 June 2013

On 14 June Iranians will go to to the polls to vote for a president to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but what significance does this election hold? Iran’s Guardian Council has approved eight candidates from the list of more than 600 hopefuls. Two notable exclusions were leading contenders Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei.

We will be joined by a panel of experts to ask if these disqualifications signal a demise of hope for peaceful change in Iran and a move towards absolute dictatorship. What does this mean for the reform movement?

Join us to analyse the approaching election, the main players and what the result will mean for the future of Iran.

Chaired by Martin Fletcher, former assistant editor and foreign editor of The Times. He covered the 2009 presidential election in Iran.

The panel:

Kelly Golnoush Niknejad is founder and editor-in-chief of the award-winning Tehran Bureau, which is hosted by the Guardian. She is also the inaugural recipient of the Innovator Award from Columbia Journalism School for “inspiring, creating, developing, or implementing new ideas that further the cause of journalism”.

Roberto Toscano was the Italian Ambassador to Iran for five years (2003-2008). As a career diplomat, he has served in a number of other posts (India, Chile, USSR, Spain, United States, as well as at Italy’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations at Geneva). He is the author of books and articles on human rights, peacekeeping, conflict prevention, ethics and international relations.

Saeed Barzin has been an Iran analyst with BBC Persian Service and the BBC Monitoring service since 2006. He has written extensively on Iranian politics, media and society for general audiences, internal BBC customers and UK government officials. Over the past 15 years he has written for a number of current affairs journals and has published several books, including the Political Biography of Mehdi Bazargan which was among the top ten best-selling books in Iran in mid 1990s.

Roger Cohen is a journalist, author and op-ed columnist for The New York Times. He joined The New York Times in 1990 where he was a foreign correspondent for more than a decade before becoming acting foreign editor on 11 September 2001, and foreign editor six months later. Since 2004, he has written a column for the International Herald Tribune and 2009 he was named a columnist of The New York Times. He is author of Hearts Grown Brutal: Sagas of Sarajevo and Soldiers and Slaves: American POWs Trapped by the Nazis’ Final Gamble, he has also co-written a biography of General Norman Schwarzkopf, In the Eye of the Storm.

This session is in association with BBC Persian Service.

October 30, 2012

Join us for the launch of Why Poverty? A ground-breaking series of international documentaries looking at contemporary poverty screening on the BBC in November. The global cross-media event produced in partnership with The Open University will see the same eight films screened in 180 countries by more than 70 broadcasters to explore why, in the 21st Century, a billion people still live in poverty.

From a behind-the-scenes look at Bob Geldof and Bono’s 30 year campaign and the moving story of illiterate women becoming solar engineers, to films exploring the impact of multinationals in Zambia and the privatisation of education in China, the series will give expression to a diverse range of voices from around the world and kick-start a new debate about contemporary poverty.

BBC Four will be the home of Why Poverty?, screening seven documentaries over two weeks, while the series will launch on BBC One with Four Born Every Second (w/t) – a lyrical and sobering look at childbirth and infant mortality around the world.

Nick Fraser, editor of BBC Storyville and Mette Hoffman Meyer, executive producer of Why Poverty? will present this initiative to create a global debate. As part of the evening we will be showing SOLAR MAMAS – the remarkable story of a Jordanian mother who travels to India to train as a solar engineer and bring light and electricity back to her village.