The Frontline Club

Zimbabwe’s leaders have been locked in a shaky power sharing coalition since opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as Prime Minister in January 2009. This agreement followed a period of violence and turmoil after the 2008 elections, which Robert Mugabe is widely believed to have stolen.

President Mugabe is now pressing for fresh elections in 2011, despite MDC leader Tsvangirai saying that they could not take place without reforms and constitutional review.

Analysts fear that Zimbabwe could be marred by violence in a repeat of 2008, when Mugabe lost the popular vote, but forced a win in a runoff election. With the military, police and state apparatus on his side there is little chance that Mugabe would allow a remotely free or fair election would likely ensure his removal from power.

Join us at the Frontline Club with a panel of experts to discuss what the coming year holds for Zimbabwe – could there be a fair election, or will violence and intimidation again escalate?

Chaired by Gerry Jackson, founder of SW Radio Africa – the independent Zimbabwean radio station that broadcasts to Zimbabwe on shortwave and worldwide via the internet. She has been reporting on Zimbabwe for over 25 years.

With:

Geoff Hill, bureau chief in Johannesburg for The Washington Times and author of The Battle for Zimbabwe and What Happens After Mugabe?;

Chofamba Innocent Sithole, Zimbabwean journalist and community organiser;

Blessing-Miles Tendi, author of Making History in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe: Politics, Intellectuals and the Media;

George Shire, cultural theorist, political analyst and reviews editor for “Soundings”, a journal of politics and culture.

Rottweiler or poodle? Good cop or bad cop? What is the best way for journalists to get a good interview?

We will joined by:

Interviewer, film analyst, writer, mentor to screenwriters and conversationalist Warren Etheredge to discuss his thought-provoking ideas and tips about interviewing and his assertion that a great interview needs more than tough questioning;

Adam Boulton, political editor of Sky News.

Razia Iqbal, special correspondent and presenter, BBC News.

Chaired by presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House, Paddy O’Connell.

Following the tumultuous events in Egypt we are holding a special First Wednesday debate to both take stock and to look at the impact that the ousting of president Hosni Mubarak could have on Egypt and its neighbours in the Middle East.

We will be joined by experts on the region and journalists fresh from reporting the remarkable events in Egypt to discuss the nature of the protests and what lies ahead for the country.

With the constitution suspended, parliament dissolved and power is in the hands of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, can the people’s hope of Democracy be fulfilled?

What inspiration will people in other countries in the Middle East take from the fact that Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and the Egyptian president have both been forced to step down?

Join us as we discuss the prospects for democracy throughout the region.

Chaired by Paddy O’Connell of BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House.

With:

Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor for Channel 4 News;

Dr Omar Ashour, lecturer in Middle East politics and the director of the MA in Middle East Studies Program at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, author of The De-Radicalization of Jihadists: Transforming Armed Islamist Movements and a pro-democracy activist close to the youth movement in Cairo;

Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor at the Observer;

Dr Maha Azzam, Associate Fellow of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House;

Ahdaf Soueif, political and cultural commentator and author of the bestselling The Map of Love which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1999 (via Skype from Cairo).

From regime change in Tunisia, persistent calls for President Mubarak to step down in Egypt, and protests in Jordan and Syria to student demonstrations in Britain and unrest in Ireland, Greece and France – we are witnessing unprecedented revolt against power structures around the world.

But are journalists equipped to understand the nature of these protests, what drives them and how they are organised?

What can we learn from recent protests about the likely nature of future protest, the role of social media and political allegiances? Are there any lessons to be learnt from the past that can help the media adapt to the new politics?

Join us at the Frontline Club for a fascinating discussion in association with the BBC College of Journalism.

Chaired by Steve Crawshaw, international advocacy director, Amnesty International and co-author of Small Acts of Resistance How courage, tenacity and ingenuity can change the world.

With:

Paul Mason, BBC Newsnight economics editor;

Guy Aitchison, co-editor of openDemocracy’s UK blog, OurKingdom, a PhD student in politics at UCL who was involved full-time in the occupation and a co-editor of Fightback: A reader on the winter of protest (a free downloadable e-book)

Turi Munthe, CEO of Demotix;

Jacky Rowland, Aljazeera English correspondent based in Paris.

“Whether we like it or not, cyber is going to be part of future warfare, just as tanks and aircraft are today. It’s a cultural change.” These were the words of General Sir David Richards, chief of the defence staff in a recent interview in which he called for a cyber command to deal with online strikes and to launch attacks. The 2010 Strategic Defense Review listed cyber attacks as among the biggest emerging threat to the UK.

Join us at the Frontline Club where we will be examining the claims about what has been described as the “fifth domain of warfare” and assessing the threats posed by states launching attacks against another’s military infrastructure, government and communications systems, and financial markets.

We’ll be looking at who will be the key players, the threats posed and what policies might be put in place to protect against them. We will also be discussing the impact of the increasing militarisation of the internet and where online activists such as Anonymous fit in.

Chaired by Ben Hammersley, editor at large of WIRED UK.

With:

Dr Rex Hughes, visiting fellow in Cyber Security at Wolfson College, Cambridge University;

Peter Sommer, visiting professor in the Information Systems Integrity Group in the Department of Management at the London School of Economics and co author of the OECD study “Reducing Systemic Cybersecurity Risk“;

Carl Leonard, senior security research manager (EMEA), Websense;

Claire Yorke, manager of the International Security Programme at Chatham House and co-author of the Chatham House Report ‘On Cyber Warfare’.

David E. Hoffman, who worked for 27 years as a reporter and editor at The Washington Post, will be at the Frontline Club to discuss the relationship between US president Ronald Reagan and Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev and the dying days of the Cold War.

Author of The Dead Hand, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative history of this era, David E. Hoffman covered the White House during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and was Moscow bureau chief from 1995 to 2001.

From the discovery of a Soviet biological warfare machine to the refusal of Gorbachev in 1985 to compete in Reagan’s massive “Star Wars” weaponry programme, Hoffman tells the inside story of this fascinating era, including the little-known story of the Soviet semi-automatic retaliatory system known as the Dead Hand, a Doomsday Device that would leave the fate of Earth in the hands of three surviving duty officers buried deep underground in a concrete, globe-shaped bunker.

Hoffman will be in conversation with investigative journalist, university lecturer and author of Spyflights of the Cold War and co author of Britain’s Secret Propaganda War, Paul Lashmar.

At February’s First Wednesday we will be bringing together a panel of experts to discuss the recent unrest in the Middle East since demonstrators in Tunisia ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Following unrest in a number of North African and Middle East countries, the world’s attention is now on Egypt, where the next 48 hours are considered crucial in determining the future of this pivotal country.

We hope you will join us to discuss the remarkable events of recent weeks and on the nature of the changes that are taking place in Egypt and what they mean for the future of the region.

Chaired by Paddy O’Connell of BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House.

With:

Mustafa Abulhimal, Research Fellow, Quilliam Foundation;

Jane Kinninmont, the associate director for Middle East and Africa at the

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU);

Tarek Osman, author of Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak (via Skype, subject to internet connection in Cairo);

Mohamed Yehia, BBC Arabic Online Editor;

Davis Lewin, head of programmes at the Henry Jackson Society, a foreign policy think tank based in London.

Cartoonist Martin Rowson will be speaking at the Club in his own entertaining fashion about the power of satire, how he uses cartoons to create acerbic critiques of the world of politics and politicians and explaining how he goes about his work.

Rowson has colourfully caricatured the political climate since 1982. His recent depictions of Nick Clegg as Pinnochio have brought him praise and awards (including Political Cartoonist of the Year 2010). In 2001 Ken Livingstone appointed him London’s first Cartoonist Laureate in exchange for one pint of London Pride per annum. This payment is still six pints in arrears, and despite being apparently reappointed by Boris Johnson, not a single pint has been forthcoming from the current mayor.

Rowson‘s work has appeared regularly in The Guardian, The Times, The Independent on Sunday, The Daily Mirror, The Spectator, The New Statesman, Tribune and The Morning Star, as well as many other publications. He has penned comic books, a novel Snatches and a memoir Stuff.

Rowson won the Cartoon Art Trust’s Political Cartoonist of the Year Award in 2000 and 2004, and the Political Cartoon Society’s Cartoon of the Year in 2003 and 2007. He also won the prestigious Premio Satiri de Forte di Marmi International Satire Award in 2006.

Laurie Taylor, who will moderate the event, is a sociologist and broadcaster. He regularly presents Thinking Allowed on BBC Radio 4 and is the commissioning editor for New Humanist.

In the third of this series of events looking at aid and development we will be examining the often troubled relationship between the media and aid agencies. With an expert panel we will be discussing how the media and aid agencies work together and the problems that arise.

Extensive humanitarian disasters attract a large amount of media attention whilst smaller and on going disasters often go unreported. Should the media be more receptive to aid agencies that try to bring attention to these causes? Or should aid agencies be more PR driven and utilise new media in order to attract the media spotlight?

Chaired by Mark Galloway, director of the International Broadcasting Trust an educational and media charity which works on a range of projects to promote media coverage of the developing world.

With:

Andrew Hogg, Christian Aid news/campaigns editor and former news editor of the Sunday Times and Observer and was editor of The Sunday Times Insight investigative unit;

Benjamin Chesterton, radio documentary and photofilm producer, co-founder of the production company duckrabbit and the website A Developing Story;

Fran Unsworth, head of BBC newsgathering;

Independent writer and consultant, Michael Green who was director of communications at DFID from 2003 to 2007 and co-author of Philanthrocapitalism and The Road From Ruin.

“Orphans are Africa’s tsunami” claims photographer Carol Allen Storey, who has documented the lives of orphans in Sub Saharan Africa.

Two key groups of children provide a focal point for her work. One, a gang of Ugandan youngsters known as the ‘Dustbin tribe’ who live and play on a rubbish tip, the other, lucky enough to be in school in Tanzania, are marked out from their classmates with red badges to signify their HIV positive status.

Carol Allen Storey is a committed photojournalist who specialises in chronicling complex humanitarian and social issues, especially amongst women and children.

Storey’s work has been exhibited and published internationally. She was a finalist in the Taylor Wessing Portrait Awards at the National Portrait Gallery, a finalist at the New York Photography Festival, and a finalist in the Spider Awards. In 2008 she was selected for the Press Photographer’s Year exhibition. She has showcased three solo exhibitions in London: Anything is Possible at the AOP, The Vanishing Assets of Africa at Inmarsat Gallery, and The savagery and poetry of Africa at Proud Gallery. In 2009 she was appointed a UNICEF ambassador.

Sue Steward will act as moderator for the event. Steward is a writer, radio broadcaster, photo-editor and curator who specialises in visual arts and world music. She is Photography Critic for The Evening Standard and for BBC Radio 2’s Arts Magazine with Claudia Winkleman, as well as a regular critic on the Radio 3’s World Routes programme. She is a founder member of the (Sony) World Photography Awards, a Trustee for the charity PhotoVoice, and a member of the Steering Committee for the March 2011 FORMAT International Photography Festival in Derby. In addition, she is a contributor to the British Journal of Photography and Eye magazine, and a feature writer for the Daily Telegraph and Observer.