The Frontline Club

What are the forces in play within the American political system and to what extent does their power and influence go beyond the presidency?

Are there forces at work that are so institutionally powerful that they can shape one administration after another irrespective of whether it is Republican or Democratic?.

In Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America’s Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years Russ Baker examines the connections between the Bush family; their presidencies, the military, the oil industry, Wall Street and the CIA.

Baker’s five year investigation goes further and leads him towards the conclusion that there are forces at work that will have implications for the current president, Barack Obama

Join us at the Frontline Club with Russ Baker and an expert panel to explore the implications of his investigation for the current president, Barack Obama, and his potential to impliment true reform.

With:

Russ Baker, award-winning investigative reporter and founder of whowhatwhy.com. He has written for the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, the Nation, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Village Voice and Esquire;

Michael Goldfarb, London correspondent for globalpost.com;

Godfrey Hodgson, previously Washington correspondent for The Observer, editor of Insight at the Sunday Times, anchor for Channel 4 News, foreign editor of the Independent and director of the Reuter Foundation Programme for Journalists at Oxford. Currently a fellow of the Rothermere American Institute at Oxford. Among others author of The Myth of American Exceptionalism and America in Our Time: From World War II to Nixon–What Happened and Why.

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

In the fifth of this series Vin Ray, former BBC executive will be in conversation with Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow who will be reflecting on his career and the events and journalism that has influenced him.

Jon Snow is best known for being the face of Channel 4 News, which he has been presenting since 1989. But his career has taken him around the world from Afghanistan to Zanzibar and the major events he has covered over the years, include the release of Nelson Mandela, who he has also interviewed and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Other interviews include the writer Arundhati Roy and former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Having begun his career as a radio journalist with LBC, Jon Snow has covered every UK election since 1974 and every US election since 1980. He began his career on 16mm film and now works on digital, the blogosphere and twitter. He argues we are entering the Golden Age of journalism.

In the fifth of this series Vin Ray, former BBC executive will be in conversation with Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow who will be reflecting on his career and the events and journalism that has influenced him.

Jon Snow is best known for being the face of Channel 4 News, which he has been presenting since 1989. But his career has taken him around the world from Afghanistan to Zanzibar and the major events he has covered over the years, include the release of Nelson Mandela, who he has also interviewed and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Other interviews include the writer Arundhati Roy and former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Having begun his career as a radio journalist with LBC, Jon Snow has covered every UK election since 1974 and every US election since 1980. He began his career on 16mm film and now works on digital, the blogosphere and twitter. He argues we are entering the Golden Age of journalism.

They’re supposed to be opposite ends of the spectrum: journalists report the news, while public relations professionals try to influence them.

Not any more: blue chip PR firms are hiring journalists more than ever before to help their clients create their own text and video content – with online publishing, PRs don’t always need mainstream media channels to tell their story.

So how different is PR from journalism these days? Is this trend a concern for people who value editorial and commercial independence, or is it just a sympton of a shrinking, fragmented mass media?

Joining us to discuss this are:

Martin Veitch, editor in chief of IT industry title CIO who is due to join Bite Communications;

Ian Burrell, media editor of The Independent

Darren Waters, former BBC Online technlogy editor and now MD of Monument PR

Drew Benvie, managing director and of digital PR agency 33 Digital.

Our chair for the evening is freelance journalist and former Times media editor Dan Sabbagh, who now runs the media-watching website Beehivecity.

This event is part of our monthly On The Media series of panel discussions, in association with the BBC College of Journalism.

N.B. Richard Sambrook had to cancel his appearence due to work commitments; he sends his apologies.

They’re supposed to be opposite ends of the spectrum: journalists report the news, while public relations professionals try to influence them.

Not any more: blue chip PR firms are hiring journalists more than ever before to help their clients create their own text and video content – with online publishing, PRs don’t always need mainstream media channels to tell their story.

So how different is PR from journalism these days? Is this trend a concern for people who value editorial and commercial independence, or is it just a sympton of a shrinking, fragmented mass media?

Joining us to discuss this are:

Martin Veitch, editor in chief of IT industry title CIO who is due to join Bite Communications;

Ian Burrell, media editor of The Independent

Darren Waters, former BBC Online technlogy editor and now MD of Monument PR

Drew Benvie, managing director and of digital PR agency 33 Digital.

Our chair for the evening is freelance journalist and former Times media editor Dan Sabbagh, who now runs the media-watching website Beehivecity.

This event is part of our monthly On The Media series of panel discussions, in association with the BBC College of Journalism.

N.B. Richard Sambrook had to cancel his appearence due to work commitments; he sends his apologies.

The Gulf of Mexico spill has put the spotlight on the oil industry and its practices to an unprecedented degree.

Join us at the Frontline Club where we will be discussing BP and the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion that has resulted in between 67 and 127 million gallons spilling into the sea: what are the implications not only for BP’s future but also for the oil industry?

What does the "worst US environment disaster" tell us about the oil industry and our continued reliance on this dwindling natural resource? Have the risks the industry – and politicians – have been prepared to take to sustain the supply of oil been too great?

The discussion will also reflect on Nigeria’s experience: there have been ten oil spills in the Niger delta in the past two years that have been largely ignored. Two weeks after the Gulf of Mexico explosion, an ExxonMobil pipeline burst in Akwa Ibom, spilling more than a million gallons into the delta before it was repaired. Media coverage of the Deepwater Horizon spill, along with the daily speeches by President Barack Obama, who insists he will hold BP to account for the disaster, has been in sharp contrast to the experiences of Nigerians.

Should there be a global strategy to rein in the oil companies to protect further devastation to the planet?

With:

Dr Simon Boxall, lecturer in Oceanography at the University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre (UK) who has been involved with oil spill monitoring and impact on a number of major European spills including Braer, Sea Empress, Prestige and Erika;

Dr Richard Pike, chief executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry who had an almost 25 year career in BP, during which time he held a number of technical and commercial positions;

John Vidal, the Guardian’s environment editor;

Ben Amunwa, a campaigner with PLATFORM, an arts and campaigns group that focuses on the oil and gas industry;

Chris Skrebowski, founding director of Peak Oil Consulting and the consulting editor of Petroleum Review, he has 38 years experience in the oil industry, starting work in 1970 as a long-term planner for BP.

The Gulf of Mexico spill has put the spotlight on the oil industry and its practices to an unprecedented degree.

Join us at the Frontline Club where we will be discussing BP and the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion that has resulted in between 67 and 127 million gallons spilling into the sea: what are the implications not only for BP’s future but also for the oil industry?

What does the "worst US environment disaster" tell us about the oil industry and our continued reliance on this dwindling natural resource? Have the risks the industry – and politicians – have been prepared to take to sustain the supply of oil been too great?

The discussion will also reflect on Nigeria’s experience: there have been ten oil spills in the Niger delta in the past two years that have been largely ignored. Two weeks after the Gulf of Mexico explosion, an ExxonMobil pipeline burst in Akwa Ibom, spilling more than a million gallons into the delta before it was repaired. Media coverage of the Deepwater Horizon spill, along with the daily speeches by President Barack Obama, who insists he will hold BP to account for the disaster, has been in sharp contrast to the experiences of Nigerians.

Should there be a global strategy to rein in the oil companies to protect further devastation to the planet?

With:

Dr Simon Boxall, lecturer in Oceanography at the University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre (UK) who has been involved with oil spill monitoring and impact on a number of major European spills including Braer, Sea Empress, Prestige and Erika;

Dr Richard Pike, chief executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry who had an almost 25 year career in BP, during which time he held a number of technical and commercial positions;

John Vidal, the Guardian’s environment editor;

Ben Amunwa, a campaigner with PLATFORM, an arts and campaigns group that focuses on the oil and gas industry;

Chris Skrebowski, founding director of Peak Oil Consulting and the consulting editor of Petroleum Review, he has 38 years experience in the oil industry, starting work in 1970 as a long-term planner for BP.

The appointment of Mervyn Silva, a politician with an established record of hostility towards journalists, as deputy minister of Information within the Sri Lankan government in April this year was met with calls for his removal by press freedom organisations.

What can be done to protect journalists working in Sri Lanka who face threats, imprisonment and violence as a result of doing their work?

Join us at the Frontline Club where we will be discussing press freedom in Sri Lanka and the impact that government has on its reporting of human rights abuses within the country. Is the Sri Lankan media in a position to hold the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to account?

Could the West and its media do more?

With us to discuss this will be:

Douglas Wickramaratne, poitical analyst, former president of the World Federation of Sri Lankan Associations and current president of the Sinhala Association of Sri Lankans in the UK;

Jonathan Miller, foreign affairs correspondent, Channel 4 News;

Edward Mortimer, senior vice-president and chief programme officer at the Salzburg Global Seminar and chair of the Advisory Council for the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice;

Yolanda Foster, Amnesty International’s Sri Lanka rsearcher

Chaired by Stephen Sackur, presenter of BBC HARDtalk who has recently worked on a series of ‘HARDtalk On The Road’ programmes looking at the legacy of thirty years of civil war in Sri Lanka and examining the country’s commitment to human rights and the rule of law.

The appointment of Mervyn Silva, a politician with an established record of hostility towards journalists, as deputy minister of Information within the Sri Lankan government in April this year was met with calls for his removal by press freedom organisations.

What can be done to protect journalists working in Sri Lanka who face threats, imprisonment and violence as a result of doing their work?

Join us at the Frontline Club where we will be discussing press freedom in Sri Lanka and the impact that government has on its reporting of human rights abuses within the country. Is the Sri Lankan media in a position to hold the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to account?

Could the West and its media do more?

With us to discuss this will be:

Douglas Wickramaratne, poitical analyst, former president of the World Federation of Sri Lankan Associations and current president of the Sinhala Association of Sri Lankans in the UK;

Jonathan Miller, foreign affairs correspondent, Channel 4 News;

Edward Mortimer, senior vice-president and chief programme officer at the Salzburg Global Seminar and chair of the Advisory Council for the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice;

Yolanda Foster, Amnesty International’s Sri Lanka rsearcher

Chaired by Stephen Sackur, presenter of BBC HARDtalk who has recently worked on a series of ‘HARDtalk On The Road’ programmes looking at the legacy of thirty years of civil war in Sri Lanka and examining the country’s commitment to human rights and the rule of law.

"The problem is not that diversity exists, it is what we choose to make of it. In short, do we understand our various identities as being an integral part of our common humanity or as something separate, above and beyond it?"

How does the way we see ourselves affect our lives? Why do certain identities confer powers and privileges that others do not? In his latest book, Who Are We – and Should it Matter in the 21st Century? Guardian US correspondent Gary Younge argues that identity is core to the way people think about everything from international terrorism to immigration, crime and military occupations.

Gary Younge will be at the Frontline Club in conversation with Afua Hirsch, Guardian legal affairs correspondent to discuss his book, which weaves together memoir and analysis, taking in Sarah Palin, Tiger Woods and the Danish cartoon controversy and calls for the differences between us to be talked about "properly".