The Frontline Club

Labour’s attempts to crack down on digital piracy, extend broadband across the country and re-write outdated copyright laws were all part of the Digital Economy Bill, which received Royal Assent in the legislative “wash-up” process in the dying days of the last parliament.

But while the Act has been passed, meaning an incoming government will honour its clauses, much is uncertain: Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has said he would seek to repeal the most stringent piracy measures of the Act in the next Parliament. Much of the Act’s disputed detail has been left for Ofcom to resolve.

Where the act will go now with a coalition government: will tough piracy and copyright measures survive? What of the promise of 2Mbps broadband for all?

The Labour peer, film producer and former CEO of Columbia Pictures Lord Puttnam, who introduced several amendments to the Bill in the Lords debates will be joined in the discussion by Conservative peer, Lord Lucas, who tabled several of the Bill’s most radical amendments. They are joined by Richard Mollet, Director of Public Affairs at the BPI, (which represents the UK recorded music business); Andrew Heaney, Executive Director, Strategy & Regulation, TalkTalk Group and internet copyright lawyer Graham Smith from Bird & Bird.

This event will be moderated by Mitchell Albert associate editor of Steppe Magazine.

Swiss photographer and writer Daniel Schwartz has been travelling and documenting the Central Asian republics since the early years of their independence from the Soviet Union. His artistic book about the region Travelling Through the Eye of History reflects on the entangled histories of the Silk Roads as well as present-day political and economic interdependencies linking the Caspian Sea and Kashmir, Iran and Western China via Afghanistan and the Pamirs.

Central Asia has been conquered and fought over for centuries. Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, the Russian and British empires during the Great Game and present day British and American troops have all battled there. Yet so little of what goes on between the countries and peoples that inhabit this vast swathe of land penetrates the Western media.

Schwartz is the recent recipient of the culture prize of the canton of Zurich, for his photographic achievement if the past 30 yrs, for bringing seemingly detached realities in front of the eyes of a saturated Swiss and Western public.

This event will be moderated by Mitchell Albert associate editor of Steppe Magazine.

Swiss photographer and writer Daniel Schwartz has been travelling and documenting the Central Asian republics since the early years of their independence from the Soviet Union. His artistic book about the region Travelling Through the Eye of History reflects on the entangled histories of the Silk Roads as well as present-day political and economic interdependencies linking the Caspian Sea and Kashmir, Iran and Western China via Afghanistan and the Pamirs.

Central Asia has been conquered and fought over for centuries. Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, the Russian and British empires during the Great Game and present day British and American troops have all battled there. Yet so little of what goes on between the countries and peoples that inhabit this vast swathe of land penetrates the Western media.

Schwartz is the recent recipient of the culture prize of the canton of Zurich, for his photographic achievement if the past 30 yrs, for bringing seemingly detached realities in front of the eyes of a saturated Swiss and Western public.

The media industry has never faced more uncertainty or doubt over its future than now. And nowhere is that anxiety more felt than in local and regional print and broadcast publishing.

Labour’s plans to revolutionise local TV and multimedia news by handing over TV licence fee money to "independently-funded news consortia" now looks to have been trashed by the Tory-Lib Dem government.

So after the election, we ask: what happens now to the UK’s local and regional media industry? What is the business model for newspapers, broadcast media and online-only content and can new "hyperlocal" start-ups play a role in the business models of the future?

Isinvestment in local community publishing set to pay off and can the advertising market alone sustain publishers?

Are panelists are: Richard Hooper, the former deputy chairman of Ofcom who chaired the IFNC selection panel, and Alex Connock, chief executive of multimedia production company Ten Alps; Michael Wilson, MD of UTV TV and WalesLive and Marc Reeves, editor of Thebusinessdesk.com’s West Midlands service and a former editor of The Birmingham Post.

This event is in association with the BBC College of Journalism.

The media industry has never faced more uncertainty or doubt over its future than now. And nowhere is that anxiety more felt than in local and regional print and broadcast publishing.

Labour’s plans to revolutionise local TV and multimedia news by handing over TV licence fee money to "independently-funded news consortia" now looks to have been trashed by the Tory-Lib Dem government.

So after the election, we ask: what happens now to the UK’s local and regional media industry? What is the business model for newspapers, broadcast media and online-only content and can new "hyperlocal" start-ups play a role in the business models of the future?

Isinvestment in local community publishing set to pay off and can the advertising market alone sustain publishers?

Are panelists are: Richard Hooper, the former deputy chairman of Ofcom who chaired the IFNC selection panel, and Alex Connock, chief executive of multimedia production company Ten Alps; Michael Wilson, MD of UTV TV and WalesLive and Marc Reeves, editor of Thebusinessdesk.com’s West Midlands service and a former editor of The Birmingham Post.

This event is in association with the BBC College of Journalism.

One year on from Iran’s tumultuous and controversial presidential elections, how far is the country from genuine democracy? And with a new government in Downing Street, what will the UK’s response be to an anxious and potentially nuclear-armed Iran?

Join us for another of our First Wednesday discussions with an expert panel to discuss modern Iran and its challenges

With Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who was imprisoned in Iran last year; Ian Black, the Guardian’s Middle East editor; Ann Harrison, from Amnesty International and Afshin Rattansi, co-host of Rattansi & Ridley. Chaired by Pooneh Ghoddoosi, journalist with BBC Persian TV.

First Wednesday events are lively public meetings that bring together experts and commentators and mix their views with contributions from our audience.

One year on from Iran’s tumultuous and controversial presidential elections, how far is the country from genuine democracy? And with a new government in Downing Street, what will the UK’s response be to an anxious and potentially nuclear-armed Iran?

Join us for another of our First Wednesday discussions with an expert panel to discuss modern Iran and its challenges

With Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who was imprisoned in Iran last year; Ian Black, the Guardian’s Middle East editor; Ann Harrison, from Amnesty International and Afshin Rattansi, co-host of Rattansi & Ridley. Chaired by Pooneh Ghoddoosi, journalist with BBC Persian TV.

First Wednesday events are lively public meetings that bring together experts and commentators and mix their views with contributions from our audience.

Can violence be used to stop the tribal, ethnic and religious conflicts that have flared up in cities around the world? What can be done once counter-insurgency has run its course in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and beyond?

Join us at the Frontline Club with Mary Kaldor of the LSE’s Centre for the Study of Global Governance, US Lieutentant-Colonel Shannon Beebe and war crimes barrister Andrew Cayley, recently appointed as international prosecutor for the Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal in Cambodia, to discuss the rules of modern warfare.

The authors, who come from distant points on the political spectrum, examine the repercussions of violent political conflict on human lives and explore a new idea for stabilising the dangerous neighborhoods of the world

This discussion, which will be chaired by Lord Meghnad Desai, will focus on Kaldor and Beebe’s new book The Ultimate Weapon Is No Weapon: Human Security and the New Rules of War and Peace, which is available via FiveBooks.

Mary Kaldor is professor and director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Author of several books including New and Old Wars and Global Civil Society, she was a founder member of European Nuclear Disarmament, founder and Co-Chair of the Helsinki Citizen’s Assembly, and a member of the International Independent Commission to investigate the Kosovo Crisis.

Lieutenant Colonel Shannon D Beebe played an instrumental role in the development of the newly formed unified command for Africa, AFRICOM. He is the leading thinker on human security within the United States. His work has been groundbreaking, reaching out across traditional bureaucratic boundaries to open dialogues on African security for the 21st Century. He lives in Angola.

Barrister Andrew Cayley has recently been appointed as international prosecutor for the Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal in Cambodia to investigate crimes committed under Pol Pot’s regime in the 1970s. At the Srebrenica trial, he says, the Serbs refused to admit that anybody had been killed. ‘And we proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that over 8,000 people had been murdered in the space of ten days. After that nobody could deny these events had taken place, and that was important.’

Lord Meghnad Desai is a British economist and a Labour politician. He was born in Baroda, India and made a life peer as Baron Desai of St Clement Danes in the City of Westminster in April 1991. He is a professor emeritus at the London School of Economics, and the author of Marx’s Revenge: The

Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism, a book that predicts that globalization will lead to the revival of socialism.

Can violence be used to stop the tribal, ethnic and religious conflicts that have flared up in cities around the world? What can be done once counter-insurgency has run its course in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and beyond?

Join us at the Frontline Club with Mary Kaldor of the LSE’s Centre for the Study of Global Governance, US Lieutentant-Colonel Shannon Beebe and war crimes barrister Andrew Cayley, recently appointed as international prosecutor for the Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal in Cambodia, to discuss the rules of modern warfare.

The authors, who come from distant points on the political spectrum, examine the repercussions of violent political conflict on human lives and explore a new idea for stabilising the dangerous neighborhoods of the world

This discussion, which will be chaired by Lord Meghnad Desai, will focus on Kaldor and Beebe’s new book The Ultimate Weapon Is No Weapon: Human Security and the New Rules of War and Peace, which is available via FiveBooks.

Mary Kaldor is professor and director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Author of several books including New and Old Wars and Global Civil Society, she was a founder member of European Nuclear Disarmament, founder and Co-Chair of the Helsinki Citizen’s Assembly, and a member of the International Independent Commission to investigate the Kosovo Crisis.

Lieutenant Colonel Shannon D Beebe played an instrumental role in the development of the newly formed unified command for Africa, AFRICOM. He is the leading thinker on human security within the United States. His work has been groundbreaking, reaching out across traditional bureaucratic boundaries to open dialogues on African security for the 21st Century. He lives in Angola.

Barrister Andrew Cayley has recently been appointed as international prosecutor for the Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal in Cambodia to investigate crimes committed under Pol Pot’s regime in the 1970s. At the Srebrenica trial, he says, the Serbs refused to admit that anybody had been killed. ‘And we proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that over 8,000 people had been murdered in the space of ten days. After that nobody could deny these events had taken place, and that was important.’

Lord Meghnad Desai is a British economist and a Labour politician. He was born in Baroda, India and made a life peer as Baron Desai of St Clement Danes in the City of Westminster in April 1991. He is a professor emeritus at the London School of Economics, and the author of Marx’s Revenge: The

Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism, a book that predicts that globalization will lead to the revival of socialism.

Fatima Bhutto, writer, political commentator and outspoken critic of Pakistan’s current regime will be at the Frontline Club in conversation with Owen Bennett-Jones, BBC Pakistan correspondent between 1998 and 2001 and author of Pakistan: Eye Of The Storm, to talk about her new book Songs of Blood and Sword and her vision for the future of Pakistan.

Songs of Blood and Sword tells the story of the Bhutto dynasty a history that mirrors the tumultuous events of Pakistan itself. In September 1996, a fourteen-year-old Fatima Bhutto hid in a windowless dressing room, shielding her baby brother while shots rang out in the streets outside the family home in Karachi. This was the evening that her father Murtaza was murdered, along with six of his associates.

In December 2007, Benazir Bhutto, Fatima’s aunt, was assassinated in Rawalpindi. It was the latest in a long line of tragedies for one of the world’s best known political dynasties.

Fatima Bhutto is an Afghan born Pakistani poetess and writer. She studied at Columbia University, and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. She currently writes columns for The Daily Beast, New Statesman and other publications. She lives in Karachi.

Owen Bennett-Jones was BBC Pakistan correspondent between 1998 and 2001