This interesting documentary chronicles the life of Robert McNamara, who served as Secretary of Defense during the Cuban missile crisis and the Vietnam War. At 85 years old, McNamara comes off as a much younger person because of his energy and sharp observations. The segment dealing with the Cuban missile crisis is absolutely bone chilling […]
U.S. President Barack Obama reversed a significant decision this past week. He decided to go back on his promise to release photographs of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan that were taken a few years ago. The popular sentiment among the more conservative-minded might be that Obama is well within his right as Commander-in-Chief to do […]
The Japan Society of New York will be hosting an as-advertised “sold out” event tonight, May 12 with the author of The Blue Sweater, Jacqueline Novogratz. According to the Japan Society, the gist of the event’s focus is: Imagine a world where everyone has access to water, housing, health services and energy. That is the […]
The crisis in western Pakistan has heavily dominated the news in the past week, and rightly so. But there’s a huge hole in the story–the media is not allowed to go to the wild Swat Valley region where much of this story is happening. So, the media and people paying attention to this important story […]
“They are truly evil, evil people.” That from U.S. Marine Captain Brian Steidle who spent 18 months in Sudan’s Darfur region as a ceasefire observer with the African Union. He was referring to the Janjaweed, militias funded by the government in Khartoum who regularly rape and pillage not only villages but also refugee camps. [kml_flashembed […]
After months of trying to track her down, I spoke with female journalist Farida Nekzad in Kabul, Afghanistan in the wee hours of a March morning by phone from New York. Nekzad shared with me her vision for her work and the future of journalists in Afghanistan.
You can read a feature-length story about Nekzad and other female journalists in Pakistan and Afghanistan in this month’s issue of Quill magazine here.
A photojournalism exhibition you do not want to miss if you are in the New York area is Brent Stirton’s “The Last Gorillas of the Congo” on display through August at Fovea. Stirton is an award-winning and otherwise highly-accomplished photojournalist. A senior staff photographer for Getty Images, his work is published in National Geographic, Newsweek, […]
A recent analysis of China’s media censorship practices deftly analyzes and explains the country’s system of repression and control of the media by using the threat of economically punishment. The piece, published on May 2 in the Far Eastern Economic Review, is aptly titled “China’s Commercialization of Censorship“. The piece not only explains how China […]
Through a partnership with NOW on PBS, award-winning journalist and producer Bill Gentile has been teaching journalists how to do more with less. Through his backpack journalism workshops, Gentile teaches effective storytelling. The video of the training is now available online through PBS at: http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/440/Journalism-Workshop.html Gentile is a 30-year veteran correspondent and a professor of […]
Freedom House will have a live webcast of the unveiling of it’s annual press freedom report on May 1 at 10a.m. EST. The report, which shows declines in press freedoms in every region for the first time, will be released two days ahead of World Press Freedom Day on May 3. Media are invited to […]
The United Nations has called World Press Freedom Day (May 3), a day to “celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty“. 2009’s celebration and evaluation will […]
Just the fact that Al-Jazeera angers westerners as well as Arabs is one indication it’s on the right track. “Control Room” follows the Arab news organization during the second Iraq war with the United States. It has been called Osama bin Laden’s mouthpiece by some in the United States but has also been banned by […]
Following the well-publicized uncovering of alleged Hezbollah cells in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, news of the arrest of a Mossad-tied cell in the Lebanese port city of Saida caught the headlines of both mainstream Lebanese and Hezbollah-affiliated media outlets. This comes shortly after two former Lebanese security officials were charged with spying for Israel. Is the […]
Jon Lee Anderson is a staff writer for The New Yorker and author of the “The Fall of Baghdad” and “The Lion’s Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan”. Anderson is an accomplished journalist who has reported on Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran extensively. His most recent work for The New Yorker is entitled Can Iran Change?. I had […]
Few people–let alone journalists–can get very close to the notorious gang in El Salvador, known as MS-13. Some journalists might even say, “Don’t bother trying, they won’t talk to you”. But Salvadoran journalist Christian Poveda has done just that, and what he discovered both startling and impossible to ignore. Poveda’s resulting documentary, “La Vida Loca”, […]