Frontlines of Journalism

In the spring of 2023, twenty years after the Americans, the British and their allies invaded to overthrow Saddam Hussein, BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen was reporting from Iraq for the BBC. He described the invasion as 'a catastrophe'.

Taking you to some of the most difficult stories Jeremy and other journalists have covered; in this episode - why impartiality is not about trying to get perfect balance, the truth lying som...

What happens when the world is divided about the rights and wrongs of a conflict, and a story generates a lot of heat?

Nothing does that more than the most contentious story Jeremy Bowen has covered: Israelis and Palestinians.

BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen speaks with: BBC Gaza producer and journalist Rushdi Abu Alouf, journalist Shlomi Eldar and Emily Bell - professor at Columbia University School of Journalism, a director o...

Journalism can mean pushing your way into peoples’ lives at their worst moments.

Without a good a reason, it’s tourism. Or war porn. People disagree on what that reason is.

Reflecting on his reports from the Siege of Sarajevo, BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen asks if it is enough to just report it straight.

Jeremy speaks with: journalist and environmental activist George Monbiot; Nikole Hannah-Jones, whose 1619 project wo...

For BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen, good reporting involves empathy. But the job of a foreign correspondent means being an outsider.

Detachment was once considered a journalistic virtue, but does lived experience allow you to tell a story more accurately? Is who we are an obstacle to getting to the real story?

Jeremy speaks with: Dean Baquet - until 2022 the executive editor of the New York Times; Emily Bell - professor of the...

In early March 2022, days after the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen was in Kyiv.

Back in the hotel after a day of reporting, the enormity of what was happening prompted an emotional reflection.

Jeremy speaks with: Piers Morgan, Emily Bell - Professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism and a director of the Guardian Media Group, Dean Baquet - until 2022 executive editor of the New York...

Getting to the truth starts with getting to the story. Often that’s easier than said than done.

Many people want to control access and the stakes can be high for those trying to get past them.

Revisiting difficult stories he and other journalists have had to report, BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen looks at some of the obstacles that stand between journalists and what the Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein called the ‘best obtain...

Journalists couldn’t get to the truth with people. Some make stories possible. Others do all they can to stop them.

Revisiting difficult stories he and other journalists have had to report, BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen looks at some of the obstacles that stand between journalists and what Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein once called the ‘best obtainable version of the truth’.

In this episode: how journalists deal with s...

Reporting a story requires detail. But how much is enough? Or too much?

Revisiting some of the most difficult stories he and other journalists have had to report, BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen looks at some of the obstacles that stand between journalists and what Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein once called the ‘best obtainable version of the truth’.

Jeremy speaks with: Andrew Norfolk - chief investigative reporter for T...

The same story can look very different depending on how it’s written and where you get it. Who's in control?

Revisiting some of the most difficult stories he’s reported on, BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen looks at some of the obstacles that stand between journalists and what Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein called 'the best obtainable version of the truth'. 

Jeremy speaks with: broadcaster and former editor of the News of t...

When BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen questioned President Bashar al-Assad about the well-documented Syrian practice of dropping barrels full of explosives on areas held by rebels, he was confronted by a repeated lie.

The question for journalists is how they deal with that. And what happens when the lie machine is turned on the journalists themselves.

Revisiting some of the most difficult stories he and other journalists have h...

In this bonus episode, the BBC’S International Editor Jeremy Bowen and Disinformation and Social Media Correspondent Marianna Spring talk about their respective new podcasts: Frontlines of Journalism and Marianna in Conspiracyland. They reflect on the obstacles that stand between journalists and the truth and the conspiracy theory movement that seems to have boomed in the UK after Covid. Exploring the similarities and differences...