Stuart Hughes
is a BBC World Affairs producer. Twitter: @stuartdhughes
Blog posts in total 31
Posts
Peter Greste: Coping with confinement
Al-Jazeera correspondent Peter Greste spent 400 days in an Egyptian prison. He talks to Stuart Hughes about he found the physical, mental and spiritual strength to cope with the ordeal.
Safety for freelance journalists: Two tribes come together
A new set of international safety standards has just been published to try to bridge the gap between freelancers and the news organisations that buy their work.
Is reporting Syria now an impossible assignment?
Alongside the growing strength of Islamist groups, kidnapping has replaced bombs and bullets as the primary threat. Some are now asking whether reporting from inside Syria is becoming an impossible job.
Freelancers at risk in war zones are responsibility of us all
For many journalists beginning their careers, potential exposure to risk has rarely been higher, and yet the help and support they receive from the news industry has rarely been lower.
Reporting transgender issues
When an individual in the public eye announces they are transgender, how should journalists report on them accurately and respectfully?
Reporting Madiba - then and now
On the other side of the hospital wall, the former South African president is in a critical but stable condition undergoing treatment for a recurring lung infection. On this side, dozens of satellite dishes point skyward like sunflowers craning towards the light.
Freelancers organise to help each other
Over the next six months, a steering committee hopes to become a voice for a community of independent journalists working in difficult and dangerous countries.
Digital diplomacy: here to stay and worth the risk?
The popular stereotype of a British ambassador abroad is a linen-suited gentleman gazing at the sunset, gin and tonic in hand, on the veranda of a grand residence in a far-off land.
Front-line safety is a collective challenge
Stuart Hughes hears from a range of international journalists about what is happening on the ground to improve newsgathering safety in war zones, and what more could be done.
Rewards versus risks for war zone rookies
Tighter budgets and a decline in the number of staff jobs have made newsrooms more reliant on freelancers. At the same time, the dangers facing journalists are greater than ever before.
Newtown shootings: interviewing traumatised children
After more than 60 mass shootings in the US over the past three decades, television news coverage of these devastating but all-too-frequent events now follows a similar tragic formula.
Unprepared, inexperienced and in a war zone
For young journalists looking to become the next John Simpson or Jeremy Bowen, the first rung on the career ladder used to mean hard graft in the newsroom of a weekly provincial newspaper or local radio station.
Operation Pillar of Defense: the first social media war
From the moment Israel struck targets in the Gaza Strip this week and Hamas returned fire into southern Israel, the twin pillars of military might and the battle for public opinion have been inseparable.
The psychological toll of Mexico's drugs wars
The options open to Mexican journalists wanting to expose drugs traffickers, violent criminals and corrupt officials are summed up in the title of a 2010 CPJ report: Silence or Death.
Channel 4 turns superhumans into superstars
It started with a roadblock. On 17 July, at 9pm, Channel 4 unveiled its Paralympic trailer Meet the Superhumans.
Going live: now it can be anyone and from anywhere
In the competitive world of 24-hour news, the pressure to 'go live' from wherever a story breaks has never been more intense. Until recently, getting live pictures from the field was a costly and labour-intensive business.
The class of '92 returns to Sarajevo
The international press fraternity can be a fickle tribe. Deep bonds are forged amid wars, revolutions and natural calamities. But the journalists who cover these stories can sometimes behave like social climbers at a cocktail party, with one eye constantly scanning the room on the look out...
Journalist safety: getting away with murder?
In the month since Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik were killed in the Syrian city of Homs the question of how to protect journalists - and prosecute those who target them - has been taken up at a national and international level. At a Westminster Hall debate last week, the Liberal Democrat MP Do...
'Fisked' by the international press corps
Few journalists polarise opinion as sharply as Robert Fisk of The Independent.
Be paranoid - protecting sources in the digital age
How can a journalist ensure the safety of their sources without acting like an amateur James Bond?
