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Smith founded the
Just Where Is WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange's "Mansion Arrest"?
CBS News, 16 December 2010 He said of his decision to house Assange: "Having watched him give himself up last week to the British justice system, I took the decision that I would do whatever else it took to ensure that he is not denied his basic rights as a result of the anger of the powerful forces he has enraged." "It was about standing up to the bully and the question of whether our country, in these historic times, really was the tolerant, independent and open place I had been brought up to believe it was and feel that it needs to be." Having backed Julian Assange by offering surety in December 2010, he lost the money in June 2012 when a judge ordered it to be forfeited, as Assange had sought to escape the jurisdiction of the
," he said. "Without the recognition we deserve we spill our blood anonymously, consigned to the margins."
Henry Vaughan Lockhart Smith (born 22 July 1963) is an English restaurateur, sustainable farmer, and freelance video journalist. He ran the freelance agency Frontline News TV and founded the
.
During Smith's time as a freelance, he worked for many of the world's leading television stations and became an expert on, and advocator of, greater support for freelances operating in war zones. He has worked on journalist safety programmes.
As a freelance cameraman, he won, either individually or part of a team, 28 news awards (see below).
Smith has been shot twice, but escaped both times with light injuries. While he was filming the Serbian action at Prekaz in April 1998, a bullet lodged in his mobile telephone.
Frontline Club
The Frontline Club is a media club and registered charity located near Paddington Station in London. With a strong emphasis on conflict reporting, it aims to champion independent journalism, provide an effective platform from which to support div ...
in London. ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' has described him as "a former army officer, journalist adventurer and rightwing
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authori ...
libertarian."
Early life
Smith's father was a Queen's Messenger and a colonel in theGrenadier Guards
"Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it."
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. Smith was an officer in the same regiment, serving in Northern Ireland, Cyprus and Germany. Smith captained the Army shooting team. Prior to setting up Frontline News TV, he was briefly a microlight
Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with aile ...
test pilot.
Career
In the 1990s, Smith worked as an independent cameraman and video news journalist covering wars and conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo, and elsewhere. Smith himself filmed the only uncontrolled footage of theGulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...
in 1991, after he bluffed his way into an active-duty unit while disguised as a British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
officer.
During the '90s, Smith also ran ''Frontline News TV'', an agency set up in 1989 to represent the interests of young video journalists who wanted to push the envelope of their profession. ''Frontline News TV'' was described by the BBC world affairs editor John Simpson as one of the "high peaks of journalism. Martha Gellhorn certainly thought so, and she was a pretty good judge". Its history has been detailed in a book ''Frontline: Reporting from the World's Deadliest Places'', by David Loyn
David Loyn (born 1 March 1954) has been a foreign correspondent since the late 1970s, mostly with the BBC. He is an authority on Afghan history.
Education
Loyn was educated at Oundle School,BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...Current activities
Smith founded the Frontline Club
The Frontline Club is a media club and registered charity located near Paddington Station in London. With a strong emphasis on conflict reporting, it aims to champion independent journalism, provide an effective platform from which to support div ...
in London in 2003 as an institution to champion independent journalism and promote better understanding of international news and its coverage.
Smith also runs a mixed organic farm on his estate at Ellingham Hall, in Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
, a "sprawling and elegant Georgian manor house near the town of Bungay" which has belonged to his family for more than three centuries. The estate is " rrounded by 600 acres of woods and fields. . . . It has 10 bedrooms, a large dining room with a convivial circular table, and portraits of Smith's ancestors hanging on the walls." The farm specialises in pedigree rare-breed pigs, and provides the seasonal food for the Frontline Club and its public restaurant.
Julian Assange
In 2010, Smith gave refuge to Julian Assange, the founder of whistle-blowing websiteWikiLeaks
WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...
, first at the Frontline Club and then at his country house.Norman, Joshua.Just Where Is WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange's "Mansion Arrest"?
CBS News, 16 December 2010 He said of his decision to house Assange: "Having watched him give himself up last week to the British justice system, I took the decision that I would do whatever else it took to ensure that he is not denied his basic rights as a result of the anger of the powerful forces he has enraged." "It was about standing up to the bully and the question of whether our country, in these historic times, really was the tolerant, independent and open place I had been brought up to believe it was and feel that it needs to be." Having backed Julian Assange by offering surety in December 2010, he lost the money in June 2012 when a judge ordered it to be forfeited, as Assange had sought to escape the jurisdiction of the
English courts
The courts of England and Wales, supported administratively by His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service, are the civil and criminal courts responsible for the administration of justice in England and Wales.
The United Kingdom does not have a ...
by entering the embassy of Ecuador. At the Westminster magistrates court in October 2012, Smith plead on behalf of himself and eight other Assange sureties to keep their money, arguing they could not "meaningfully intervene in this matter €¦between the Ecuadorean, British, Swedish, US and Australian governments."
Personal life
Smith lives at Ellingham Hall in Norfolk, England, with his wife, Pranvera, and their two daughters, Beatrice & Louise, and they also have a son called Henry.Awards
As a freelance cameraman Smith won, either individually or as part of a team, 28 news awards. Most of them were for ''The Valley'', a film which Smith produced about theKosovo War
The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the wa ...
, which remains one of the most acclaimed documentaries ever shown on the UK's Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
television.
In 2007, Smith was the joint winner of a MediaGuardian Innovation Award and in 2008 a Rory Peck Award finalist for his film about Grenadier Guards
"Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it."
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in Helmand
Helmand (Pashto/Dari: ; ), also known as Hillmand, in ancient times, as Hermand and Hethumand, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, in the south of the country. It is the largest province by area, covering area. The province contains 13 ...
.
Giving a speech at the Rory Peck Awards ceremony, Smith strongly criticised news broadcasters for failing to give cameramen due recognition for their work. "I've been shot more times than I have been credited by the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...Contributions
* Smith produced ''The Valley'', a film about the Kosovo war of 1998/9. * Smith produced an independent multimedia blog ''From the Frontline'' in 2007, reporting from Southern Afghanistan. The blog earned him a Guardian Media Innovation Award. * Smith co-produced ''Blood Trail'', a feature documentary which follows photojournalist Robert King for 15 years, nominated for the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. The film was renamed '' Shooting Robert King'' in 2011 for its broadcast in the BBC's '' Storyville''. * In 2011, Smith produced ''Blood and Dust'', a film about life and death on a US Medevac helicopter in Afghanistan.References
External links
*Frontline Club
founded by Smith {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Vaughan Living people People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire Grenadier Guards officers English war correspondents 1963 births English reporters and correspondents People from South Norfolk (district) People from Gillingham, Kent English restaurateurs English farmers English libertarians