Peter
Jouvenal set up Gandamack Lodge in Kabul in late 2001 shortly
after the fall of the Taliban regime. As the Taliban fled Kabul
on November 13 2001 Peter filmed the BBC’s World Affairs
Editor, John Simpson, walking into the city.
BBC
News - Eyewitness: The Liberation of Kabul
BBC
News - Jubilation in free Kabul
The
Guardian - Simpson sorry for ‘liberating’ Kabul
In
the days that followed accommodation was needed for the BBC crew
and other journalists. Peter tracked down an old house used by
Osama bin Laden on Passport Lane near the Interior Ministry. The
house, reputedly home to bin Laden’s fourth wife, quickly
became a haven for journalists and has since featured in many
articles and diaries on life in Kabul.
Peter
Jouvenal has probably spent more time in Afghanistan than any
other Englishman and any other foreign journalist in the world.
He first started filming in the country in 1980 shortly after
the Soviet invasion. He’s probably the only cameraman to
have filmed Mullah Omar and one of the few to film Osama bin Laden,
who he described as “rather like a bank manager.”
He was also the first cameraman to film stinger missiles in Afghanistan.
BBC
News - Profile of Mullah Omar and still from filming
From
his early days filming in Afghanistan he went on to cover many
of the major news stories of the last 25 years as a cameraman
for Frontline TV News with friends like Vaughan Smith and Rory
Peck. The work of this amazing agency was the subject of BBC Correspondent
David Loyn’s 2005 book Frontline The True Story of the British
Mavericks Who Changed the Face of War Reporting.
Read
an extract from the book FRONTLINE by David Loyn
Read
a review of the book FRONTLINE
