Vaughan Smith
| Vaughan Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Henry Vaughan Lockhart Smith 22 July 1963 Gillingham, Kent, England |
| Occupation |
War correspondent Restaurateur Farmer |
| Spouse(s) | 1996–2001 Sanela Djono 2005–present Pranvera Shema |
| Children | 5 |
Henry Vaughan Lockhart Smith (born 22 July 1963) is an English restaurateur, sustainable farmer, news pioneer and independent video journalist. He ran the freelance agency Frontline News TV and founded the Frontline Club in London. The Guardian has described him as "a former army officer, journalist adventurer and rightwing libertarian."
Smith's father was a Queen's Messenger and a colonel in the Grenadier Guards. Smith was an officer in the same regiment, serving in Northern Ireland, Cyprus and Germany. Smith captained the Army shooting team and won the inter-army rifle shooting championship. Prior to setting up Frontline News TV, he was briefly a microlight test pilot.
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 the Gulf War in 1991, after he bluffed his way into an active-duty unit while disguised as a British Army officer.
I applied for press accreditation to cover the Gulf War. I wasn't granted it. I had no chance as an independent and the mainstream news industry presented no opportunity for a beginner. But I was determined to cover the conflict and so I impersonated a British Army officer and spent two months filming the conflict incognito. As a result, I managed to bring back the only uncontrolled footage of the war.
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. The workings of Frontline News TV captured the imagination of a generation of young freelancers and was described by the BBC world affairs editor John Simpson as one of the "high peaks of journalism". Its history has been detailed in a book Frontline: Reporting from the World's Deadliest Places, by David Loyn of the BBC.
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