Jonah Hull

Jonah Hull's picture
Jonah Hull
Roving Correspondent | United Kingdom
Biography
Jonah Hull is a roving correspondent based out of Al Jazeera's London broadcast centre. He has extensive experience covering breaking news, conflict and natural disasters around the world. In his previous role as Al Jazeera English's Moscow correspondent, Jonah covered the final years of Vladimir Putin's presidency, the election that installed his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, and the five-day war between Georgia and Russia in August 2008.

Latest posts by Jonah Hull

By Jonah Hull in Europe on January 17th, 2012
Garzon, who tried to extradite former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, sits in the dock with his lawyer [Reuters]

Those who have claimed Judge Baltasar Garzon is the victim of a judicial witch-hunt by colleagues jealous of his fame, might have been surprised to see the top investigative judge arrive at Madrid's Supreme Court flanked by six of his fellow judges showing their support.

The group walked towards the courthouse through a throng of demonstrators calling for justice in Garzon's name.

One told me, "This is a democracy and this judge is being judged by corrupt people. The hunter has become the hunted."

Inside, Garzon was met by applause from members of the legal fraternity. It's clear, Garzon has plenty of support, but plenty of enemies as well.

The darling of human-rights groups - and victims - in Spain and around the world, Balthasar Garzon stepped on many toes in his long career.

Arch-conservatives in Spain are angry at his attempts to dig up Spain's wartime past.

Plenty of enemies

By Jonah Hull in Africa on December 7th, 2011
Environmental activists with flags on their backs bury their heads in the sand on Durban's beachfront [Reuters]

Let's call it "Day One" of the Durban climate change talks.

Ministers and heads of delegations are now engaged and they'll make decisions where their minions could not over the past week and a half.

In truth, even the ministers must take instructions from their capitals - instructions that, I'm told, sometimes come down after high-level pressure has been applied by one powerful country or another (I couldn't possibly say who) along the lines of, "back off" or "support our position, or you'll lose your aid funding next year."

I couldn't possibly say for sure. But let's not be cynical.

Let's say instead, as Britain's man here Chris Huhne did, that there's everything to play for. He's right because there's nothing of any substance on the table. Yet.

Tags:
By Jonah Hull in Africa on March 1st, 2011
Photo by Reuters

At the time of writing it appears as though calls to join a Million Citizen March in Harare on Tuesday have gone unheeded - for now.

People I’ve spoken to in the Zimbabwean capital describe calm and relative normality.

By Jonah Hull in Africa on February 20th, 2011
Photo by Reuters
On Monday, Zimbabwe's president Robert Gabriel Mugabe turns 87.
 
It will be a birthday marked by rumours about his failing health. Any appearance the apparently ailing Mugabe makes will be closely watched for signs of sickness that give the lie to his spokesman's claim that Mugabe's only problem is a gammy eye.
 
Mugabe has just returned from Singapore, a trip officially acknowledged as his annual holiday, slightly extended to accommodate post-operative treatment following eye surgery.
 
Zimbabwe's non-government media isn't buying it. One newspaper contains reports that he in fact received cancer treatment, arriving back in the country looking frail, allegedly in a wheelchair.
By Jonah Hull in Africa on February 17th, 2011
Photo by EPA

The last roll of the dice? That's the assessment by one security expert of Thursday's announcement by Madagascar's deposed president Marc Ravalomanana that he plans to leave exile in South Africa and return home on Saturday.

Thomas Wilson, senior Africa analyst at Control Risks, told the Reuters news agency it was the last move of a desperate man. Wilson predicts the plane won't even take off.

Ravalomanana is sure it will, demonstrating his certainty by waving a clutch of commercial airline tickets.

"I wish to inform all who are watching and listening to me today, both in South Africa and Madagascar and the rest of the world, I will return home on the day after tomorrow, on Saturday, February 19th," he told reporters gathered for the big moment in a plush Johannesburg office park.

 "I will be returning to our beloved country.

By Jonah Hull in Europe on November 22nd, 2010
Photo by AFP

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has plenty of critics, both among those states who have yet to commit themselves to its jurisdiction fearing a loss of legal sovereignty, and those who say that the court's work is disproportionately focused on Africa.

One can see the merit in both points of view, though the one rather answers the other.

Why, if you're a big and powerful country, willingly submit yourself to a higher authority when you're complicit in, or condone, the crimes in question?

Why have the ICC's only three cases to date, along with most of its ongoing investigations, dealt with war crimes in Africa?

The Jean-Pierre Bemba case, if successful, offers at least the prospect of impact beyond the African continent.

The prosecution seeks to define legally the responsibility a military commander has for the actions of his troops, whether he has ordered those actions or not.

It seeks to place the onus on him to reign in h

By Jonah Hull in Europe on November 14th, 2010
Photo by GALLO/GETTY

Germany has known its ups and downs. The recession that struck in 2009, along with the global financial crisis, was the country's worst since World War Two.

It dwarfed even the dire post-reunification problems that led many to consider this country an economic write-off.

But it's bounced back in the past and it's done so again, putting an impressive stable of highly-specialised, niche market exports back into play as the Asian giants reawoke with a fearsome appetite.

In 2009, as the cash-strapped global economy shunned German exports, the economy contracted by 4.7 per cent.

This year, by contrast, the government expects full-year growth of 3.4 per cent, cooling to 1.8 per cent in 2011.

Independent experts are even more optimistic.

By Jonah Hull in Africa on October 22nd, 2010
Photo by GALLO/GETTY

I've just returned from Durban, South Africa's friendly east coast port city blessed with a warm sea and world-class surfing waves.
 
It's also cursed - with one of the most insidious little drugs I've ever come across.

Whoonga, as it's known, is a substance being smoked in poor township communities around Durban, and it's popping up in other parts of the country as well.

Drug-taking is commonplace in the townships - what else do you do if you're unskilled, uneducated and unemployed, as so many are?

By Jonah Hull in Africa on June 12th, 2010
Picture from GALLO/GETTY

Day two of the World Cup and a I've just read a whiney story about USA fans complaining about a "lack of respect" in the English media coverage ahead of Saturday's match between the two countries in Rustenburg.

Said one fan: "I do think there is a lack of respect, yes. People don't know about American soccer and we are not a traditional soccer nation, but that is changing all the time."
 
The Americans need to take a leaf out of South Africa's playbook: in the face of criticism, complaint and distinctly negative media coverage - particularly in Europe and the UK - just get on with it and prove them wrong.

South Africa is hosting the World Cup contrary to the expectations of many who said it couldn't be done, it wouldn't be done, even that it shouldn't be done in a country that desperately needs money spent on its vast majority of poverty-stricken citizens.

By Jonah Hull in Europe on April 20th, 2010
Photo by Jonah Hull

Day two, hour 30 on our journey home to London from Krakow in Poland and finally we appear to have reached the heart of what's being described as Volcano Chaos in Europe.

Well, not really. Most people seem pretty stoic in the face of the long queues. Think of bored Brits abroad and you realise things could be so much worse.

But if you haven't already got a Eurostar ticket, we're told, you aren't going to get one today. That's disappointing.

On the train here from Cologne, one woman locked herself in the toilet to avoid being ejected by the police.

She'd done nothing worse than attempt to travel without a reserved seat, though she had a valid ticket for the route.

Tags: Poland

Al Jazeera Live

Biography

Jonah Hull's picture
Jonah Hull
Roving Correspondent
Jonah Hull, based in London, covers stories around the world.

What's Hot


Recent Comments

This work is licensed under Creative Commons. Please read our attribution policy.