Latest Program Transcripts
Tuesday, 4 February 2014
India - Zoe Daniel on "India on Trial"
It was a crime that rocked India and shocked the world - the rape, torture and murder of a 23 yo Indian woman on a bus trip home from the movies. A year on South East Asia correspondent Zoe Daniel reflects on the assignment behind Foreign Correspondent's 'India On Trial'.
Syria - Matt Brown on "Ibrahim's War"
Middle East Correspondent Matt Brown discusses 'Ibrahims War' his report for Foreign Correspondent that took him and cameraman Mat Marsic into Aleppo, Syria and the daily ordeals endured by young Ibrahim and his family, trying to survive Syria's brutal civil war. 'Ibrahim's War' was nominated in two categories in the 2013 Walkley Awards for Journalistic excellence, including best camerawork.
Mali - Eric Campbell on "The Road to Timbuktu"
During 2013 the ultimate far away place - Timbuktu - was drawn dramatically into world focus as Islamic militants laid siege to northern Mali and aimed to take control of the rest of this magical, mystical and very musical place. Here, correspondent Eric Campbell discusses the long, arduous but often stunning road trip through Mali that became Foreign Correspondent's two-part program "The Road to Timbuktu".
USA - Lisa Millar on "Inside the NRA"
A year on from the mass murder of school children and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary school, North America Correspondent Lisa Millar reflects on the making of Foreign Correspondent's "Inside The NRA" which focused on the shooting, the awful loss suffered by parents like Veronique Pozner, mother of 6yo Noah and the failed efforts to reform gun laws.
Israel - Trevor Bormann on "Prisoner X"
Reporter Trevor Bormann discusses the lead and the investigation that brought Foreign Correspondent's explosive "Prisoner X - The Australian Connection" and its follow-up "Prisoner X - The Secret", two stories that blew the lid on one of Israel's most closely guarded secrets and revealed the identity of a nameless, high security prison inmate, what he did and why Israel was so intent on keeping it all top secret.
The Philippines - The Super Storm
It was a monster made of wild wind and water that grew out of the north-western Pacific, muscled up and bore down on the island communities of the northern Philippines with frightening ferocity. In recorded history, no wind has has hit land with greater force and along with the surging sea it dragged onshore, thousands would soon be dead and more than 4 million people displaced. It's a catastrophe that would challenge the wherewithal of any nation, but when your people are scattered across thousand of islands, how can The Philippines recover and rebuild?
Indonesia - Cry of the Tiger
It’s a question that should have a straightforward answer. Are critically endangered Sumatran Tigers safer in poacher-infested jungles that are being razed for agriculture and consumed by development or are they safer in the care of an Indonesian zoo? If that zoo is Java’s Surabaya Zoo then it’s a very close call. The zoo was once something of a wildlife wonderland, now it’s more of a house of horrors. And the plight of the resident Sumatran Tigers in particular raises pressing questions about whether or not Indonesia cares deeply enough for its threatened indigenous creatures, inside zoos and in the wild.
U.K. - Honour and Obey
It's supposed to be one of life's happiest moments. But imagine if others at your wedding ceremony had decided who you were going to marry, where and when. Imagine being forced to marry someone you may not even know? Resist or refuse and there's the risk of mental torture, physical abuse, even death. Pre-ordained partners are part of the cultural landscape of South Asia and the Middle East. But the UK? Foreign Correspondent investigates the worrying incidence of forced marriages and honour violence in Britain's ethnic communities and the lagging effort of authorities to deal with it.
Japan - The Next Wave
Earthquakes. Tsunami. Nuclear Emergency. The chilling set of dominoes that dropped in March 2011 and devastated northern Japan have now largely coalesced into one word - Fukushima. First, the intimidating power of the earth’s natural forces that lifted ships and deposited them inland, that swept and crushed entire towns and communities and that took thousands of lives. Then the intimidating, destructive power of a ruptured, crippled nuclear plant, tainting the sea and land and rendering swathes of heavily populated areas, uninhabitable. For North Asia Correspondent Mark Willacy it’s been a dominant and defining story. Now - as he visits the hot-zone one last time - a new and disturbing development.
Russia - The Iron Closet
Around the world there’s a loud, proud fight for equality. And in some places significant battles are being won. The right for same-sex partners to marry under law and recognition that gay couples should enjoy the same financial and social benefits as heterosexual couples. In many places there’s good reason to celebrate advances but not in Russia. There the fight is to stay out of jail, or avoid stinging fines for openly identifying as gay. And draconian anti-gay laws are effectively licensing vigilantism as gangs target the LGBT community. Why the crackdown and will the billion-dollar Sochi Winter Olympics become a global protest point?
USA - Down in Jungleland
Recovery? What recovery? For the growing number of professionals and college graduates being tipped into working poverty, claims the United States is climbing out of the economic abyss is an outrageous lie. Consider the plight of the former TV anchor or the former Wall St trader now both working in a bar for a little over two bucks an hour plus tips. And with many from the middle class now toiling in poor paying jobs with little or no benefits, what happens to the people who used to do that work. From the Jersey Shore to the California coast are we witnessing the future of work in the USA?
Pakistan - Malala
All she wanted to do was to go to school. But for a girl living under Taliban rule in the Swat Valley, Pakistan, going to school was provocative and dangerous. Standing up to the militants invited their wrath. After all, the Taliban would slaughter people on a daily basis and hang them in the square, or flog them in public for supposed offences. And yet Malala Yousafzai continued to demand that she and other girls be allowed an education. For that, she was shot in the head. Her remarkable recovery, her resilience and now her global activism is an extraordinary story. Here, for the first time, Malala takes us inside her world – from her classroom campaign to her brush with death and on to her triumph.
Canada - Coming Home, Pt.2
Major Marc Dauphin led a crack multinational team of medics patching up soldiers and civilians in one of the busiest military hospitals in the world, Role 3 at Kandahar Airbase in Afghanistan. Unlike many of his patients, he survived the war without losing a drop of blood, but once back home in the peaceful Canadian countryside he began to fall apart. Sally Sara continues her powerful story on Dr Dauphin’s recovery, and looks at the impact of post traumatic stress disorder on people everywhere.
Afghanistan / Canada - Coming Home - Pt.1: Combat Doctor
It was supposed to be a quick news assignment. The war correspondent calls into a busy combat hospital, meets the boss and aims her camera as he and his team go about their work. But what followed was an extremely harrowing and defining 24 hours for both reporter and doctor. Sally Sara found the scenes that unfolded in front of her at the ER in Afghanistan the most confronting of her career. For trauma surgeon Marc Dauphin it was a day among many that would leave a brave and seemingly unbreakable man shattered and suicidal. What went wrong? Sally reflects...
Easter Island - Ageing Rock Stars
They’re rock stars growing old. Very, very old. And while some of them are holding up pretty well for their age others have led such a destructive existence, they’re falling apart, dissolving where they stand, crumbling into fragments of their former selves. No, they’re not the Rolling Stones, they’re the stones standing perfectly still and enigmatically straight-faced, on the bare, windswept hills of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island. Can a long-term archaeological dig crack their mysterious past and can foreign and local experts agree on a way to preserve them, before it’s too late?
Pakistan - The Enemy Within
In most places it’s an unremarkable scene. But here - as the bright, attentive eyes of young girls take in the detail of a reading class – it’s powerful, poignant and hopeful. For this is a western extremity of Pakistan where until recently a particularly brutal, local brand of the Taliban enforced their ruthless view of the world, one in which girls are denied a modern education. The army has driven the extremists from the town and villages here but how long will their hold last and how long will the young girls of South Waziristan go to school?
Corsica - Murder Island
French holiday makers crowd its taupe beaches, frolic in salty shore-breaks and crowd the cafes and hotels in its centuries-old towns and villages. Inland, hunters from all over Europe stalk quarry through some of the richest and most precipitous hunting grounds they’ll ever know. It’s one of the most popular destinations in the Mediterranean. It’s also one of the most deadly. Corsica has the highest murder rate in Europe and lately the assassins have been training their gun-sights on very powerful, very prominent local identities. Why is this holiday haven also a venue for so much bloodshed?
India - 23 Little Lives
In a tiny school in a far-flung pocket of India in July this year, 55 children sat down to eat their free, government-provided lunch. Soon many of them would be writhing in agony, some would die within hours, others would perish after failed treatment in hospital. 120 million children across India eat their free lunches every day, but the deaths of 23 has shocked the nation and the world. A special Foreign Correspondent investigation sheds new light on a dreadful incident.
Recent Programs
| 18/12/2013 | - Matt Brown on "Ibrahim's War" | Matt Brown |
| 18/12/2013 | - Zoe Daniel on "India on Trial" | Zoe Daniel |
| 18/12/2013 | - Trevor Bormann on "Prisoner X" | Trevor Bormann |
| 17/12/2013 | - Lisa Millar on "Inside the NRA" | Lisa Millar |
| 17/12/2013 | - Eric Campbell on "The Road to Timbuktu" | Eric Campbell |
| 26/11/2013 | Philippines - The Super Storm | Eric Campbell |
| 19/11/2013 | Indonesia:Sumatra - Cry of the Tiger | George Roberts |
| 12/11/2013 | United Kingdom - Honour and Obey | Mary Gearin |
| 05/11/2013 | Japan - The Next Wave | Mark Willacy |
| 29/10/2013 | Russian Federation - The Iron Closet | Eric Campbell |
Catch our 20th Anniversary program along with segments from some of the stories we've covered since 1992 and recollections from George Negus, Jennifer Byrne and Tony Jones.
Producer's Notes
26/11/2013Philippines Appeal
The people of The Philippines urgently need your support. If you would like to help, please visit the ABC's Asian Typhoon Recovery Appeal for details.
Helping the Tigers
For further information about the state of the world's wildlife and how you can help, visit cee4life (Conservation and Environmental Education for Life) - a non-profit organisation specialising in the welfare and conservation of wild animals.
Education for Pakistani children
To support education for girls in Chagmalai, Pakistan visitAction on Poverty
or call AFAP-Action on Poverty (+612) 9906 3792
Transmission Times
Foreign Correspondent is transmitted on ABC1 at 8pm Tuesdays and 11am Fridays - and on ABC News24 at 6.30pm Saturdays. If Parliament is in recess, News24 will also repeat the program on Thursdays at 2.30pm.
Guestbook
Please leave your comments on our Guestbook - or if you have a question, contact us by email.
