Violent gang wars in El Salvador have earned the central American nation the label of “the most dangerous country in the world”.
But President Nayib Bukele had a solution: declare a ruthless war on the gangs and lock up their members in the world’s biggest and toughest prison.
This week Foreign Correspondent presents a rare look inside El Salvador’s mega prison, a state-of-the-art correctional centre capable of housing up to 40,000 prisoners.
Known as CECOT (Centre for the confinement of Terrorism) the inmates are crammed into communal cells in extremely harsh conditions.
Critics call the prison a “black hole of human rights” and there’s concern many detainees are not gang members but innocent people who are the victims of a police arrest quota system.
But the El Salvadoran government remains steadfast, proudly presenting its mega prison to the world as it continues to wage its war on crime.
Watch El Salvador’s Mega Prison on Foreign Correspondent, Thursday the 5th of September on ABC TV and iview.
Bali is ranked as one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, but is the seemingly insatiable demand for a piece of paradise threatening the very thing that makes the island so special? This week on Foreign Correspondent reporter Bill Birtles travels to Bali to see first-hand the impact cashed up foreign developers are having on the island paradise.
The demand from holiday makers and now digital nomads is turning Bali’s iconic rice paddies and coastline into construction zones. Critics say the Bali that many know and love is now at a crossroad and that over development and under regulation will change the island of the gods forever.
The Ardern Aftermath: How progressive New Zealand swung to the right
Thursday 19 September 8pm
Across New Zealand tensions are running high with Māori protestors warning the country is facing a watershed moment on race relations.
The protesters are angry with the new agenda of the conservative coalition government which has seen the lightning rollback of Māori programs and policies.
This week on Foreign Correspondent reporter Emily Clark travels to New Zealand to find out why the country that produced the icon of the left – Jacinda Ardern – has shifted firmly to the right and what’s driving the desire to wind back the special status of Māori.
It’s the billion-dollar crime you’ve never heard of – copper theft. And it’s causing chaos in South Africa. Across the country police and armed private contractors are waging war on the criminals and gangs who are cashing in on one of the world’s most sought-after metals.
This week on Foreign Correspondent reporter Tom Joyner embeds with South African law enforcement as they hunt down the thieves who are stealing copper from the country’s essential infrastructure. The crime is causing serious disruptions to energy supply, transportation and telecommunications. Copper is critical to the production of clean energy technology, but a global shortage is driving its price to record heights. A thriving black market for copper has emerged, encouraging criminals to risk their lives to steal it.
The crucial state the Democrats don’t have in the bag. The US state of Michigan is one of a handful of battleground states that will determine who will be the next American president. This swing state has been won by Donald Trump in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020 and now the Democrats are hoping Kamala Harris’ late injection into the race will give them the boost they need to win in November. But will it?
This week on Foreign Correspondent, reporter Stephanie March goes on the hustings with grassroots Democrats and Republicans as they chase crucial votes in Michigan’s counties. At a Democrat volunteers’ event she meets celebrities like Sean Astin, famous for his roles in The Goonies and The Lord of the Rings, who’s confident America is about to elect its first woman president. But as the volunteers go door to door many voters are still undecided in a battleground contest that could swing either way.
Foreign Correspondent: Kamala’s Battleground will air on Thursday 3 October at 8:00pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.
Foreign Correspondent returns in a new timeslot for 2025. The award-winning international reporting team explores the globe through the ABC’s network of foreign correspondents, with stunning cinematography, taking the audience to incredible places, meeting the people and charting the forces shaping our complex world.
This season we’ll again travel across continents, taking you to incredible places to meet the people and see the forces shaping our world.
Our correspondents around the globe will be in Syria, Botswana, Colombia and Sri Lanka.
They’ll meet alcohol smugglers in India, assassins in South America and the families running political dynasties in Asia.
We’ll spend time with the stars of women’s football in Spain and one lucky reporter gets to hang out in the kitchens of Japan’s best chefs!
Production credit: Executive Producer Morag Ramsay. Series Producer Sharon O’Neill
Tuesday 18 February at 8:00pm on ABC TV and ABC iview
The toxic Spanish culture behind the World Cup scandal
It was the kiss that shocked the world and triggered Spain’s “Me Too” moment. As the Spanish national team claimed football’s ultimate prize, the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, in Sydney, they shared their triumph with a global TV audience of over 200 million people. But their joy was short lived. Within minutes of winning, the head of Spanish football, Luis Rubiales, kissed star striker Jenni Hermoso on the lips. Rubiales would eventually be charged with sexual assault and coercion, and his trial is now underway in Madrid.
But Rubiales’ behaviour was not an isolated incident. In this episode of Foreign Correspondent former players and staff reveal how they have endured a culture of toxic misogyny for years. The ABC’s Europe Correspondent Kathryn Diss talks to the football stars who were there on the night, including two-time Ballon d’or winner Alexia Putellas and up and coming Arsenal star Laia Codina. They describe their world cup victory as “bittersweet”. With all eyes now on the Rubiales trial the players are hoping this day of reckoning will forever change the appalling way women have been treated in the sport they love.
More Than A Kiss kicks off a new season for Foreign Correspondent in the new timeslot of Tuesdays at 8pm.
Tuesday 25 February at 8:00pm on ABC TV and ABC iview
In the three years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine hundreds of thousands of soldiers have died. The number of soldiers wounded on both sides is far greater. Rescuing and treating the injured, often in extreme conditions, is a dangerous and sometimes deadly assignment.
With exclusive access to the Ukrainian medics – many of whom are volunteers – this film shows how they are working tirelessly to save and repair the lives of soldiers wounded in combat. Under the bombs, in the trenches and in the operating theatres of dilapidated field hospitals, doctors, nurses and paramedics are regularly confronted with injuries they’ve never experienced.
This episode of Foreign Correspondent is an immersion into their world, a first-hand account of the impact of war and the determination by those to do whatever it takes to fight for the country they love.
Tea is the second most consumed drink in the world after water and chances are the tea in Australian cupboards comes from Sri Lanka. Consumers of the more popular brands are assured by guarantees clearly marked on the packaging that the tea they are buying is ethically and sustainably produced. But are these guarantees accurate?
Foreign Correspondent goes deep into the tea fields of Sri Lanka to investigate the “ethical” promises made by the most famous brands of tea. Reporter Naomi Selvaratnam visits the estates to investigate the living and working conditions approved by independent certification schemes and reveals how the system is failing both Sri Lankan tea workers and consumers.
Tuesday 11 March at 8:00pm on ABC TV and ABC iview
Imagine a state where all alcohol is banned, without exception. Where you would go to jail for months for possessing a single drop. Welcome to Bihar, India where the world’s largest “prohibition experiment” is taking place. Booze has been banned in the state for the past decade – a move designed to curb high rates of domestic violence. But the ban has driven the production of alcohol underground resulting in a thriving bootleg industry with deadly consequences.
On Foreign Correspondent the ABC’s South Asia Bureau Chief Meghna Bali travels to Bihar where she goes on patrol with the bootleg police in rugged rural terrain as they hunt for illegal liquor networks. She secretly meets the bootleggers and smugglers who risk lengthy jail terms if they are caught selling alcohol. And she witnesses the devastating impact poisonous “alcohol” is having in some communities where death and disability are the result of a prohibited, unregulated industry.
C21 reports the ABC has bought a Channel News Asia documentary to air in the Foreign Correspondent slot, at this week’s Australian International Documentary Conference.
For ABC’s Foreign Correspondent strand, the broadcaster has licensed China’s Abandoned Daughters (1×48’), the documentary for CNA about the thousands of abandoned girls born during China’s one-child policy who were sold to foster families for forced marriages.
Dynasties at War: The Marcos and Duterte family feud for control of the Philippines
Tuesday 18 March at 8:00pm on ABC TV and ABC iview
A spectacular falling out between the Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his deputy Sara Duterte has unleashed a war between two of the country’s most powerful political dynasties. The Marcos/Duterte feud has led to jaw dropping plot twists worthy of a political thriller with claims of drug addiction, corruption and the hiring of a hitman. The arrest of Sara’s father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, for crimes against humanity, is also linked to the fallout with the President.
On Foreign Correspondent Natashya Gutierrez reports on how this feud has escalated so dramatically. With the two clans at war she travels to the family fiefdoms in Ilocos Norte and Davao City to see how deeply rooted and damaging these political dynasties are to the country.
Who’s paying the price for Botswana’s elephant conservation success story?
Botswana has more elephants than any other country on the planet. But what’s been hailed as a great conservation success story has become a deadly problem. While they have turbo charged photo tourism, in some parts of the country there are two elephants for every human and stories of elephants causing havoc, destroying crops and even killing people is fuelling anger towards these majestic animals.
On Foreign Correspondent reporter Stephanie March travels across the stunning Botswana landscape to see who is benefiting and who is paying the price for this conservation triumph.
Australians know bushfires all too well. But no Australian city has experienced the scale of the urban wildfire that reduced large parts of LA to ash. More than 150 square kilometers of homes and bushland were destroyed in the worst fires in southern California’s history,
US correspondent Barbara Miller was dispatched to the fires as they took hold. Now, three months later, she reports on the aftermath and reconnects with the people she met while the flames burned. As fire experts predict the severity of the wildfires will only get worse, locals who have lost everything are weighing up whether they can risk going through it all again.
