Foreign Correspondent

TV News and Current Affairs ABC and SBS News
170

Myanmar’s Forgotten War

Thursday 18 August 8:00 PM

In a remote corner of north western Myanmar, a civil war you’ve never heard of is underway.

The people of the Chin State are locked in a deadly conflict with Myanmar’s ruthless military machine – the Tatmadaw.

Crossing into Myanmar from northeast India, reporter Matt Davis has gained exclusive access to the Chin resistance.

As he travels across rivers and on mountain passes, he meets the people who’ve given up everything to fight Myanmar’s military junta.

Living in jungle camps and makeshift villages, students and farmers, doctors and engineers are organising into civilian defence units to defeat the Tatmadaw. The region has seen some of the heaviest fighting yet in the 18-month-long civil war.

Davis spends time with 28-year-old Cung, an agricultural worker who joined the Chin Defence Forces 18 months ago. He’s now the Commander in Chief of his battalion. Armed with little more than single-shot rifles and homemade explosives, he and his young fighters have transformed into a fearsome guerrilla force.

“This is our land, this is our place,” he says. “They can’t defeat us, the only thing they can do is burn our homes, our churches. We hunt them like wolves.”

Davis travels close to the centre of the current conflict, the strategic hillside town of Thantlang, recently taken by the Tatmadaw. Its 12000 residents have fled.

In a hilltop hospital, not far from Thantlang, a young Chin doctor, Dr Amos, and his wife Rebecca, a nurse, struggle to care for the wounded.

“The hardest bit has been getting medicines and operating equipment,” says Dr Amos.

Nearby, Davis meets 16-year-old Emily. Before Thantlang was taken, she was a high school student. Now she’s a refugee in her own country, her life on pause.

She hasn’t seen her school friends in months. “I miss them so much,” she says. “I am alone.”

The Chin people are begging for the international community to help them. They want sanctions imposed against the Tatmadaw and weapons supplies.

But with the war in Ukraine occupying the headlines, Myanmar’s bitter civil war has been overlooked.

Dr Sui Khar, a leader of the Chin National Front, says the Chin will not give up.

“Under this military dictatorship … the youth have already convinced themselves that their future is nothing,” he says. “That’s why this is the once and for all war, to eliminate this military dictatorship.”

This powerful film shines a light on a forgotten conflict.

171

Poacher’s Paradise

Thursday 25 August 8:00 PM

This episode was produced in association with European culture channel Arte.

The oceans off the coast of West Africa once teemed with fish. Millions relied on these plentiful stocks for their livelihoods.

Now this rich resource is being plundered by foreign vessels, fishing illegally.

These large trawlers can scoop up more fish in a week than the small, local boats do in a year.

Off the north coast of Senegal, locals like Yague once made a good living catching fish.

“They used to swim up to us. We were wealthy, but ever since these many industrial vessels came, the fish started to disappear”, he says.

Local fishermen, working out of small hand-crafted boats called pirogues, can’t compete.

‘It’s a race against these industrial vessels. If they notice us, they head right for us to take our catch from us. They destroy our nets”, says Yague. “They usually also ram our pirogues, so the only thing we collect at the end of the day are our destroyed pirogues.”

It’s a similar story up and down the coast – Liberia, the Ivory Coast, even as far south as Gabon.

“Hundreds of years ago, European countries came to the African continent to steal people from these shores”, says Captain Peter Hammarstedt from environmental group, Sea Shepherd.

“Now foreign fishing fleets have come to plunder fish.”

Among the biggest offenders are Chinese-owned vessels. Captain Hammarstedt says around 800 Chinese vessels operate regularly off the coast of West Africa.

Working with European broadcaster Arte, we visit the communities whose livelihoods are under threat from these foreign trawlers. And we meet the activists helping them fight back.

In Senegal, the locals are fed up with government inaction. Fisherman Mamadou Sarr, with the help of activist group Greenpeace, is organising night-time sea patrols so they can report illegal fishing to the authorities in the hope they’ll take action.

“We must be more active. If we don’t do anything, there won’t be any more fish in Senegal soon.”

In Liberia, the army is working with Sea Shepherd to patrol the seas and detain ships fishing illegally.

“Those vessels knew that the Liberian coast guard didn’t have the capability to go deep into the water, so they took advantage, and came to fish”, says General George, the deputy chief of staff of the Liberian Armed Forces.

“It was time to act, because our local fishermen were going to be completely out of business.”

Illegal fishing in Liberia has dropped dramatically but constant vigilance is required.

“We have to stay on top of the poaching problem. If the patrols stop, it’s very likely that the illegal fishing problem comes back.” Captain Hammarstedt

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Duty of Care

Thursday 1 September at 8:00PM

Zhen remembers her wedding day well. When her father gave his speech, he urged her to have two children. But now Zhen is unsure whether she even wants to have one.

Not long after her wedding, Zhen’s father Liang was diagnosed with dementia. He was in his 50s. Now Zhen and her mother are caring for Liang full time. And Zhen doesn’t want to impose that burden on her children.

“The way I see it,” Zhen explains, “without kids, if I develop the same condition as my dad, with what I know now, I can just send myself off to a nursing home and it’s done. I won’t put any extra pressure on my kids, and they won’t have to endure any depression or anything like that.”

It’s a problem many families in China are grappling with. As the population ages, dementia is on the rise. But there’s little awareness of the disease and few government services.

In Australia, around 65% of patients with dementia live at home but in China more than 96% of people with the condition are looked after by their families. The obligation to care for your elders is deeply rooted in Chinese culture.

“That’s probably the traditional Chinese concept of filial piety, but the reality is you can’t fulfill your duty,” says Zhen.

ABC reporter Lydia Feng presents this intimate and moving program about China’s hidden epidemic.

Working with local filmmakers, we take you inside three families stretched to the limit as they do their best to look after a loved one with dementia.

We meet a widow and daughter living in the countryside, where there are even fewer services for the elderly and their families.

We spend time with a blind couple in Beijing, where despite all hardships, Uncle Xing is still utterly devoted to his wife of nearly 50 years.

“I’ve looked after only one woman my whole life. She needs special care,” says Uncle Xing. “I feel bad if she suffers.”

“We’re not ready. We’re not even prepared for the challenge of aged care as a whole, let alone dementia care,” says social worker Wang Shihong, whose organisation helps support the elderly.

Shihong believes the public needs to be educated about the problem.

“The symptoms are showing up but they’re not taken as something that needs medical attention,” she says. “If it can be spotted early in its development, through screening for example, more can be done to slow the patient’s deterioration before it’s too late.”

This film is a unique insight into the struggle of ordinary families in China to deal with a debilitating but little understood condition.

Watch Duty of Care on Foreign Correspondent Thursday 1 September at 8pm on ABC TV, iview, Facebook and YouTube.

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The Vanishing River

Thursday 2 September at 8:00PM

The once mighty Colorado River is in trouble. Stretching from the snowy peaks of the Rocky Mountains all the way down to the Sea of Cortez in Mexico, its waters are a lifeline to tens of millions of people.

But the pressures of the decades-long megadrought in America’s Southwest and a warming planet mean the water levels in the river and its dams are dropping.

“I’m not going to say it’s too late, but we are in true crisis,” says renowned river scientist, Professor Jack Schmidt.

The pressures on the river are largely man-made.

The building of the Hoover Dam in the 1930s tamed the waters of this once wild river, harnessing its flows to produce hydropower and feed a massive agricultural industry across the Southwest.

But the water was over allocated from the start. Now as dam levels drop to their lowest ever, the survival of farms and industries is in question.

“I feel every day of my life that my son will not be able to share in this magnificence … and the beauty of this profession,” says Jace Miller, an Arizona farmer of five generations.

He grows feed for livestock, but next year, his water allocation will be cut to zero.

US correspondent Barbara Miller travels along this spectacular river to meet the communities whose livelihoods depend on it.

Miller rafts down the Colorado rapids with the Native American tribe for whom the Colorado provides a vital source of tourist revenue.

She visits the thriving desert city of Las Vegas, which has become a US leader in urban water conservation, offering lessons for Australian cities.

And there’s a silver lining. As waters in the dam reservoirs recede, natural wonders which were flooded decades ago are emerging.

“We’re seeing this flowing waterfall and this trickling creek. We’re seeing the vegetation start to come back,” says environmentalist Eric Balken.

The state of this vanishing river is a wake-up call for all those who depend on it.

“We pretended the Colorado River is just a check account,” says Prof Schmidt. “There are gonna be limits … and we’re gonna have to deal with them.”

Watch The Vanishing River on Foreign Correspondent, 8pm Thursday the 8th of September on ABC TV, iview, Facebook and YouTube.

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No Surrender: Inside Sri Lanka’s Uprising

Thursday 15 September at 8:00 PM

For Sri Lanka’s protest movement, it felt like victory. After months of escalating actions, protestors stormed the Presidential palace and occupied its grounds. Some even partied in the pool and stretched out in the president’s four-poster bed.

That evening, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and later resigned.

25-year-old IT technician, Wimukthi Ranasinghe, was one of the protestors caught up in the day’s excitement. He livestreamed from inside the palace, picking up millions of followers worldwide.

Today, Wimukthi is on bail, facing charges of inciting violence that could land him in jail.

“I’m worried about what’ll happen to him in the future,” says his mother. “When we hear all these horror stories about what’s happening to people, we’ve told him he can’t even go to the local shop now on his own.”

Many protestors are now living in fear.

Under the new president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, there’s been a crackdown on protest action. Some of the movement’s leaders have gone into hiding. Others have been charged and detained under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act.

For months, South Asia correspondent Avani Dias, has been charting the unrest in Sri Lanka. Now, she’s captured the crackdown in full swing.

She meets leaders in hiding from police, following them as they re-emerge and take the risk of organising fresh protests.

One is the defiant student leader, Wasanthe Mudalige, who plays cat-and-mouse with the police.

“The person who has claimed the throne does not have the mandate of the people,” he claims. “The police are doing this because they’re scared.”

Dias spends time with families grappling with how to protect their children caught up in the crackdown.

As tensions in Colombo rise and the police presence grows, Dias interviews the new president, Wickremesinghe.

“We arrest people who broke the law,” says the 45-year-veteran politician and former lawyer. “Everything has been done legally.”

The next day Dias and her crew are stopped and searched twice by authorities, on the hunt for protest leaders like Wasantha.

As major protests unfold, Dias captures incredible scenes as police and protestors clash.

No Surrender takes viewers inside the movement that brought down one president and isn’t stopping now.

https://twitter.com/ForeignOfficial/status/1568097490305433605

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France’s War on Drugs

Thursday 22 September at 8:00 PM

This week’s episode is from French broadcaster M6.

The French port city of Marseille is caught up in a dangerous drugs war.

Fuelled by big profits, rival gangs have gone to war with each other and with police.

The gangs have access to powerful weapons, and that means people are dying.

The dealers operate out of the housing estates on the city’s outskirts, where they’ve set up sophisticated and lucrative networks, selling cocaine, cannabis and MDMA.

‘We’re just traders’, says one gang boss. “Our mothers…they can’t even pay the rent so they can’t even support us. We have to do all this alone.”

In this dramatic and confronting documentary, French broadcaster M6 gains rare, inside access to the police’s elite drug squad as it tries to bust open the drug trade.

The cameras capture the high-risk operations as heavily armed police units raid the estates, arrest the dealers and confiscate their stash.

The French filmmakers also gain access to the drug gangs who explain their hierarchical structure, from the teenagers who act as lookouts at the estates’ entrances to the managers who oversee the street dealers.

“It’s a business, everyone has a role to play,” says one organiser.

The gang members also reveal that threats from rival gangs means they need to be armed.

“Always keep something aside, in case they want to attack,” says one organiser.

“Between Marseille and the Kalashnikov, it’s always been a love story. Every problem has a solution. And with a Kalashnikov, the solution is quick.”

Watch France’s War on Drugs this Thursday 22 September at 8pm on ABC TV, iview, Facebook and YouTube.

https://twitter.com/ForeignOfficial/status/1570360275743686657

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Return of the Rhinos

Thursday 29 September at 8:00 PM

It’s one of the most successful rhino conservation projects in Africa. In south-eastern Zimbabwe, a private wildlife sanctuary is working hard to bring endangered rhinos back from the brink.

In recent decades, the mighty Black Rhino was poached to near extinction in southern Africa.

Its horn, worth its weight in gold, makes it a target for organised poaching gangs.

In 1998, the privately-funded Malilangwe Trust had a population of 28 white and 28 black rhinos, imported from South Africa.

Today its rhino herds number in the hundreds.

Reporter Michael Davie, an Australian born in Zimbabwe, returns home to witness this extraordinary wildlife success story.

He spends time with the sanctuary’s highly trained anti-poaching team, the Malilangwe Scouts, the tip of the spear against the ever present poaching threat.

“Individually you can’t win against poaching and we need every one of us to fight against poachers,” says Patrick, a Sergeant in the Scouts. “You have to be a team, a strong one.”

Davie captures all the incredible action of the hectic “rhino ops” where specialists dart the animals from helicopters then move in on 4WDs as they dash across the park. Led by ecologist Sarah Clegg, the rhino ops team collect vital data on the herd.

“They’ve got this reputation of being bad-tempered and dangerous and they are, but I think it’s mostly that they’re just such emotional creatures,” says Sarah, who’s studied the animal for more than two decades.

“They’re just insecure, you know? And so they need more love.”

Malilangwe increased its rhino population to such an extent that last year, it relocated some of its Black Rhino herd to nearby Gonarezhou National Park — a former killing ground for rhinos.

“It’s what we all aim for in our careers as conservationists,” says Sarah. “It’s a wild park, so being able to put the rhino back into that park is like waking it up again.”

This visually stunning story has a powerful message of hope.

“Everyone needs to know the rhino is special,” says Patrick.

Watch Return of the Rhinos on Foreign Correspondent, Thursday 29 September at 8pm on ABC TV and iview.

https://twitter.com/ForeignOfficial/status/1574207123361349632

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Thai High

Thursday 6 October 8:00 PM

It’s the country which gave us the words “bong” and “ganja”.

In Thailand, cannabis has been used for centuries in traditional medicine.

But when the US launched its ‘war on drugs’ in the 1970s, Thailand became a key partner, placing cannabis on the narcotics list and toughening penalties against it.

This June, the country took it off that list, meaning cannabis sellers and recreational users no longer risked jail for selling or possessing cannabis.

In tourist hotspots, a “ganja-culture” is fast taking hold. In Bangkok’s Khao San Road nightspot, it seems easier to buy a joint than a Pad Thai.

“Now it’s legal – God gave a gift for us,” says Choco Gonzalez, a cannabis seller in Bangkok.

And it’s party time for tourists at the famous full moon party at Koh Phangnan in the country’s south.

“Wherever you go now, it’s Amsterdam again in Asia,” says an Italian tourist at the party.

As Australia reignites on its own debate about legalising cannabis, Southeast Asia correspondent Mazoe Ford travels around Thailand to meet the new crop of ‘ganja-preneurs’ cashing in on the green rush.

In Bangkok, Kitty Chopaka, a shop owner selling cannabis products and a leading advocate of decriminalisation, is still pinching herself.

“I never thought in my lifetime that this would actually happen … But at the same time I knew it had to be done.”

In the southern island of Samui, resort owner Craig Lamb reckons the liberalisation of the laws is attracting overseas tourists.

“You can really feel it’s reinvigorated the market. There’s a new energy here.”

Ford also hitches a ride on the private jet of the politician behind the policy – Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul.

He takes us to Thailand’s east to spruik the medicinal cannabis industry which the government hopes will become a billion-dollar industry.

“It turned out that majority of my voters chose to vote for my party … some people even called my party (the) ‘Cannabis Party’,” he tells Ford.

But not everyone welcomes the change. More than a thousand doctors have warned that the drug was delisted before proper safeguards and regulations were in place.

“We don’t want to be the cannabis haven of the world,” say Doctor Chanchai Sittinpunt from Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine.

But Kitty Chopaka says going back isn’t possible — the genie is out of the bottle.

“That broke … that bottle is broken. It’s gone!”

Watch Thai High on Foreign Correspondent, 8pm Thursday 6 October on ABC TV and iview.

https://twitter.com/ForeignOfficial/status/1575433705773899776?s=20&t=b4FcNmuJUAJcv8ZkHPe01Q

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The Secret World of Trading Nudes

Thursday 13 October 8:00 PM

In chat rooms and across online forums, men are trading explicit and intimate images and videos of women, often without their consent.

The material is being shared and traded on popular social media platforms such as Reddit.

This BBC Panorama program reported by Monika Plaha investigates a flourishing subculture in which thousands of images are routinely shared by men in private chat groups.

“This is not a phenomenon of perverts or weirdoes or other oddballs who are doing this. There’s too many of them,” says law professor Clare McGlynn. “It’s tens of thousands of men, average men.”

Plaha investigates one popular Reddit site in which up to 20,000 users, many using fake names, share explicit images and videos of women.

She finds that sometimes the online abuse follows the women into the real world.

“I got a, like DM from this random account saying that they found my image,” says one woman whose Instagram photo was posted onto a Reddit site. “I get them every day. They want me in a hotel and people ask me if I take money.”

Plaha also discovers that one community of women in the United Kingdom is particularly vulnerable.

“If you are a South Asian girl who’s been conditioned to not talk about these issues, you don’t have the ability to go and talk to your mom necessarily or your sister or your aunt,” says Natasha Rattu from the charity Karma Nirvana.

“We’ve had women and girls that have rang the helpline absolutely petrified that images are going to be leaked, where they’re being blackmailed to pay money.”

One young woman whose images are being shared makes a powerful plea to those involved.

“My message out there is for all the people that are doing this, please just stop this.”

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Voices from the Arctic

Thursday 20 October 8:00 PM

The Sami people are indigenous to Europe, their traditional lands crossing from Russia’s Kola Peninsula to the north of Scandinavia and into the Arctic Circle.

Surviving decades of assimilation and discrimination, the Sami have fought to keep their culture alive.

They’ve also fought for elected representative bodies to be their voice to governments – known as Sami Parliaments – models that could inspire our own ‘Voice to Parliament’.

“We know what is good for us and we can speak for ourselves,” says Stefan Mikaelsson, the former President of Sweden’s Sami Parliament. “And we don’t want…Swedish state officials to talk on our behalf.”

As Australia debates the merits and model of its own indigenous ‘Voice to Parliament’, reporter Lauren Day travels to Scandinavia to learn about the Samis’ experience.

In this stunningly beautiful film, the Foreign Correspondent crew travels for hours across the Arctic tundra to capture the Sami’s traditional way of life, filming the autumn reindeer corral ahead of the winter migration.

And the crew heads out on Norway’s spectacular fjords with the Sea Sami who traditionally rely on fish for their livelihood.

In Norway and Sweden, Day hears of the immense pressures on Sami lands and waters from a new wave of ‘green’ development sweeping across the Arctic.

The Sami Parliaments are fighting windfarms and major mine proposals to extract resources crucial for the green energy transition.

They’re fearful the projects could disrupt reindeer migration and that tailings from a large-scale copper mine could contaminate the waters of a significant fjord.

“One of the strongest weapons in the struggle is the Sami Parliament,” say Sea Sami fisherman Torulf Olsen.

While there are limits to these Parliaments’ powers – they don’t have the right of veto or the power to make law – many feel they’re a powerful weapon in the Samis’ fight to survive.

“If it should happen that the Sami Parliament stopped existing, then I think it should be much worse for the Sami people again,” says reindeer herder, Nils Mathis Sara.

And Sara has some strong words for Australia:

“If there is someone feeling like they are not being heard then…you should aim for a system that can speak up for you, your group, such as we have here. This would be my advice.”

https://twitter.com/L_Day/status/1580698800792162304

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2022 final on Thursday 3 November.

Ukraine: Stories from the Russian Occupation - Season Final

Thursday 3 November 8:00 PM

A young couple celebrates their wedding in front of a bombed-out building.

An old man sweeps up the debris caused by missile strikes, bewildered by Russia’s aggression.

Investigators dig up bodies from a mass burial site in a forest.

People gather in a bunker for a writers’ festival.

These are the stories Europe correspondent Steve Cannane uncovers as he travels through north-eastern Ukraine in the wake of an extraordinary military victory against Russia.

Liberated from occupation, people are sharing stories of trauma and hardship, hope and survival.

70-year-old Anatolii Garagatyi, an amateur cameraman with a YouTube channel, recounts how he spent 100 days locked up in a police cell. When he refused his Russian captors’ request to make a propaganda video, he was tortured.

“It doesn’t matter how much longer I live but I don’t want my soul to meet my parents in heaven and for them to think I’m a traitor.”

In a quiet forest outside the town of Izium, investigators dig up hundreds of bodies from a mass burial site.

“For me, it’s not debatable. It’s war crimes,” says the Defence Minister, Oleksii Reznikov. “It’s the next package for a future tribunal. We call it Nuremberg 2.”

Tetiana Pylypchuk, the director of Kharkiv’s Museum of Ukrainian Literature, has organised a literary festival in a bunker. It’s a show of defiance against an adversary which wants to obliterate their culture.

“Holding such events in a city which is under threat… is a very strong message to the enemy.”

Humiliated by its recent losses, Russia is retaliating with missile strikes at power plants and vital infrastructure. As winter approaches, many are living without gas, power and water.

But Ukrainians’ resolve to defeat their invader has only hardened.

“We have to survive. We have to fight for our land, for our family, for our houses,” says Reznikov.

“What are you talking about? We’ve already won!” say Garagatyi .“They’ve got no idea what they’re doing here. Cowards. They’re cowards.”

https://twitter.com/ForeignOfficial/status/1586881136055095296?s=20&t=YAohjXFoh4zDY0RtSCWq7A

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Updated:

image

Returns Thursday 16 February 8.00pm

The show that takes the road less travelled, to the ends of the Earth, in search of the stories and people you won’t see anywhere else.

Foreign Correspondent returns in 2023 to open a window to the world as the ABC’s unrivalled network of international journalists uncover stories and meet people you won’t see elsewhere.

This season, expect unexpected reports from the Philippines and Japan to Wales and Latvia; from the Middle East to our nearest neighbours in Fiji and PNG.

The multiple award-winning show that has been running since 1992, will bring you more reports from around the globe, highlighting a variety of issues faced by different countries and spotlighting ways we can learn from them.

Production credit: Executive Producer Morag Ramsay. Series Producer Sharon O’Neill

Japan’s New Frontline

Thursday 16 February 8.00pm

After decades of peace, Japan is now confronting the possibility of war.

With concerns over a resurgent Russia, North Korea and crucially, a more powerful China in the region, Japan is embarking on its biggest military spend since the Second World War.

On Foreign Correspondent, reporter James Oaten has gained unique access to the Japanese military as it fortifies its remote southwest islands with new military bases.

The popular tourist destination of Ishigaki, an island that is closer to Taiwan than Tokyo will soon be home to hundreds of soldiers, stockpiles of ammunition and missiles that could one day strike mainland China.

The local farming and fishing community is divided over the base, and what it means for their idyllic way of life.

The population paid a high price in the dying days of World War II, fuelling fears that they will once again become a target.

Japan’s New Frontline airs Thursday 8pm AEDT on ABC TV, iview and YouTube.

Promo

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Russia’s Info War

Thursday 23 February 8.00pm

On the eve of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the propaganda war being waged by President Putin has become more extreme. Russian citizens are being repeatedly told that Ukraine is being run by LGBT Nazis and President Vlodomyr Zelensky is a drug addict and a sexual pervert.

Independent Russian journalists forced to flee the country have found sanctuary in neighbouring Latvia where they are now broadcasting factual news about the war into their former homeland via YouTube. On Foreign Correspondent, reporter Eric Campbell, also on Russia’s banned list, travels to Latvia to meet the journalists who have taken great risks to fight the propaganda war.

In the capital Riga, Eric interviews Latvian President Egils Levits, one of Ukraine’s most ardent supporters. His government is allowing NATO troops to train in his country amidst fears Latvia too could suffer the same fate as Ukraine.

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Saving the Children

Thursday 2 March 8:00 PM

In the dead of night in Manila, police officers track down criminals responsible for delivering online child abuse to a growing number Australian customers. This scene has played out dozens of times across the Philippines as cases hit unprecedented levels.

The demand for live streaming child sexual abuse is so high in Australia that AFP officers are now based permanently in the Philippines working with an international task force investigating this distressing cyber-crime.

On Foreign Correspondent reporter Stephanie March has been given exclusive access to the Filipino police and the international task force as they hunt down the abusers and rescue the children. Parents are often involved in arranging the abuse and in a frank and confronting prison cell exchange Stephanie interviews a mother accused of facilitating the abuse of her own child for money.

Watch Saving the Children on Foreign Correspondent, Thursday 2 March on ABC TV, ABC iview and YouTube.

https://twitter.com/ForeignOfficial/status/1630361639647162370?s=20

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The Second Amazon: Secrets of the Sepik

Thursday 9 March 8:00 PM

On Australia’s northern doorstep lies one of the most extraordinary places on earth – some environmentalists call it the second Amazon. The Sepik River Basin in Papua New Guinea is a natural wonder and home to rich and ancient cultures. It’s a place few outsiders ever get to see. For some time, PNG correspondent Natalie Whiting has been hearing rumours about what’s going on in the remote areas upriver – claims of a logging land grab, police brutality, even killings. This week on Foreign Correspondent she undertakes the journey far up the Sepik River to see for herself what’s happening.

In the rainforest of the Upper Sepik a community is divided. Logging operations and a proposed massive mine site bring hope of economic prosperity for some. But others fear development of the land by international companies means environmental destruction with little benefit. PNG is the world’s largest exporter of tropical round logs but out of sight in the Sepik region some landowners say the logging is happening without proper consent and there are consequences for those who stand in the way. With a long history of mistrust of big corporations and the promises they make, many of the locals are angry and ready to do whatever it takes to preserve some of the most unspoilt rainforests and waterways on the planet.

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Cambodia’s Cyber Slaves

Thursday 16 March at 8pm

What happens when you fall victim to a cyber scam? And who’s really at fault?

In Cambodia, Chinese organised crime syndicates, with strong ties to the Hun Sen regime, are running widespread cyber scam operations in the city of Sihanoukville.

Hundreds of scammers in complexes surrounded by barbed wire work 15-hour days targeting vulnerable people with fake information to access their money.

But the workers in this billion-dollar corrupt business are also victims.

Reporter Mary Ann Jolley meets the scammers who are lured to Cambodia with the promise of a good job, only to find they have been sold to scam syndicates.

They are then held against their will and forced to scam across the world.

Complaints to Cambodian authorities fall on deaf ears with allegations officials are complicit in the operations.

Watch Cambodia’s Cyber Slaves on Foreign Correspondent, Thursday 16 March at 8pm on ABC TV, ABC iview and YouTube.

https://twitter.com/ForeignOfficial/status/1635806769128562690?s=20

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A Story of Survival - Somalia

Thursday 23 March at 8pm

Somalia is one of the most dangerous places on earth.

Almost two decades of conflict with the al-Qaeda backed terrorist group al-Shabaab has taken a huge toll on the country.

Now Somalia is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years.

With the world distracted by the war in Ukraine, the crisis is escalating away from the public gaze.

This week on Foreign Correspondent reporter Stephanie March and producer/cinematographer Matt Davis travel to Somalia where makeshift camps have become home to more than a million hungry children and their families.

There, they meet mothers with babies who have walked for days without food and very little water.

They hear incredible stories of courage and survival in a landscape that is unforgiving and unsafe.

And they also face their own safety problems when their security team worries al-Shabaab has been told of their whereabouts.

As the Somali government fights back against al-Shabaab, another threat, which they have no control over, is driving the extreme weather: climate change.

In the midst of this turmoil, the Foreign Correspondent team meets extraordinary people who are determined to make their story one of survival.

https://twitter.com/ForeignOfficial/status/1636301277507223553

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Waking the Red Dragon: Could the Welsh break up with Britain?

Thursday 30 March at 8pm

When the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, Brexit supporters predicted the UK would boom.

Three years later and the nation is at breaking point with high inflation, an energy crisis and concerns about a recession fuelling a healthy dose of Brexit regret.

No more so than in Wales where something remarkable is happening.

The Welsh are finding their voice, and the famous red dragon is awakening.

This week on Foreign Correspondent reporter Nick Dole explores the new push for independence and meets the leaders of the movement campaigning for Wales to break up with Britain.

He travels to the city of Wrexham where the locals are riding high on a wave of pride as their football team gains global recognition thanks to the popular TV streaming show “Welcome to Wrexham”.

The club was recently bought by Hollywood celebrities Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, and it’s put Wrexham on the map.

But as well as a growing confidence in their team for some there’s also an increasing belief that Wales can achieve much more as an independent nation, away from the rule of Westminster.

With a major push now on to preserve the Welsh language one question is getting louder: A fyddai cymru yn well ei byd ar ei phen ei hun? (Would Wales be better off on its own?)

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Fiji: The Last Resort

6 April 8:00 PM

With tourism back and booming, Fiji is again a number one destination for travellers seeking an island paradise experience.

And while water lapping on the shoreline might make for an Instagram-worthy picture, for the people of Fiji, it presents a threat to their way of life.

This week on Foreign Correspondent, special guest reporter Craig Reucassel travels across the islands of Fiji to see how the nation is combating climate change.

With his trademark style, Craig goes off the tourist track and shows what living with climate change actually means for those who don’t have the luxury of arguing about it.

More than 800 villages are now on a government climate risk list – some communities have already been moved to higher ground but others are resisting.

And many are asking: who caused the problem and who should pay to fix it?

Watch The Last Resort on Foreign Correspondent, 8pm Thursday 6th of April on ABC TV and ABC iview.

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