About Us
Foreign Correspondent has been Australia 's leading international current affairs program since 1992.
In 16 years reporters, producers, camera operators and sound recordists have travelled to more than 160 countries and produced more than 1,400 reports.
The program draws on the ABC's extensive network of international correspondents and a Sydney-based reporting and production team.
Foreign Correspondent is designed to exploit the strengths of television – striking images and multi-track audio, a strong focus on story telling, exotic locations and emotional appeal.
Foreign Correspondent reports on major international issues but it also travels to places where reporters and camera operators are less welcome - investigating stories that governments don't want told.
Foreign Correspondent stories have won many international and Australian awards for journalistic excellence, camerawork and editing.
Every week, except during the summer recess, the program is broadcast throughout Australia on ABC 1 and ABC 2. Some of our best stories can also be seen on Broadband.
Foreign Correspondent stories are broadcast on the Asia Pacific Focus program on ABC's satellite service, Australia Network.
Foreign Correspondent stories are also regularly re-broadcast by more than 20 international networks, including CNN International, Al Jazeera, NHK Japan and TV NZ.
Bolivian Meltdown – The glaciers of the Andes act as giant water reservoirs for millions of people. They're shrinking fast, and Bolivia is expected to be the first country in South America to have to deal with a crisis that could eventually affect countries right across the region – a critical shortage of water.Greenland Goes Green – Most of the news about climate change is understandably gloomy. But a little reported side of the debate is the unexpected positive effect for people living in cold climate countries. In this report, farmers and fishermen are happy about the rising temperatures on their gigantic island.
UK Surveillance State – Britons have become the most watched people in the world, with over four million surveillance cameras, one for every 12 people. By one estimate the average Londoner is caught on camera 300 times a day.
Borneo Orang-utans – As more and more jungle is bulldozed to make way for palm oil plantations, the native habitat of the orang-utans is disappearing. Palm oil can be used for everything from food processing to running a truck. But the popularity of this versatile and highly profitable crop is threatening the survival of the apes.
Afghanistan: Tale of Two Women – An expose of ‘democracy at work' in Afghanistan, as seen through the lives of two women with a determination to rebuild their nation – the country's first female governor, from the remote province of Bamiyan, and an outspoken young MP from Kabul, whose life is constantly under threat.
Bangladesh: Rohingyas, The Forgotten People - Forced out of Burma by the brutal military regime, the Rohingya refugees have been hidden away in a remote border region by successive Bangladeshi governments and prevented from speaking to journalists. We find a way into the camps and reveal the atrocious conditions in which the Rohingyas live.
Bosnia: Children of War – Tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslim women were systematically raped during the war in the 1990s, resulting in the birth of many unwanted babies. Now those children are growing into teenagers, and some are beginning to ask difficult questions about their origins.
Turkey: Facing up to the Past - Orhan Pamuk, Turkey 's best-known modern novelist and the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, used to be a national hero. But he became a pariah virtually overnight for daring to break a 90 year old taboo – talking openly about Turkey 's role in the deaths of more than a million Armenians.
International and national leaders
The following lists, in the role in which they served at the time, some of the people who have been interviewed for Foreign Correspondent stories.
Kofi Annan , UN Secretary-General (frmr); Dr Boutros Boutros-Ghali, UN Secretary-General (frmr); General Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan; Benazir Bhutto, former President of Pakistan; Nawaz Sharif, former Prime Minister of Pakistan; Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan; Chandrika Kumaratunga, President of Sri Lanka; Dr Kim Dae Jung, President, South Korea; Victor Yuschenko, President of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine; Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia; Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime Minister of Singapore; Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesian President; Hamzah Has,Vice President of Indonesia; Abdurrahman Wahid, former President of Indonesia; Ali Alatas, Foreign Minister of Indonesia; Abu Bakir Bashir, Jemaah Islamiah; Dr Mahatir Mohamad; former Primer Minister of Malaysia; Anwar Ibrahim; former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia; Jose Ramos Horta, President of East Timor; Joseph Estrada, President of the Phillipines (frmr); Robert Mugabe; Prime Minister of Zimbabwe; Morgan Tsvangerai, Zimbabwe Opposition Leader; Vicente Fox, Mexican presidential candidate; The Dalai Lama, exiled leader of Tibet; Chris Patten, former Governor of Hong Kong; Guilio Andreotti, former Prime Minister of Italy; Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Opposition leader; Mary Robinson, President of the Irish Republic; Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein; FW de Klerk, former president of South Africa; Thabo Mbeki, Vice- President of South Africa; Jacob Zuma; former Vice President of South Africa; Crown Prince Tupouto'a of Tonga; Alia Izetbegovic, former President of Bosnia; Radovan Karadjic, leader of Bosnian Serbs; Franjo Tudjman, Croat ian President; King Simeon, Prime Minister of Bulgaria; Senator John Kerry, US presidential candidate; Richard Armitage, US Deputy Secretary of State; Sir Mekere Morauta; Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea; Richard Butler, Chief UN Weapons Inspector; Dr Hans Blix; Chief UN Weapons Inspector; Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand; David Lange, former NZ Prime Minister; Francis Ona, head of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army; James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank; Glafkos Clerides, Prime Minister of Cyprus; Rauf Denktash, leader of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus; King Abdullah of Jordan; Crown Prince Hassan of Jordan; Fouad Siniora, Prime Minister of Lebanon; Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex; Prince Albert of Monaco; Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel; Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel; Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation; Isias Afewerke, President of Eritrea; Abdullah Ocalan, head of Turkish Kurdish guerrilla group, the PKK; Prince Norodom Ranariddh of Cambodia; Imran Khan, Pakistani politician; Mordechai Vanunu, Israeli nuclear whistle blower; Hanan Ashrawi, Palestinian minister; Seif & Saadi Gaddafi of Libya; George Speight, Fiji coup leader; Sir John Ini Lapli, Governor-General of the Solomon Islands; Oscar Temaru, President of Tahiti; Theys Eluay, Papua independence leader.
