From Our Own Correspondent

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Memorable Despatches Sep 17, 2015

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From Our Own Correspondent is 60 years old this month, and we are marking the anniversary with some special programmes. In this morning's 60th Anniversary Special discussion about foreign reporting, some of the featured panellists and correspondents in the audience talked about despatches they remembered. Kate Adie now introduces those reports in full.

They include Lyse Doucet on the Afghan New Year in 2012, Tim Whewell on the only grand piano in Gaza earlier this year, Lindsey Hilsum on the frightening days of genocide in Rwanda in 1994, James Coomarasamy in Paris in 2003 when his son's paediatrician recommended roquefort cheese, and Fergal Keane writing to his newborn son in Hong Kong in 1996.

Producer: Arlene Gregorius.

From Our Own Correspondent: 60th Anniversary Special Sep 17, 2015

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As part of marking 60 years of reporting on landmark international events by Radio 4's iconic series, "From Our Own Correspondent", Owen Bennett-Jones presents a discussion, recorded at London's Frontline Club, on how foreign reporting has evolved over the decades – and where it is heading.

Joined by a panel of leading journalists and an audience that includes experienced reporters on foreign events, the programme recalls outstanding moments of foreign reporting. How did coverage of significant events – such as the Suez Crisis, the independence of former British colonies and the fall of communism – shape our views of the world, of particular countries and peoples?

The programme will also consider how politics and broader economic and social changes – plus the demands of modern-day broadcasting – have all changed the way correspondents now bring often complicated international stories to diverse audiences here at home.

Some developments continue to be far-reaching – such as China's transition from revolutionary peasant state to burgeoning economic power and the advent of extreme Islamism. How have more specialised reporting, embedding journalists with different participants in conflicts and focusing on the experiences of the general public changed the way we understand such issues? And how is the use of social media affecting reporting on foreign events?

The programme will name the places we should be watching in the years ahead, and discuss how reporting is likely to change further as "citizen journalists" become ubiquitous and the trustworthiness of information around the world becomes ever more important.

Producer: Simon Coates

Migration Special Sep 09, 2015

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The migrant crisis hasn't erupted from nowhere: From Our Own Correspondent has been following migrant routes into Europe for years. Kate Adie presents a selection of dispatches from Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Czech Republic and Syria.

Europe's Migration Turmoil Sep 08, 2015

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Kate Adie introduces correspondents' stories. This week, as Europe agonises over how to deal with the flow of migrants heading westwards, we hear two different perspectives from the Continent: in Vienna they've been shocked into action, while in Prague the loudest message is "keep out." Azerbaijan is spending millions on trying to improve its image but our correspondent says it should save its money and just stop locking people up. In Ireland speed, skill and passion are the order of the day on the pitch - and having a Putin-like stare helps. While on America's Amtrak network it's less a question of speed and more a matter of finding your moment of Zen.

Europe's Migration Turmoil Sep 08, 2015

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The Great Fall of China Aug 29, 2015

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The news behind the news. In this edition: severe turbulence in the financial markets in China: why the country's leadership makes no mention of it and the mainstream media avoids the subject; what's it like living on Little Diomede, the American island in the Bering Strait, just a few miles from Russia? Our correspondent has been talking to fishermen trying to pursue their livelihoods amid mounting tension between the two superpowers; hundreds of migrants have been arriving on the Greek island of Lesbos. Some there, we find, are treating the new arrivals as business opportunities; we've been meeting some of the hermits and holy men still living in caves amid the sandy wastes and rocky mountains of the West Bank and have been touring Jamaica in search of a moonshine rum with a particularly notorious reputation.

Andy Warhol's Trousers Aug 22, 2015

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The full story - correspondents with despatches from around the world. Today: from Bangkok, scene of a devastating bomb attack earlier in the week, it's the smallest detail which makes the deepest impression; there's a visit to the coastline of Somalia where a thriving piracy industry has been closed down but myriad problems still remain; we're in the Panamanian highlands talking about cocoa beans -- the experts may not be entirely convinced that eating chocolate is good for you, but there's no doubt the business is proving beneficial to the economy of that central American nation; we examine Sri Lanka's relationship with the sweet heart of the country, otherwise known as the coconut and our reporter sweats and strains in the shop where Andy Warhol and generations of New York rockers have gone shopping for their leather trousers and other stage gear

Politics and Witchcraft Aug 15, 2015

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The stories behind the news. In this edition: the government in Tanzania warns of the dangers of black magic as the country prepares to go to the polls in October; how the presence of militants in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, who are allied to the so-called Islamic State, marks an ominous turn for the authorities in Cairo; in the Czech Republic there's a plan to extend overcast mining in what was once a largely-undisturbed landscape of pine forests and deep valleys -- and it could have severe consequences for some of the people living there; an island community pulls together as a medical emergency descends on distant Tristan da Cunha, six days' sail away from specialist health treatment. And the music, the cars, the sunshine and the history - they're all part of the daily drive to work enjoyed by our man in the Cuban capital, Havana.

We Are All Emigrants Now Aug 08, 2015

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Insight and colour from around the globe. In this edition: Syrian tears for the waste and suffering of a lost generation; the migrants crossing into Europe via the border between Serbia and Hungary -- they say it'll take more than the steel fence, currently being constructed, to stop them. It's Happy Birthday Singapore! The island state's fifty years old and big business hasn't been slow to join the party. We meet a count in Transylvania who dreams that this part of Romania can one day be as famous for its meadows and its hospitality as it is for Count Dracula. And we're out with a postman in the Malian capital, Bamako, who has a very special delivery.

The Busy Executioner Aug 01, 2015

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Story-telling from reporters around the world. In this edition, as the UN, EU and others voice criticism of the number of executions now being carried out in Pakistan, our correspondent meets a hangman who talks frankly about his job; a colleague visits a far-right militia group's training camp in Ukraine and hears why it's against not only the pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country but also the government in the capital, Kiev; we gaze at a minaret in Tunisia and consider the forgotten history of a town where migrants FROM Europe once arrived in search of a new life. A reporter tours the capital of Albania, Tirana, and discovers why soft toys have been pressed in to service against the 'evil eye.' And we find out how a posse of elderly Italian ladies raised enough money to enjoy a holiday by the sea

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