APRIL 2005
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Wednesday, 27th April,2005
JAN EGELAND INTERVIEW
Jan Egeland is a name and a face that you may not have known until Boxing Day last year when the devastating news of the tsunami hit the world and its media. Egeland, a Norwegian, was the guy who for days fronted the media for the UN, providing all those ghastly details in the aftermath of that horrendous wave. He is, in fact, the UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator - a long-winded bureaucratic way of saying he's the man in charge of the post-tsunami clean-up, including the unenviable task of making sure the billions donated to the victims of the tsunami get spent wisely and well. Having wanted to talk with him since January, watching how he handled that tricky situation, earlier today George Negus caught up with Jan Egeland from the United Nations studios in New York.
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Wednesday, 27th April,2005
NEPAL-DISMANTLING DEMOCRACY
These days we hear a lot of talk about "building democracy", particularly when it comes to the US military operations in the Middle East. But it's not so often we hear about a country that's fought valiantly for its democracy, only to lose it. But that apparently is what has just happened in that mecca for Australian backpackers and mountain trekkers, the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Nepal. Against a backdrop of appalling poverty and a Maoist insurgency that's already cost more than 10,000 lives, earlier this year, the King of Nepal forcibly took the reins of government from the country's politicians, all in the name of "fighting terrorism". Reporter Bronwyn Adcock has just returned from Nepal where she filmed for three weeks, meeting some of the major players in this new and dangerous Himalayan game.
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Wednesday, 20th April,2005
SHOOT THE MESSENGER
Last November when a US marine shot dead an unarmed, wounded Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque, the story created international headlines. In fact, it was the biggest scandal to hit the US military in Iraq since Abu Ghraib. What we still don't know is what actually went on outside the frame of that now infamous image? What were the personal choices involved, the ethical decisions that had to be made? And what did that incident reveal about US reporting from Iraq. In his first international interview, the journalist responsible for capturing that awful shooting spoke with Dateline's Sophie McNeill, and a warning - this story contains strong language and confronting images. Let me say that we've left some particularly graphic scenes in this report because we believe they're critical to understanding exactly what happened that day in Fallujah.
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Wednesday, 20th April,2005
THE PRIEST AND THE PRISONER
Well the puff of white smoke overnight that announced the new pope, Benedict XVI, maybe now the Catholic Church can get back to business as usual. But for one Catholic priest, Father Jean-Marie Benjamin, the drama's just beginning. Father Jean-Marie who has a close relationship with the former deputy PM of Iraq, Tariq Aziz, is having to fend off allegations that he was involved in the oil-for-food scandal that's still embroiling the United Nations. Although the UN Secretary-General's been cleared of any personal wrongdoing, the scandal has implicated both Kofi Annan's son, Kojo, and the former head of the UN program, Benon Sevan. In this next report, Nick Lazaredes investigates the scandal via the case of Father Jean-Marie.
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Wednesday, 20th April,2005
PRIME MINISTER JUNICHIRO KOIZUMI INTERVIEW
As the East Asian slanging match raged, international commentators were warning that the world's second and third largest economies are on an inevitable collision course as they jostle for top-dog status. And this was the highly charged context in which late last week, prior to John Howard's current exercise in shuttle diplomacy, George Negus made his own flying visit to Tokyo to talk exclusively with the charismatic but currently embattled Japanese Prime Minister at his official residence.
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Wednesday, 20th April,2005
JAPAN BACKGROUNDER
As Dateline goes to air tonight, PM John Howard is in Tokyo dining with his Japanese counterpart, Junichiro Koizumi. It is part of his prime ministerial visit to this country's two most important and powerful regional neighbours, Japan and China, at a time when relations between them are worse than they have been for probably 30 years. In a moment, an extremely rare interview with the Japanese Prime Minister, but first, a snapshot of the issues causing the temperature between these two Asian powers to rise.
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Wednesday, 13th April,2005
HEZBOLLAH TV
When it comes to politics in the Middle East both sides in that unholy mess have recognised the enormous power of the television image. The Israelis of course are past masters at using the media to get their message out to the rest of the world. And since Al-Jazeera started its international satellite service, the Arab world has also shown that it recognises the power of propaganda. Most recently the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah has got into the TV act. Five years ago, it started its own satellite channel Al-Manar. Since then, it's begun to rival Al-Jazeera and is currently the most popular channel in the occupied territories. It takes a virulently anti-Israeli editorial line and this has already seen it banned in both America and Europe. Now the Jewish lobby in Australia wants to see it banned as well even though it's not broadcast in this country at the moment. Matt Carney reports from Beirut.
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Wednesday, 13th April,2005
ROWAN GILLIES - MEDECIN MAN
A fascinating young Australian called Rowan Gillies is the international president of Medicines Sans Frontieres - or Doctors Without Borders - the Nobel Prize-winning organisation regularly saving lives in the world's trouble spots. Producer and cameraman David Brill has recently been with Rowan Gillies and a small team of medicos from MSF in the Congo, one of the most strife-torn regions in the world. For more than a fortnight, David spent close enough to every waking moment with him - in that time, up to their necks in life, death and everything in between.
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Wednesday, 6th April,2005
JEAN CALDER - DOCTOR OF HOPE
In this year's New Year's honours list, there were plenty of names most of us would be familiar with - like Lady Mary Fairfax, Jeff Kennett and the man in the hat, Tim Fisher. But one name that may not have leapt out at you was that of Dr Jean Calder. Dr Calder was awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia for her humanitarian work among the disabled and disadvantaged in, of all places, the strife-torn Middle East. Later this week, she will be in Canberra to collect her medal and Dateline thought a look at the work of this quite remarkable woman was in order. Elizabeth Tadic prepared this report.
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Wednesday, 6th April,2005
CARDINAL GEORGE PELL INTERVIEW
Whatever your religion - or even lack of one - the death of Pope John Paul II has clearly been the biggest show around this week. As Dateline goes to air tonight, hundreds of thousands of mourners are still lining up in St Peter's Basilica in Rome to pay their respects. But does the amazing global outpouring of emotion necessarily signal a healthy Catholic Church? Late last night, George Negus caught up with the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, at the Vatican itself.
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Wednesday, 6th April,2005
SOLOMON ISLANDS - MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?
Nine Australian servicemen and women were killed when a helicopter crashed while on aid work in earthquake-devastated Sumatra. Their deaths were a timely reminder that this country's increasing involvement in the region is risky and comes at a price. But another location that's become dangerous for Australian police and military is the Solomon Islands. The Regional Assistance Mission - RAMSI to its intimates - an 11-nation, Australian-dominated operation - started back in 2003 in response to a cry of desperation from the Solomon Islands Government. Since the arrival of the Australians, it is true that law and order has largely returned and the tribal killings have stopped. But on a recent visit to the Solomons, Mark Davis unearthed a different story.
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