Background Briefing

After a police squad stages a tense siege against a dangerous fugitive, a phone is recovered from the crime scene, carrying vital information. But the detective in charge soon finds himself accused of a serious crime and loses his career over it. For years, he's tried to clear his name. In an exclusive interview with BB, he finally speaks out. His story raises serious concerns about what can go wrong when police investigate police in NSW.

Will Lachlan Murdoch succeed in brushing his rival siblings aside to command control over the future of his family’s media empire? Or could we be looking at the end of the century-old family dynasty that runs the world's most powerful conservative news organisation?

For much of his youth, Lachlan Murdoch seemed ambivalent about being next in line to control the family’s global media empire. So why is his father Rupert now fighting a high stakes battle against three of his other children to ensure Lachlan becomes his successor?

Are we looking at the end of the Murdoch family's global media empire? That's the question journalists Paddy Manning and Alex Mann investigate in this special three-part series. This week, they take you inside the family's inner sanctum and examine why Lachlan, Rupert's chosen successor, may not have always been an obvious choice.

The Murdoch family is locked in a secret court battle.

Dots are so strongly associated with traditional Aboriginal visual language that Shane gets asked why he doesn’t paint them.

In a caravan park in central NSW, a group of grey nomads were sold a Utopia - a  “home base” to hang up the keys and enjoy “real estate security”. They sunk their life savings into houses in the park, with the ads promising it “couldn’t be sold out from underneath” them. But then, it was.

There are only two witnesses to Brad Balzan's final moments: the two officers who chased him into his backyard. But their accounts of what happened don't match up.

As the investigation into Bradley Balzan's death continues, serious questions are raised about how the country’s largest police force uses its search powers.

Brad Balzan is shot dead in his own backyard after a police encounter goes wrong. In episode two of Stop and Search, a new mini-series by Background Briefing, reporter Paul Farrell asks why was he running away, and why did the officers chase him down?

A 20-year-old is chased by four plain-clothes police officers into his western Sydney backyard. But he hasn't committed a crime. He hasn't even done anything wrong. He's shot twice, and then dies. In a special miniseries by Background Briefing, the final moments that led to this tragic incident are pieced together. The reporter is Paul Farrell.

Ruby's barely a teenager, and already she's become a champion bull rider. She's also had eight concussions and multiple brain bleeds. Reporter Tynan King investigates how this extreme sport became her obsession — even as it threatens her life.

He left a trail of defect-riddled apartment buildings across Sydney and debts exceeding $600m to his creditors. Police have issued a warrant for his arrest. The NSW Premier has even offered to pay for his flight back to Australia. This week, Background Briefing tracks down the notorious and elusive Jean Nassif, who gives his first exclusive sit-down interview since he left Australia more than a year ago.

Testosterone is often marketed as a silver bullet that can help you build muscle mass, improve your energy levels and fix your sex life. But as reporters Tynan King and Maddison Connaughton discover, the reality doesn’t always live up to the hype, and the people running testosterone replacement therapy clinics don’t always have their clients' best interests at heart

Anna grew up believing she was an orphan. But she later discovered she’d been lied to. And that she's one of many Australian adoptees who has been misled.

Nathaniel Train was renowned as a distinguished principal who could deliver impressive results for disadvantaged schools. His childhood friend, reporter Josh Robertson, investigates what fateful events led to Nathaniel's transformation into a cold-blooded killer.

One morning reporter Josh Robertson woke up, read the headlines, and made a terrible realisation.

He is shut off from the outside world. Locked inside a makeshift jail in north Syria for the past five years, Hamza doesn’t even know who the Prime Minister is. This Australian citizen is one of thousands of suspected ISIS members imprisoned with no charges.

Sometimes they’re armed with a chainsaw, sometimes a bottle of poison, and often they’re operating in broad daylight. So why is it so hard to catch Sydney’s tree killers?

Daniel Duggan’s career was spent pushing warplanes to their limits. Now the United States wants him extradited from Australia and prosecuted for conspiracy. The Australian pilot says he innocent, and believes he’s a pawn in the geopolitical contest between the US and China.

Olivia went on Australia’s biggest show to find love. She came out as Australia's "most hated" reality TV star and lost almost everything. Reporter Annika Blau investigates the making of a TV villain.

It was the infamous Royal prank call that shattered lives. One woman took her own life; another is haunted to this day. Reporter Rachael Cusick investigates - how did a joke go so wrong?

On the outskirts of Dubai there is a secret scam factory, where hundreds of employees smoke, eat, and pretend to be glamorous women — but one has a secret plan to shut it all down.

There's a saying that every good story needs a bad guy.

Three dead dolphins turn up in an oil spill.

"Simone" arrived on a remote island to help asylum seekers. But she witnessed something there that convinced her to leak over 2000 documents. Reporters Paul Farrell and Maddison Conaughton investigate what happened.

When patients start unexpectedly dying at a regional hospital, nurse Toni Hoffman takes a big risk to blow the whistle on a negligent surgeon. But years later, it's still unclear why she was ignored for so long.

Kathy Jackson was once heralded as a revolutionary who shone a bright spotlight on union corruption but she too was later found to be a fraudster who had misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars in union members' money. So who was the man responsible for blowing the whistle on her?  Reporter Annika Blau investigates.

When an electoral officer helps police arrest a popular politician, her life begins to unravel. Her boss would spend more than a decade in prison, but she loses her job, and is even eventually admitted to a mental health institution. Now she’s asking: could he have been stopped earlier? Reporter Tynan King investigates.

What happens when a person blows the whistle on wrongdoing?

A woman has lost the ability to speak and is forced to communicate by blinking. From her hospital bed she tries to blink out a request, but hospital staff refuse to help. Background Briefing can reveal that similar situations are playing out in many public health facilities across Australia, as patients pursue their legal right to die, and healthcare workers say "no".

This week reporter and Dharawal woman Brooke Fryer goes inside a program that's helping violent men turn their lives around.

He left a trail of defect-riddled apartment buildings across Sydney and debts exceeding $600m to his creditors. Police have issued a warrant for his arrest. The NSW Premier has even offered to pay for his flight back to Australia. This week, Background Briefing tracks down the notorious and elusive Jean Nassif, who gives his first exclusive sit-down interview since he left Australia more than a year ago.

Ruby's barely a teenager, and already she's become a champion bull rider. She's also had eight concussions and multiple brain bleeds. Reporter Tynan King investigates how this extreme sport became her obsession — even as it threatens her life.

There are only two witnesses to Brad Balzan's final moments: the two officers who chased him into his backyard. But their accounts of what happened don't match up.

As the investigation into Bradley Balzan's death continues, serious questions are raised about how the country’s largest police force uses its search powers.

Brad Balzan is shot dead in his own backyard after a police encounter goes wrong. In episode two of Stop and Search, a new mini-series by Background Briefing, reporter Paul Farrell asks why was he running away, and why did the officers chase him down?

A 20-year-old is chased by four plain-clothes police officers into his western Sydney backyard. But he hasn't committed a crime. He hasn't even done anything wrong. He's shot twice, and then dies. In a special miniseries by Background Briefing, the final moments that led to this tragic incident are pieced together. The reporter is Paul Farrell.

There are women choosing to “freebirth” completely outside the medical system.

They have anonymous leaders, manifestos, and even a flag with a snake on it.

‘Cities’ are popping up across Bali’s spiritual heartland. Can villagers from Ubud hold back a tsunami of foreign money and preserve the island's culture?

After an electoral officer helped police arrest a popular state minister, her life began to unravel.

"Simone" arrived on a remote island to help asylum seekers. But she witnessed something there that convinced her to leak over 2000 documents. Reporters Paul Farrell and Maddison Conaughton investigate what happened.

From humble beginnings, Fahad faced hurdles entering medical school. Now, he fights for equal access to medical education. Marty Smiley reports.

Reporter Heidi Davoren provides an extraordinary insight into a parenting dispute, where a mother and father come together after a Family Court psychologist harmed their family.

As a teenager, Remy learnt to survive by hustling on the streets of Parramatta. Then she hit the bigtime. Reporter Mahmood Fazal investigates what life is like on the other side of the war on drugs.

When two infants die after being left inside a hot car, their family seek answers to how this could have happened. Reporter Alexandra Blucher tracks down a child safety officer involved in their case, and hears why she believes the girls' deaths could have been prevented.

Queensland authorities failed to heed multiple serious warnings that a young pair of sisters were in danger, before it was too late. Their grieving family is now desperate to understand why. Reporter Alexandra Blucher investigates.

In a nursing home lives an elderly man who is being held against his will. We can’t tell you his name. We can’t tell you his age. We can’t even use his real voice, or the voice of anyone involved in his case. Reporter Anne Connolly investigates what happens when the state rules you're incapable of looking after yourself.

Father-of-three Ayman Dhlan started a WhatsApp group to help Australians and their families get out of war-torn Gaza. Now he can barely put his phone down.

It might surprise you to learn that the names of pop stars and fascist dictators have been passed down to generations of Indigenous Australians. Reporter Erin Parke heads to the remote Kimberley to meet a man named Bing Crosby, and find out how it happened.

From humble beginnings, Fahad faced hurdles entering medical school. Now, he fights for equal access to medical education.

Natalia had a job at a prestigious university, $120,000 in the bank, a loving partner, and shared custody of her two sons. Then one day, a little over a year later, she woke up in a psychiatric hospital, where doctors told her she was experiencing what’s known as stimulant-induced psychosis.

How the Commonwealth Bank tried to stop a royal commission by using dirt files, intimidation, threats and surveillance against whistleblowers and journalists. Reporter Adele Ferguson investigates.

Three dead dolphins turn up in an oil spill.

"Simone" arrived on a remote island to help asylum seekers. But she witnessed something there that convinced her to leak over 2000 documents. Reporters Paul Farrell and Maddison Conaughton investigate what happened.

When patients start unexpectedly dying at a regional hospital, nurse Toni Hoffman takes a big risk to blow the whistle on a negligent surgeon.

Kathy Jackson was once heralded as a revolutionary who shone a bright spotlight on union corruption but she too was later found to be a fraudster who had misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars in union members' money. So who was the man responsible for blowing the whistle on her?  Reporter Annika Blau investigates.

After an electoral officer helped police arrest a popular state minister, her life began to unravel.

In this 6-part series presented by Adele Ferguson, the Background Briefing team brings you the untold stories of ordinary Australians who helped bring some of Australia’s biggest and dirtiest scandals to light.

Two years ago, Meagan complained to the ABC that our coverage of sexual assault cases was too negative, and it didn't reflect her personal experience.

Just after midnight, Marty woke to find three young intruders in his bedroom. Then they started talking to him. He'd now become one of the hundreds of victims of crime in Mount Isa each year. This is the final episode looking at the youth justice system in Queensland — the state with the highest number of children behind bars.

"Locked down for hours and hours": Jaxon explains what life is like inside a juvenile detention centre.

Jaxon stole a car at age 10. Six years later, the Mount Isa teen has a decision to make.

A special investigation by Rachael Brown and Mahmood Fazal into the shocking deaths of two women in Sydney's inner west.

A growing number of AI industry insiders are guessing at the probability that Artificial Intelligence will lead to a catastrophic scenario for humanity, and calculating their ‘p(doom)’.

Did you know that some of Australia’s largest public hospitals are run according to a religious code of ethics?

Kym Ellery, the founder of collapsed Australian fashion label Ellery Land, tells reporter Rachael Brown that business collapses are sometimes the price of working in the fashion industry.

Reporters Ty King and Mayeta Clark are granted a behind-the-scenes look at the dangerous game of cat and mouse played by cops and cartels.

Reporter Heidi Davoren provides an extraordinary insight into a parenting dispute, where a mother and father come together after a Family Court psychologist harmed their family.

In part two of the investigation into the deaths of Ray and Jennie Kehlet, reporters Rebecca Trigger and Ash Davis examine the story of the last man to see the couple alive. And they speak to a police insider who raised concerns about the direction of the investigation back in 2015.

Two campers go missing while prospecting for gold in the Western Australian outback.

Australia's migrant workers can wait for years to find out whether they can stay here, and while they do they can become targets for opportunistic operators offering a short cut.

As a teenager, Remy learnt to survive by hustling on the streets of Parramatta.

The consumer genetic testing industry has become big business.

In a nursing home lives an elderly man who is being held against his will.

Reporters Geoff Thompson and Annika Blau investigate how Australia became the first country to give scripts for trips.

In the second and final episode of Dead Man's Secrets, reporter Josh Robertson investigates the grisly murder of the powerful Papuan executive who negotiated one of Australia’s biggest foreign assistance packages.

A shocking murder takes place in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

When two infants die after being left inside a hot car, their family seek answers to how this could have happened.

Queensland authorities failed to heed multiple serious warnings that a young pair of sisters were in danger, before it was too late.

Kate thought she'd finally found a psychiatrist who cared about her.

Massoud was heading to a protest outside Tehran's embassy in Canberra when a phone call confirmed his worst fears had come true.

Protesters say they're being ordered to read false confessions and their activities are under surveillance.

It's one of the most effective forms of contraception available.

There's a violent territorial dispute between rival gangs in Sydney’s west.

Charles Batham has been in hiding for years, and after two narrow escapes the trail goes cold. Then, reporter Erin Parke gets a tip-off that that brings the global investigation back from the brink – but will the truth ever come out about Batham’s dark past?

A tall, eccentric Englishman with a secret double life flees Australia. For nine years he remains on the run. What he doesn't know is that two Australian women are tracking his movements from afar. Reporter Erin Parke was one of them.

When Jordan wanted to treat his insomnia, he turned to an experimental therapy: medicinal cannabis.

Precious artefacts looted from Cambodia and Thailand made their way into prominent collections here in Australia, and around the world. In the second and final episode of his investigation, Mario Christodoulou investigates why it’s taking so long for these precious works to be returned to their rightful home.

Many ancient Cambodian artifacts arrived in Australia during the 1960s and 1970s, when the south east Asian country was in turmoil. Mario Christodoulou investigates how some had come from looted historic sites or passed through the hands of suspected smugglers, and now feature in major galleries around the world.

Did you know that some of Australia’s largest public hospitals are run according to a religious code of ethics?

There’s new mind-bending technology that creates immersive media from scratch.

Five years ago, a confronting video of a violent police encounter shocked the Byron Bay community.

In one dark Byron Bay back alley, a series of baton strikes changes a teenager's life.

Protesters say they're being ordered to read false confessions and their activities are under surveillance.

It's one of the most effective forms of contraception available.

AFL superstars like Cyril Rioli and Michael Long forged their talents there.

Note: this episode was originally broadcast in July 2021 and it contains explicit language and confronting themes.