Off-air recordings for week 28 May - 3 June 2011

Please email Rich Deakin rdeakin@glos.ac.uk , or fchmediaservices@glos.ac.uk if you would like any of the following programmes / series recording.*

Monday 30th May

BBC1 - Egypt's Lost Cities - "It is possible that only one percent of the wonders of Ancient Egypt have been discovered, but now, thanks to a pioneering approach to archaeology, that is about to change.  Dr Sarah Parcak uses satellites to probe beneath the sands, where she has found cities, temples and pyramids. Now, with Dallas Campbell and Liz Bonnin, she heads to Egypt to discover if these magnificent buildings are really there.

Tuesday 31st May

BBC4 - Storyville - Pol Pot's Executioner: Welcome To Hell - "On 28 February 2009 Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, appeared in the ECCC courtroom and made a two-hour speech where he asked for forgiveness for the appalling torture and execution of at least 13,000 prisoners at Tuol Sleng and probably more in the security camps of M-13 and M-99. Until this date, with the exception of a handful of judges, lawyers and a priest, he had not been seen or heard of for the last thirty years. How did a man, known to be kind and generous to fellow students, possibly transform himself into Comrade Duch, the Khmer Rouge's infamous executioner? This documentary revisits and searches for clues.

BBC4 - Storyville - Amnesty! When They Are All Free - "To celebrate its 50th anniversary in May 2011, this probing documentary brings together an extraordinary cast of interviewees, from Sting to former home secretary Jack Straw, to shed light on how, as a 'letter-writing organisation, Amnesty International has changed the world and how the world has changed Amnesty International. It poses the fundamental question: has the human rights movement been able to hold back mankind's capacity for atrocity?"

Wednesday 1st June

BBC2 - Wonderland: The Men Who Wouldn't Stop Marching - "More than ten years after the end of the troubles, filmmaker Alison Millar explores Belfast's Shankill Road to find out how well the scars of war have healed. For four months she joined the men of the famous marching bands and in particular, spent time with Jordan, an eleven-year old aspiring drummer from one of the most famous former paramilitary families on the estate. What she found is a mixture of entrenched prejudice, relief that the troubles are over, nostalgia for the days of paramilitary discipline, and a battened-down resistance to talking about the past. But when Jordan makes a shocking discovery at the end of his road, his father's brittle silence cracks and he decides to take his son on a journey into his own past and through the Maze Prison where he had been inside for several years."

Thursday 2nd June

BBC1 - Andrew Marr's Megacities - 3 part series - "Documentary series in which Andrew Marr finds out how some of the world's largest cities feed, protect and move their citizens. In the first episode, Andrew looks at how people live in five of the world's biggest megacities: London, one of the world's oldest megacities; Dhaka, the world's fastest-growing megacity; Tokyo, the largest megacity on Earth; Mexico City, one of the most dangerous cities in the world; and Shanghai, arguably the financial capital of the world. Andrew compares the sleek skyscrapers and rapid modernisation of Shanghai to the colourful street culture and geographic sprawl of Mexico City. He spends a night living in a one-room shack in Dhaka's toughest slum, taking his turn to fetch water, cook and clean; and he rents a friend in the efficient and high-tech, but alienating, city of Tokyo. As he gets under the skin of each unique metropolis, Andrew discovers how the structure of each megacity defines every aspect of its inhabitants' daily lives."

BBC4 - Storyville -Prosecutor - "Exploring the work of Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. The programme follows him as he defends the arrest warrant for Sudanese President Al-Bashir at the UN Security Council in New York, and opens the court's first trial of alleged Congolese war criminal Thomas Lubanga."



Friday 3rd June

Channel 4 - Unreported World - Breaking Into Israel - "In the Sinai desert, thousands of African immigrants fleeing conscription, torture and conflict in East Africa risk being shot by border guards and held ransom by people smugglers as they try to get to Israel.

Reporter Ramita Navai and director Paul Kittel arrive in the Sinai desert in north-east Egypt just over a month after the revolution that toppled the regime of Hosni Mubarak. Smuggling from Egypt to Israel has gone on for years, but now the smugglers are focused on people rather than goods.
Navai and Kittel visit a smugglers' safe house where 100 Eritrean migrants are crammed into four small rooms terrified that they will be arrested by Egyptian border guards.
Eritrea produces more refugees than almost any other country in the world, with nearly 2000 people escaping every month. Twenty-one-year-old Joseph has been in the smugglers' hands for over a month and has paid them $2000. He tells Navai that the Eritrean regime forcibly conscripts men and women, and that deserters can be tortured or killed.
Another man, Sammy, says he has deserted the army and that torture, starvation and slave labour are commonplace. He also tells the team that conscription can be indefinite.
For the refugees, Israel's fast-growing economy promises safety and prosperity. The team talks to the mastermind of a people-smuggling ring transporting migrants into the country.
He tells Navai that it is a sophisticated operation run by Bedouins in three different countries and that one smuggler can transport up to 4000 migrants to Israel every two years.
Later that night the team is driven deeper into the desert, less than a mile away from the Israeli border. The refugees are about to embark on one of the riskiest parts of their journey.
Most of the 260km border is open, but Egyptian guards have been accused of using a shoot-to-kill policy against anyone found trying to cross into Israel illegally and 86 people have reportedly been killed crossing the border. The Egyptian authorities deny using a shoot-to-kill policy but say lethal force is justified to stop illegal activity.
The team crosses over into Israel as the migrants face the next stage of their journey; they must get further than 50km from the border or face being handed back to the Egyptian authorities if they're captured. The team receives a call from another refugee, Tadsse. He has been captured but has been detained rather than handed over to the Egyptians.
Navai and Kittel head north to Tel Aviv, which is Israel's business capital and the goal for the refugees. They meet 25-year-old Eritrean Kidane Isaac who was smuggled over four years ago and now lives there legally and helps recently arrived immigrants.
He tells Navai that many of the 20,000 Eritreans who have made it to Israel are now safe but destitute. He rents a tiny shared room in a flat with 16 other refugees.
He also claims that in recent months there has been a disturbing new development: smuggling gangs have started to hold refugees for ransom, extorting cash from relatives who already live abroad. He says men have been killed and women raped. The team travels to a medical centre that treats up to 700 Eritreans every month, who say they've been abused at the hands of their kidnappers.
With evidence suggesting nearly 200 Eritreans are being held hostage in the Sinai desert for ransom, Kidane talks to one smuggler insisting on $13,000 for each person being held. The smugglers are threatening to kill them if they don't get paid.
Israel has appealed to the Egyptian authorities to investigate these kidnappings but so far no cases have been pursued.
Israel is now building an electronic fence to keep African migrants out, but with the ongoing violence in their country, it seems clear that Eritreans will continue to seek refuge here and in Europe and take any risk on the way."

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*This applies to staff members and students at the University of Gloucestershire only. Any recordings made are to be used only for educational and non-commercial purposes under the terms of the ERA Licence.