Program: Background Briefing

Background Briefing brings you true stories not everyone will want you to hear.

Email us: backgroundbriefing@abc.net.au or confidentially at backgroundbriefing@protonmail.com

Airs Sunday 8am Repeated: Sunday 11pm and Tuesday 12pm.

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A mother's message and the hospital that didn't want to hear it

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.

Published: 18 Apr 2024Thu 18 Apr 2024 at 11:45am

A woman wearing a dark dress sits on a couch and holds a framed photograph.

Duration: 30 minutes 52 seconds

More from Background Briefing

Tears, tea and bloodshed — can violent men ever change?

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

Duration: 39 minutes 27 seconds

Published: 11 Apr 2024Thu 11 Apr 2024 at 11:00am

Finding Jean Nassif

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.

Duration: 34 minutes 42 seconds

Published: 5 Apr 2024Fri 5 Apr 2024 at 6:15am

Dancing with Bulls

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.

Duration: 34 minutes 17 seconds

Published: 28 Mar 2024Thu 28 Mar 2024 at 8:00am

04 Stop and Search | The Botched Backyard Operation

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.

Duration: 26 minutes 14 seconds

Published: 21 Mar 2024Thu 21 Mar 2024 at 1:00pm

Faulty Towers

Faulty Towers 02 | 'The scummiest landlord in the state'

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following program contains references to a deceased Indigenous Australian.

Duration: 38 minutes

Published: 18 Oct 2022Tue 18 Oct 2022 at 11:13pmby Mayeta Clark

Faulty Towers 01 | The birdman of Surry Hills

From piles of rubbish to leaking sewers, rats, and gas leaks.

A man in white inside a room, sitting on arm chair surrounded by framed photographs and parrots.

Duration: 44 minutes

Published: 18 Jul 2023Tue 18 Jul 2023 at 5:28amby Mario Christodoulou

Features

A mother's message and the hospital that didn't want to hear it

A dying mum could only communicate by blinking. She needed hospital staff to help convey a message, but they didn't want to hear it.

Published: SunSun 21 Apr 2024 at 3:39amby Annika Blau

This was the moment a man who'd spent 30 years in and out of prison decided to retire

These men have all badly hurt a partner or relative. They've even done time for it, but can they change for good? The ABC has been given exclusive access to a program that is helping them turn their lives around.

Published: 13 Apr 2024Sat 13 Apr 2024 at 11:31amby Brooke Fryer and Ali Russell

A yellow Lambo, gangs and a vendetta: The downfall of the 'number one builder on Earth'

Jean Nassif has left a trail of defect-riddled apartment buildings in his wake, but in an exclusive interview with the ABC, he says he's the number one builder on Earth and that he's been hunted out of Australia by powerful figures.

Published: 6 Apr 2024Sat 6 Apr 2024 at 7:01amby Maddison Connaughton Maddison Connaughton and Brigid Andersen

This 13-year-old was one of Australia's best junior bull riders. Then her brain started bleeding

Ruby was told she had a 75 per cent chance of dying if she kept riding bulls. She liked those odds.

Published: 29 Mar 2024Fri 29 Mar 2024 at 10:38pmby Tynan King

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Program: Background Briefing

A mother's message and the hospital that didn't want to hear it

Tears, tea and bloodshed — can violent men ever change?

Finding Jean Nassif

Dancing with Bulls

04 Stop and Search | The Botched Backyard Operation

Faulty Towers 02 | 'The scummiest landlord in the state'

Faulty Towers 01 | The birdman of Surry Hills

A mother's message and the hospital that didn't want to hear it

This was the moment a man who'd spent 30 years in and out of prison decided to retire

A yellow Lambo, gangs and a vendetta: The downfall of the 'number one builder on Earth'

This 13-year-old was one of Australia's best junior bull riders. Then her brain started bleeding

Discover more podcasts

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