Background Briefing

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 Australi

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.