Insight, wit and analysis as BBC correspondents, journalists and writers take a closer look at the stories behind the headlines. Presented by Kate Adie. Broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the UK on Thursdays at 1100 (local time) and Saturdays at 1130 (local time) for about 25 weeks of the year. BBC World Service broadcasts every day from Monday to Friday plus a weekend edition all year round, presented by Owen Bennett-Jones. For more information, a full list of programme broadcast times and the podcast Terms of Use go to www.bbc.co.uk/fromourowncorrespondent
Episodes available:
Indefinitely 
Sat, 18 May 13
Duration:
28 mins
Correspondents' stories from around the world: a field day for conspiracy theorists as the White House stumbles in a fog of political scandal; Libya's second city Benghazi's unstable, violent and there's uncertainty there over the presence and degree of influence of radical Islamists; as France slips back into recession, there's a trip to Lot-et-Garonne in the south west where they have their own ideas about how to cope in times of economic difficulty; to the holiday islands of The Seychelles to find out why there are Somali pirates there practising their football skills. And it's noisy, dirty, the poverty's shocking, the traffic awful. So why is it so hard to say goodbye to Mumbai?
Sat, 11 May 13
Duration:
28 mins
Correspondents around the world with the detail behind the headlines: Beth McLeod on the struggling Syrian refugees resorting to selling their daughters into marriage. The costs and consequences of standing in a Pakistani election are explored by Owen Bennett Jones. Another food scandal in China: Martin Patience on how, this time, it's rat which is leaving a nasty taste in the mouth. How can a pile of nappies in the British Museum spell good news for Somalia? The answer comes from Mary Harper while Tim Hartley takes time out at a football match in North Korea. It might still be the beautiful game but not as most of us know it! The producer of From Our Own Correspondent is Tony Grant
Sat, 4 May 13
Duration:
28 mins
Reporters' stories from around the world: why Rupert Wingfield Hayes believes North Korea's recent sabre-rattling speaks not of a regime that is strong and confident but one that is weak and scared, of the outside world and increasingly of its own people too. Emilie Filou accompanies the fly-catchers of Burkina Faso as they test an old legend - 'if you live too close to the river, it will eat your eyes!' Mexico's latest political scandal unfolds in a restaurant over the road from the BBC office - Will Grant's handily placed then to reveal all. 'A kind of hell' - Darius Bazargan finds out why heroin addiction's spreading through Afghani society and James Harkin's been on Turkey's border with Syria and tells a tale of the actress who couldn't stop crying and the boy who's made friends with a turtle.
Thu, 2 May 13
Duration:
29 mins
Reporters from around the world tell their stories. Steve Rosenberg visits Dagestan on the trail of the alleged Boston bombers, and finds that violence is part of everyday life there. Nick Thorpe watches an attempt to educate Hungarian police cadets away from prejudice against the Roma minority. It's a tough sell. The military's continuing grip on Egyptian society is explained by Shaimaa Khalil, who hails from an army family herself. In the Sioux country of South Dakota, Matt Wells investigates the contested legacy of the site of the battle of Wounded Knee. And Will Ross in Nigeria's Bayelsa State sees the glamorous movie stars at an endless awards ceremony, and also the militants getting rich off illicit oil money. Producer: Lucy Ash
Sat, 20 Apr 13
Duration:
28 mins
Correspondents' stories: why President Assad may now believe he's winning the argument; the garage man in Jordan recruiting young Islamists to go fight in Syria; why shackles are still being used to restrain some of the mentally ill in Indonesia -- even though officially they are banned; a truffle recipe's handed over at an army camp in Syria and exciting days in the northernmost reaches of Scandinavia as the annual reindeer migration approaches. From Our Own Correspondent is produced by Tony Grant.
Sat, 13 Apr 13
Duration:
28 mins
Colour and insight from reporters around the world: the man who'll find you a violin tree in the Jura Mountains; what's going to happen to the man who tends the roses in the Afghan town of Lashkar Gah? Culture clash in Bamako -- how some of the refugees from Mali's north are overstaying their welcome. Why the Mexican president's warning about vigilantes may not be heeded in the mountainous south-west and ominous signs as birds of prey gather in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
Sat, 6 Apr 13
Duration:
29 mins
How the direction of the wind saved Tokyo from possible radioactive contamination -- Rupert Wingfield Hayes examines the debate over re-starting Japan's nuclear power plants. Andrew Harding considers how Nelson Mandela's hospitalisation has caused South Africans to look again at their country's development in the years since apartheid. The police are said to deal drugs, the playgrounds are littered with syringes -- but Lucy Ash says not all optimism's been extinguished in Ukraine. David Chazan in France on a man who stole from a bank and has become something of a folk hero. And Nick Thorpe goes to Slovenia and Bulgaria to find out what's irking the middle classes and why in the open-air markets, the strawberries are not selling. From Our Own Correspondent is produced by Tony Grant
Wed, 3 Apr 13
Duration:
29 mins
Correspondents' despatches from around the world. In this edition: Thomas Fessy marches through Mali with the French Foreign Legion looking for insurgents; Jonathan Fryer's in the Angolan capital, Luanda, where people have much to look at but, in most cases, little money to spend. What's the point of the Swiss army? Imogen Foulkes says some there believe there's no further need for compulsory military service. Alan Johnston chronicles a sad, final day at a 'trotting' track in Italy which is closing down, another victim of the recession there. And the Germans may have a reputation for businesslike efficiency but Steve Evans in Berlin has been learning that they don't always get it right!
Sat, 23 Mar 13
Duration:
29 mins
Insight, colour and analysis from reporters around the world. Mark Lowen's in Cyprus where the banks remain closed and the people have been getting angrier. Shahzeb Jillani makes the decision to work as a correspondent in the troubled Pakistani city of Karachi - his family questions his judgement! Charlotte Pritchard takes a drive through the smuggler borderlands between Colombia and Venezuela. As politicians and community leaders in Yemen discuss the future, Daniel Owen's been to one town where the talk is mainly about fish. Justin Rowlatt's investigating the mining boom bringing riches to Mongolia - he meets one man he describes as Mongolia's most influential since Genghis Khan! Producer: Tony Grant
Thu, 21 Mar 13
Duration:
28 mins
How did Herb Jeffries become a black cowboy film star when he wasn't even black? Sarfraz Manzoor travels to Kansas in search of the answer. Mike Wooldridge is in Pakistan - an election date's been announced but will the new team of rulers tackle what some call an alarming rise in religious intolerance? Western Sahara is not much reported upon: Celeste Hicks goes there and tells a tale of secret police, comic book spies and wobbling octopus. Anthony Denselow travels to Uttar Pradesh in India to find out why so many widows make their way to the city of Vrindavan. And the Chinese have developed a thirst for fine wine. Jim Carey has been discovering that Australia's winemakers want a slice of this potentially huge new market. From Our Own Correspondent is produced by Tony Grant
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Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors including historian Lisa Jardine, novelist Sarah Dunant and writer Alain de Botton.
Fri, 17 May 13
9 minutes
Melvyn Bragg explores the history of the idea of culture, and its value today.
Fri, 4 Jan 13
41 minutes
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