The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2011

Jill McGivering reports from Pakistan where calls for debate about the country's controversial blasphemy laws have been almost silenced by death threats and violence. The laws stipulate the death penalty if blasphemy is proven but critics say the laws are frequently being used to target innocent people. For Assignment Jill goes in search of the accused and their accusers.

On the 25th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl power plant, presenter Olga Betko travels to Chernobyl - in her native Ukraine - to find the people who are living in what is known as the "dead zone".

On the anniversary of the Smolensk air crash, writer and historian Adam Zamoyski examines how Polish politics and society have been affected by the events of 10 April 2010, a day on which Poland lost its President and 95 others, which included many talented public servants and dignitaries.

Anna Cavell tells the extraordinary story of a rescue of a group of Ugandan women who were trafficked into Iraq. They were told they would get decent jobs but instead found themselves working as slaves and subject to violence and even rape. They were saved by an unlikely pair of heroes – a Ugandan security guard and an American military officer.

Restrictions on commercial fishing in Europe were put in place to aid sustainability, but are they still appropriate? Charlotte Smith reports on the British perspective from the northen English town of Scarborough.

One year on from the Smolensk air crash, writer and historian Adam Zamoyski examines how Polish politics and society have been affected by loss of its President and other dignitaries.

A year ago, the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico creating a huge oil spill. In the aftermath, the BBC's Robyn Bresnahan spent a month in the American state of Louisiana with fishing families to see how they were affected. She found many communities on the brink, with fishermen fearing they would never fish again. One year on, she has returned to meet with some of the same families.

From the news coverage of the 1923 wedding of the future King George VI to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, to the moment Lady Diana Spencer stepped out of the glass coach, we look back to the glamour and gossip, the spectacle and romance of British Royal weddings.

In dense blocks of flats and social housing, just 10 minutes away from the Olympics Park, young people with nothing much else to do, are at risk of getting involved with gangs.

Assignment reports on the shocking sectarian violence in the Nigerian city of Jos. But Rob Walker finds one neighbourhood where Christians and Muslims have come together to prevent the violence. This programme contains graphic descriptions of violence.