Secret phone calls from a Saudi jail

In a sprawling prison in the Asir province of Southwestern Saudi Arabia, hundreds of young Ethiopian men are currently sitting on death row, not knowing when their name might be called and to be told that it's their turn. In the hope of getting their voices heard some of the prisoners managed to get hold of the phone number for the BBC's Tigrinya language service. One of the journalists working for the service is Aklilu Tsegay and he tells us what it was like to speak to those prisoners, sometimes multiple times a day, when reporting on the story.

In India, July saw some of the biggest protests in the country for many years. The protesters were young people, particularly students, and they came together under an unusual symbol, the cockroach. They call themselves the Cockroach Janta Party or CJP, and they are demanding change to the education system in the country. Starting as an online joke a couple of months ago, the CJP is now one of India's most visible youth movements. Sumedha Paal reports for the BBC in India, and brings us the story.

The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more.

This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world.

Presented by Faranak Amidi.

Produced by Laura Thomas, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean.

(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)