Meet Oberon's Australia Day Ambassador Peter Greste

As a young freelance reporter, he covered the war in Yugoslavia in 1992/93, and South Africa’s first multi-party elections the following year. In 1995, the BBC and Reuters appointed him as their joint Kabul correspondent, covering the civil war and the emergence of the Taliban across Afghanistan for all the broadcaster’s radio and television outlets.

He moved back to Yugoslavia for Reuters in 1996 before returning to the UK to work on the launch of the BBC’s 24-hour domestic TV news service, News 24. Three years later, he returned to reporting from the field as the BBC’s Central America correspondent based in Mexico City.

In 2001, the BBC recalled him to Afghanistan to be part of the team covering the aftermath of 9/11 and the fall of the Taliban.

From there, he went to Kenya, working in eastern and southern Africa for the BBC.

Later in 2011, Peter left the BBC and joined Al Jazeera as its East Africa correspondent. He went to Cairo to cover the Christmas/new year period in 2013, and two weeks after he arrived, security agents burst into his hotel room and arrested him and his colleagues. He was charged with aiding a banned organisation – the Muslim Brotherhood; financing a banned organisation and broadcasting false news. The court convicted Peter and his colleagues and sentenced them to between seven and 10 years of hard labour.

While in prison, Peter began a masters degree in international relations with Griffith University. Later in 2015, he became an honorary doctor of the university, for his services to journalism.

In February 2015, Peter was deported on an order of the Egyptian president, though he was included in the subsequent retrial that began a month later. Peter and his colleagues were once again convicted in the retrial, though with their sentences reduced to three years. Their case has been widely condemned as an abuse of due process and their fundamental human rights. Peter continues to campaign for freedom of the press and to support other journalists in prison.

He was awarded a special Walkley Award in 2014 for services to journalism. In 2015, he won the Royal Television Society Judges Award, the International Association of Press Clubs’ Freedom of Speech Award, the Tribeca Disruptive Innovator’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Australian Human Rights Commission Medal. He won the RSL’s ANZAC Peace Prize in 2016.

Oberon’s Australia Day ceremony will start at the Showground Hall at 9am for breakfast. Official proceedings will start at 10am.