Alan Griffin (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise in a spirit of bipartisanship to speak in support of the motion moved by the member for Ryan, and join in her expression of deep concern over the detention of Australian Peter Greste in Egypt. I would also like to join the member for Ryan in noting the work done by this government and the continued consular support offered to Mr Greste in seeking his release. I hope that all of the work done will, indeed, secure Mr Greste's freedom.

After six long months in detention and over 12 court hearings, Australian Peter Greste, along with his colleagues, will later today know of their fate when a verdict is handed down by an Egyptian court. Today I join with other members in suggesting that nothing but Greste's being released and returned home safely will be acceptable.

Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste was arrested on 29 December 2013 with his two colleagues Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed when their Cairo hotel room was raided. Egyptian prosecutors have demanded the maximum penalty—ranging from 15 to 25 years in jail—for all 20 defendants in the trial of Al Jazeera journalists accused of aiding the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood. The prosecution has charged the 16 Egyptian defendants with joining the Muslim Brotherhood, designated as a terrorist group. The four foreign defendants in the case, including Greste, are charged with spreading false news, collaborating and assisting the Egyptian defendants in their crimes by providing media material, editing it and publishing it on the internet at Al Jazeera. In light of the looming verdict to be handed down by the court at some point today, I join other members in calling for Greste and his colleagues to be released.

Peter Greste has had an amazing career in journalism which we can all be proud of. We all hope for his speedy release from detention into freedom so that he can continue the work that he has excelled in for so long. Greste launched his journalism career in regional Victoria before gaining further experience in Adelaide in Darwin. He left Australia in 1991 to pursue his dream of becoming a foreign correspondent, working as a freelancer for Reuters TV, CNN, WTN and the BBC.

Peter Greste has shown much courage in working in some of the world's most dangerous places to ensure the rest of the world can have insight into the hardship of some of the world's most vulnerable people. Greste worked for the BBC as Kabul correspondent in 1995, covering the emergence of the Taliban. After the 11 September attacks in 2001, he returned to Afghanistan to cover the war before continuing his work across the Middle East, Central Asia and Latin America. In 2004 Greste relocated to Mombasa in Kenya, where he worked as a freelance journalist and photographer.

On assignment for the BBC in 2005, Greste witnessed the death of his producer, Kate Peyton, who was shot in the back while they were both standing outside a hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

He returned to Somalia in 2011 to film a BBC documentary about life in the war ravaged nation, which won a prestigious Peabody Award. For the past nine years he has worked as a correspondent for Al Jazeera in Africa. As you have heard, he is an internationally renowned and respected journalist. The outpouring of support that has occurred on his behalf from respected media outlets throughout the world has been there for all to see.

There is no doubt that Egypt faces a number of challenges at the moment in terms of its move into democracy. And there is no doubt that those challenges are for the Egyptian people and the Egyptian authorities to deal with. There is also no doubt that respect for the rule of law in our dealings with countries other than our own is paramount. But, as other speakers have also mentioned, freedom of the press is an essential part of a society that is free. And freedom of the press produces, within itself, difficulties for the societies in which it is pursued.

There are plenty of times when I have criticised journalists in this country and, sometimes, overseas. There have been plenty of times when I have wondered about the way individual journalists and, sometimes, media organisations have undertaken their journalism. However, there is no doubt that the principles underlying freedom of the press are essential. And there is no doubt that trying to report the truth—and ensuring that it is widely reported—in environments such as those in the Middle East, is extremely difficult. I join with others in this chamber, in this community, within the government and throughout the world, to call on the Egyptian authorities to consider these issues with mercy and compassion and to ensure that journalists such as Peter Greste get a fair trial. I hope that Peter Greste and his colleagues will soon be released and I show great respect to their families for the suffering and pressure that they currently facing.

Debate adjourned.

See this speech in context