Peter Greste is a journalist, speaker, professor of journalist at Macquarie University and Executive Director of the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom (AJF).

He came to advocacy after a 30-year career as an award-winning foreign correspondent for some of the world’s leading broadcasters including the BBC and Al Jazeera. He worked across the Middle East, Latin America and Africa as a frontline reporter, but his career abruptly came to an end when he and two colleagues were arrested in Egypt on terrorism charges in 2013. They were eventually convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison. Under intense international pressure, the Egyptian government ordered his release after 400 days and as a result of the experience, he set up the AJF to become a campaigner for media freedom, particularly in Australia and the Asia Pacific region.

Peter has won numerous awards for his advocacy, including the Royal Television Society’s Judges Award, a Walkley Award for Outstanding Contribution to Journalism, The Australian Human Right’s Commission’s Human Rights Medal, and the RSL Peace Prize. His book, the First Casualty, was shortlisted for the Walkley Book Award, and is currently being made into a movie starring Richard Roxburgh.