Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Friday 20 October
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
What are the threats to press freedom in the West and around the world? How do real and anticipated acts of terrorism curtail freedom of speech? And how can we hold powerful people to account when journalists, and media institutions, are compromised? These are questions that matter to Peter Greste.
After 20 years as a distinguished foreign correspondent, covering conflicts in some of the most dangerous places on the planet, Greste became a household name in Australia in 2013. He and two Al Jazeera colleagues were charged with spreading ‘false news’ and accused of helping the banned Muslim Brotherhood. Greste spent 400 days in jail.
In his riveting and heavily researched new book, The First Casualty, Greste examines the issue of global press freedom in the volatile 21st Century. Drawing on his own experience of reporting, including his incarceration and trial in Egypt, Greste also looks at the nightmare of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, Australia’s own metadata laws and Trump’s campaign against journalists in the US.
At Kyneton Town Hall, Greste joins Rafael Epstein for a discussion of the changing nature, and challenges, of investigative journalism in the age of terrorism.
Presented in partnership with Macedon Ranges Shire Council.
Featuring
Peter Greste
Professor Peter Greste is an award-winning foreign correspondent who spent 25 years working for the BBC, Reuters and Al Jazeera in some of the world’s most volatile places. From Afghanistan to Latin American, Africa ...
Rafael Epstein
Rafael Epstein is a journalist who has worked in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Timor, Indonesia, Europe and the Middle East.
He has covered national elections in the UK and Australia, East Timor’s vote for independence in 1999, the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, the 2005 London bombings, and the arrest of several high profile war crimes suspects in the Balkans.
Rafael won a Walkley Award for his reporting on the links between police and Melbourne’s underworld wars. He won a second Walkley for his coverage of the Mohammed Hanif case, the Indian born doctor charged over his connections to the failed bombings in London in 2007.
He has also worked at the Investigative Unit at the Age, focusing on politics as well as Australia’s special forces and their role in Afghanistan. Rafael currently hosts the Drive program on 774 ABC Melbourne. His first book Prisoner X is published by Melbourne University Press in March 2014.