In the end, Peter Greste became an irritant for the Egyptian government
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Version 0 of 1. Everything started to change in the 1990s, during the Balkans war. Journalists became targets. It was the first time I know of where it became routine to drive in what were called hard-shelled vehicles. People started throwing around this jargon: “You’re mad if you drive a soft-shell!”, meaning an ordinary car. Everyone was hiring armoured land rovers and bodyguards, wearing flak jackets and blue helmets with “Press” written on top and their blood group on the back. Snipers and other fighters started to treat journalists as legitimate targets. They didn’t want evidence of what they were doing to be sent to the outside world, of their raping and pillaging, and they saw the media as a threat. I had knocked around for many years before that – sometimes in dangerous situations – but usually if you got into trouble it was because you were too close to the front line, with troops who had taken you too far: you were at risk of being caught in shellfire or in the attack of a helicopter gunship. But the idea that you were a target because you were a journalist, that was new to the 1990s. It’s not just armies now, but also governments, who think the way they should behave is to control journalists. You only have to look at the statistics to see it’s a dangerous trend that I can’t see reversing any time soon. Nonetheless, we must fight it, and in Peter Greste’s case we did – and we won. Peter is a friend. I came to know and respect him very much during the time he spent with me at the ABC’s PM programme. He’s a genuinely fantastic journalist – a really straight, honest, decent journalist and very, very brave. His actions in Afghanistan and Somalia in particular were the measures of a really tough foreign correspondent and somebody of great integrity. After he was accused, along with his colleagues Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, of colluding with the Muslim Brotherhood, many asked whether there was anything in it. Because of the knowledge and respect I had for his work, I knew without doubt from the very beginning that this was a trumped up case. Essentially, Peter was not being punished for the deeds of the network he worked for – Al-Jazeera English, many of whose staff are Australian, American and British journalists with strong editorial standards – but to a large extent for those of Al-Jazeera Egypt (since closed) and perhaps Al-Jazeera Arabic. He was also a pawn in the game between Qatar and Egypt; a function of the fact that Qatar appeared to be backing the Muslim brotherhood and Egypt was prepared to strike wherever the Achilles heel could be found. That happened to be the three journalists. But Peter’s imprisonment was far more trouble than it was worth, in the end. It became a running sore, a burr under the saddle of the Egyptian government. It was an irritant, and the imprisonment of Baher and Mohamad will continue to be an irritant, because I’m certain that Peter will become the biggest ambassador for their release. We won’t know until the post-mortems what actually swung it, but to me it was a combination of diplomacy, and hard Middle East realpolitik – almost certainly some influence from Saudi Arabia on the Qataris and the Egyptians. The Australian embassy and Dfat also excelled at providing access for the family, and by exercising pressure in different ways where they could. The social media campaign was also important: back in the beginning of 2014 nobody really knew who he was. Certainly nobody knew who his family were. I reached out a hand to his parents because – and this is not to criticise them – they were floundering, after being hurled into the foreign world of the media. They needed to know there was somebody who would not finagle or doorstep them. It has been a privilege to get to know them, and I have come to believe that the courage of the family themselves has been a central factor in Peter’s release. There’s been no one to touch them; you couldn’t wish for better than Juris and Lois, and his brothers Andrew and Michael. They’ve behaved with such dignity and intelligence, and while they could easily have been forgiven for venting more emotion than they have, were never hysterical. Instead they argued on the facts and logic, and on the justice of the case. Peter’s case raises hard questions, not least of all about the safety of foreign correspondents in the Middle East, which is becoming a terrifying place to work. Most big media organisations are aware of the risks, but freelance journalists and stringers, some young and inexperienced, are treated as foreign spies by Isis and other organisations. You can be kidnapped from the Syrian border, be traded from group to group, held hostage. If you end up with the wrong people you could end up on a YouTube video being publicly beheaded – the ultimate obscenity. If you’re really hungry and think you can get a scoop to sell to the New York Times, or CBS, and you’re young and foolhardy enough, you may well ignore all that stuff. That’s different from the kind of bravery Peter exhibited; luckily there are organisations emerging to support freelancers. Now that Peter is on the way home his family are absolutely over the moon. I spoke to them them this afternoon, and they were just overjoyed. Andy, who has been so tense in his appearances on television, seems more relaxed already. A small smile was playing around his face. It was a joy to watch. |