Peter Greste was born in Sydney and studied journalism at the Queensland University of Technology. His work as a foreign correspondent for Reuters, the BBC and Al Jazeera has taken him around the world, and he has lived in London, Belgrade, Africa, South America and Afghanistan. He was awarded a Peabody Award in 2011 for his documentary on Somalia, and the Australian Human Rights Medal in 2015 for his work as an advocate of a free press. In 2103 he was arrested in Cairo, along with his Al Jazeera colleagues, for reporting news that was ‘damaging to national security’. He was subsequently tried and convicted for seven years, but was released without explanation after 14 months in prison, an experience he and his family recounted in Freeing P
