Peter Greste was no stranger to threats of violence and deportation. 

After all, much of his career as a foreign correspondent was spent investigating everything from drug trafficking to government corruption allegations while working in some of the most hostile regions to public interest journalism. 

But his 2013 arrest in Egypt still took him by surprise. 

“We knew that there was a lot of threat from the government, and we were very careful about our journalism and how we reported, scrupulous to be accurate,” he tells PIJI. 

“We didn’t think that the threat would include imprisonment. We thought that the most serious threat we would be facing would be expulsion.” 

A decade since Greste’s release, the safety of journalists working to fulfil their role as guardians of truth has deteriorated. 

The number of journalists and media workers imprisoned worldwide reached 516 in 2024, a 30 per cent increase on the previous year according to an International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) report. 

It was also a deadly year for the cohort, with IFJ reporting 122 were killed in the same period, close to the previous year’s toll of 128. 

IFJ, Asia-Pacific regional director Jane Worthington says increasing clampdowns on media freedom globally come from a rising number of autocratic regimes as democracy is “dismantled slowly, bit by bit”. 

China, Myanmar, Cambodia, India, Maldives, Mexico, Yemen, Bangladesh and Pakistan are among the countries on a long list that the IFJ is “extremely concerned about”, she says. 

“While there are no killings in places like Cambodia … independent media pretty much has been wiped out, so you’ve basically got a state-run media and propaganda machine that’s informing the public,” Worthington tells PIJI. 

“Hong Kong used to be a bastion of free media, but journalists have basically been pushed out of that country … as a result of the incursion of the state Chinese apparatus. 

“In the case of Gaza, local journalists are being targeted to silence them, and that’s a very clear strategy that has been happening … More journalists have now been killed in Gaza than any of the world wars combined and major conflicts of the last century. The situation in Gaza is beyond comprehension.” 

‘Farcical’ trial ruined career

Greste was among several journalists targeted under a 2013 Egyptian military crackdown bent on consolidating power and suppressing dissent following the overthrow of the country’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi. 

Just days after the former president’s affiliated group Muslim Brotherhood was designated a terrorist organisation, Greste and his Al Jazeera colleagues Baher Mohamed, Mohamed Fahmy and Mohamed Fawzy were arrested.  

Fawzy was soon released, but the rest remained in detention, charged and eventually found guilty of spreading false news and aiding terrorism after what Amnesty International labelled a ‘farcical’ trial that attacked freedom of speech and the press. 

“We felt it was editorially important to hear from the most potent political force in the country,” Greste says of the reporting leading up the arrest. 

“We were certainly very careful not to broadcast anything that would count as terrorist ideology; there no threats of violence, no calls for retribution, nothing like that.  

“I think the government came after us because they wanted to send a message to other journalists. They chose us because we were politically convenient, because we fitted a narrative.” 

Apart from occasionally being ‘knocked around’ by some guards, Greste says he was not tortured during his imprisonment. 

But conditions were still tough, and occasionally worsened; at one point, he spent two weeks in solitary confinement. Another period saw him spend 23 hours a day without anything to occupy the time, including reading or writing material, a punishment which presented “its own special challenges”.  

Greste endured 400 days in jail before being released following the enactment of a presidential decree allowing the deportation of foreign criminals. 

Now a free man in Australia, Greste’s criminal conviction still casts a shadow. 

“It ruined my career as a correspondent,” he says. 

“I am still a convicted terrorist, which makes it very difficult for me to travel without all sorts of paperwork.” 

“Two years ago, I was flying back from New York to Sydney via Auckland, and I got to check-in desk, and the check-in girl said, ‘Sorry, I can’t let you on the flight, the New Zealand immigration authorities have blocked you,’ and they’ve done it because I was flagged in their system as having a criminal record.” 

At the time of his conversation with PIJI, Greste is planning a trip to the US.  

He will arrive armed with the appropriate visa, a letter from Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd and a letter from the institution where Greste will be speaking. 

But he is still cautious about his chances of being granted entry, especially if immigration officers find his recent comments criticising the Trump administration. 

The release of this article was delayed to ensure it will not affect Greste’s travel plans. 

Protections are fragile 

Greste points out although freedom of speech is protected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution, it has not stopped US President Donald Trump trampling over press freedom.  

Trump has been brazen in his second term, suing news publishers, threatening to revoke broadcasting licences, blocking outlets from White House press briefings, and even threatening an Australian journalist. 

Greste says recent events reinforce journalists in Australia, which has no explicit protection for freedom of speech in its Constitution, should not be complacent. 

“It really pisses me off that I have to self-censor about this, particularly when it comes to talking about press freedom, the home of the First Amendment,” he says. 

“If the American experience tells us anything, is … that we have to make sure that we are constantly, robustly protecting press freedom.” 

Worthington agrees the strength of the Australian journalism sector is not something to be taken for granted. 

Need for alliances 

Worthington says some journalists, particularly those new to the industry, are finding current conditions too difficult and moving to other sectors where they will not be threatened and will receive higher pay.  Other “incredibly brave” journalists remain “to defend the public’s right to know”.  

In the 30 years she has worked in the industry, Worthington says she has seen news media go from being a “force of power” to “almost kneecapped” globally.  

She says alliances, both within the industry and across stakeholders like government and the broader public, are critical for the industry’s survival. Efforts cannot be “piecemeal”. 

“[Action has] got to go beyond the media industry, and there needs to be a movement toward a greater collective understanding and media literacy from the wider public on the vital importance of journalism holding societies together,” Worthington says. 

“[IFJ is] trying to push these national, regional and global dialogues about the need to sustain media into the future. 

“There needs to be whole of industry responses to sustaining a diverse range of media outlets … there needs to be really creative and innovative thinking and commitment by governments to support a sustainable media.” 

 Written by Sezen Bakan