07/08/2025
Calling all RATS.
Get your tickets for Wednesday the 10th of September. Peter Greste has agreed to attend the lunch once again after the failed March event this year due to cyclone Alfred.
Peter is a former career television news foreign correspondent (Reuters, BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera) who was accused of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and found guilty of “falsifying news and having a negative impact on overseas perceptions of the country” in 2014 by Egyptian authorities, who released him after 400 days of a seven-year sentence, on the proviso that Australia retry him (Australia understandably did not). An Egyptian court retried him in 2015 in absentia and sentenced him to another three years.
Peter can no longer work as a foreign correspondent (his chosen career).
Many countries would arrest or detain him upon arrival (a foreign correspondent needs to be able to travel unimpeded to, well, foreign shores).
The Correspondent, feature film was released in Jan/Feb. It stars veteran actor Richard Roxborough playing Peter Greste
Production of “The Correspondent” wrapped in Sydney, Australia after being directed by Kriv Stenders, who enjoyed major success in Australia with “Red Dog” and also directed hit “Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan.”
400 Days in jail for just doing your job in television journalism (and stints in solitary)
Peter is literally a television survivor.”
B. What was he accused of?
i. Giving support to the Muslum Brotherhood (at most this would have been a standard purchase of photographs for TV reports at the going rate. Bear in mind the Brotherhood had been in power only the year before, and was the political opposition at the time1)
ii. Lying (Peter literally recorded everything and asked unsuccessfully for them to point out anything he had recorded that was untrue)
iii. Broadcasting false news
”Peter saw his trial and conviction as an extreme example of the way journalism was being \ attacked in the War on Terror globally, and wrote about his experience in The First Casualty, He joined the University of Queensland as UNESCO Chair in Journalism and Communication in 2018 where he continues to campaign for the freedom of journalists.”
(LINK to Trailer for The Correspondent)
Australia does not have an explicit freedom of speech nor of press freedom in any constitutional or statutory declaration of rights.
“Journalists who hold power to account are increasingly making enemies of the powerful. From surveillance and coercion to physical violence and online abuse, the methods of extinguishing unwanted truth-telling have evolved. And lately, a new weapon has been added to this arsenal of tools: the law.” – World Economic Forum
This event will sell out fast due to the high interest in Peter and his story..
For late “unable to attend” the RATS committee have the ability to action a refund of the full transaction amount from the time the booking was taken provided the committee is advised of the cancel at least 1 day before the bookings cutoff date.
Get your bookings done early as the limit is 130.. it’s promising to be a great day. bookings close midnight Sunday the 31st of August.
Bookings:
Go to your invitation email advise
Best regards,
Garry Gibson OAM
Producer/ Director
Epix Entertainment
Mob: 0411 190 016
[email protected]
