The Correspondent

by Peter Greste

In a world where the first casualty of war is truth, journalists are increasingly at risk of becoming part of the battlefield. Peter Greste's career as a foreign correspondent has taken him to some of the most serious conflicts, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. Reporting from the frontline in some of the world's most dangerous countries was part of his job. But when he was charged with threatening national security and incarcerated in an Egyptian prison in 2014, he found himself in the middle of a fight – not just for his own release, but for press freedom around the world. On foreign soil and facing a sham trial, Greste endured solitary confinement and detention for 400 days.Based on extensive interviews and research, Greste's gripping story was originally published as The First Casualty. Retitled to tie in with the major new film, The Correspondent, this updated edition provides a first-hand insight into the challenges facing Western media in the face of terrorism – from Trump' s phony war on ‘ fake news' and the repression of Putin' s Russia, to the war zones in Ukraine and Gaza.

400 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2025

About the author

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 Peter.

Reviews

[Susannah PK · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found Greste's emotionally stressful retelling of his arrest, imprisonment and subsequent release from an Egyptian jail quite interesting.
It was equal parts anxiety inducing and bewildering following the chaotic and complicated Egyptian legal process and I feel deeply for Peter Greste and his traumatic story.

It should be noted that Greste, being an Al Jazeera journalist at the time (and knowing what I know about AJ media and Qatar etc) imprisonment was unlawful and not based on reality or accuracy, however it was interesting for me to see his own blind spot in how Al Jazeera presents their media in this day and age, through an arguably biased lense.

[Jan Mawdesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewed by Nan van Dissel for Bluewolf Reviews and University of Queensland Publishing

Renowned, award-winning Latvian-Australian journalist Peter Greste made world headline news, when on 28th December 2013, he began his 400 days of incarceration in Egyptian jails. His latest memoir “The Correspondent” although updating his earlier memoir “The First Casualty” (2017), still maintains the central theme of media freedom. “The Correspondent” not only gives the reader an insight into his 400-day ordeal, but also into the world-wide erosion of freedom of the press and the legislation passed by seeming democratic countries to inhibit an independent press the right to speak and to criticise.
Peter Greste, celebrated war correspondent, after accepting a last-minute posting in Cairo during the Arab Spring, was arrested and faced preposterous allegations of terrorism; he became a pawn in a bureaucratic system in which the concept of guilt had little to do with justice. Many journalists felt that his imprisonment was more about intimidating every other journalist working in Egypt.
This powerful narrative is both engaging and concerning. While describing how in the claustrophobic confines of the prison (often in solitary confinement), he retained his sanity, built relationships with fellow prisoners and fought for his freedom, he also warns that his experience may discourage other reporters from seeking and reporting the truth .
Interspersed with his survival story, the author relates his front-line experiences in some of the world’s most volatile places. This updated edition provides a first-hand insight into the challenges, in the face of terrorism, confronting Western media, since 9/11 and how this catastrophic event was the catalyst for tough government responses; how the new legislation used national security to prevent the press asking challenging questions to hold governments to account and to perform its core function in a democracy. He worries that the media will lose its moral and ethical compass.
Throughout the book, the author’s passion to continue to overturn the convictions of the many journalists around the world in prison for just doing their job is very evident.

Reviewed by Nan van Dissel for Bluewolf Reviews and University of Queensland Publishing

[Great Escape Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our Review...

Eminently readable, The Correspondent offers an illuminating insight into the daily lives of foreign journalists on the ground.

Before Egypt, despite its country’s now fearsome reputation, Peter regarded his time with the warlords in 1990’s Afghanistan with relative fondness and affection.

The Correspondent is structured so we have a ringside seat as we slide backward and forward between Peter’s frontline time in the mountains of the Hindu Kush, to a maximum security Egyptian Prison, and his tragic time in Somalia – his BBC producer Kate Peyton was killed by a sniper.

Originally written as Freeing Peter, The Correspondent has been updated to tie in with the new movie of the same name and also includes a 2025 postscript chapter centred around the conflict in Gaza and the increasing relevance of objective journalism.

This month alone (May 2025), the International Federation of Journalists said at least 171 journalists and media workers have been killed in the current war in Palestine. Source:https://www.ifj.org/war-in-gaza

The Correspondent is written both with humanity and with a keen cultural insight into the nuances of the tragic situations faced by so many communities around the world. I found it fascinating reading.

Review by Nicole @ Great Escape Books

[Iain Wright · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not worth reading, it appears that no one edited the manuscript. The fact that Peter was sent to prison is of course horrific and the opinion that free press is under threat around the world is a dangerous situation for humanity. However this reads like it was not edited, it uses irritating useless language like “Utterly powerless”. A person cannot be more powerless than powerless, that is one small example of bad writing. The small sections that are written in a journalistic style read well and are informative but even then they often bleed into being badly written. The entire sections in prison are awful reading. Often the timelines are confused and there is mention of facts in the story that there is no way he could have had knowledge of at the time, like contents of videos. I am not a writer but I can see where as an editor I would have sent it back and said, this does not make sense, is long-winded and feels like two books loosely bolted together with some attempts at making sense of it all. The irony, my comments here are long-winded!

[Norrie Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Greste and two al Jazeera colleagues were imprisoned for more than a year on fabricated terrorist charges, before public pressure and diplomacy finally saw him released. His colleagues were later pardoned, but he remains a convicted criminal under Egyptian law. This book is a second edition, to coincide with the release of a feature film.
Reading this book reinforces my impression that Peter Greste is a man of courage and of principle. He provides strong evidence that objective journalism is increasingly seen as bias by many regimes around the world. When journalists fear to report all sides of a story, propaganda is the result.
See the full review at: https://www.queenslandreviewerscollec...

[Caren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was as much a gripping, personal account of journalist Peter Greste’s 400-day detention in an Egyptian prison as it was his committed defence of investigative journalism, of the free Western press “in the face of terrorism.” His commitment to a free press around the world was at the centre of his fight for truth in a sham trial that accused him of threatening national security. Not an easy or comfortable read, Greste’s story provided extensive detail of the many incidents of countries which had controlled the news provided to their audiences – not surprisingly, including supposedly “free” countries of the Western media.

[Pip · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great read - so relevant.

[Bill Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Agonizing, alarming, urgently noteworthy

[Jane Weichert · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was an interesting book to read about the authors arrest and imprisonment. But I also learned so much about the responsibility of the press .