UQ media freedom-fighter honoured

Internationally acclaimed journalist Peter Greste has been awarded an Australian Press Council Press Freedom Medal in Sydney today (Thursday 3 May). The World Press Freedom Day presentation recognises Professor Greste - The University of Queensland's UNESCO Chair in Journalism and Communication - for his major contribution to furthering the causes of free speech and freedom of the press. Professor Greste was one of two medal recipients, with International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) Director Gerard Ryle honoured for leading a collaborative investigative journalism network encompassing more than 200 journalists and 100 media organisations in 70 countries. Press Council Chair Neville Stevens said the selection committee agreed unanimously that the two recipients demonstrated all of the qualities the medals were meant to celebrate. "Peter's work as a courageous foreign correspondent is well-known, but his more recent work as a vocal press freedom advocate and communications scholar is less known - though no less laudable," Mr Stevens said. Professor Greste spent two decades reporting from the frontline in the world's most dangerous countries before making headlines following his own incarceration in an Egyptian prison. "The Press Council's selection committee felt that Peter's decision to use his high public profile—gained through the extreme hardships he himself endured as a prisoner in an Egyptian jail resulting from his own journalistic work—to become a defender of press freedom and the safety of journalists deserved to be recognised and rewarded.