Foreign Correspondent: June 24

Foreign Correspondent‘s Hayden Cooper tonight presents a timely story on the ordeal of Peter Greste, with access to his family and key players.

International reporting can sometimes be about being in the right place at the wrong time. A time when a fascinating foreign location can be a very dangerous place, life and death can be determined by centimetres and freedom can be snatched arbitrarily.

Peter Greste knows this all too well. In Somalia, a colleague standing right beside Greste was shot and killed. Later, in Egypt, Greste and two colleagues from news operation Al Jazeera found themselves targeted by forces trying to reassert their authority in the restless nation. They had declared one side of the story in Egypt not just out of bounds but a crime and, despite an absence of evidence, accused the Al Jazeera trio of spreading false news and helping terrorists.

With access to family and key players in the saga, this is a special Foreign Correspondent report.

What began as the so-called Arab Spring continues to spark change and upheaval across the Middle East and North Africa, generating some of the most defining and dominant international stories of recent years.

Among them, Egypt’s wildly see-sawing political struggles.

In the space of a few years the people-power of Tahrir Square saw off a tyrannical strongman, ushered in a moment of theoretical democracy, gave rise to a so-called saviour then, dramatically, it all tipped the other way. New president Mohamed Morsi soon provoked another wave of outrage against Egypt’s leadership and the force behind him – the once powerful Moslem Brotherhood. The army stepped in, Morsi was ejected, arrested and jailed while the Moslem Brotherhood was declared a terrorist organisation.

As the maelstrom swirled, an experienced foreign correspondent named Peter Greste arrived in Cairo and with his colleagues from Al Jazeera English – local bureau chief Mohamed Fahmy and producer Baher Mohammed – did what their audience and their job demanded and set about covering the story.

Peter Greste had been in Egypt for a fortnight when suddenly he and his AJ colleagues were being interrogated and video-taped in their hotel room. They were arrested and charged with spreading false news and consorting with terrorists.

The trio were jailed and for six months dishevelled court hearings heard scant evidence, pleas for release were countered with calls for 15 year jail terms and #FreeAJStaff became a global cause of social media and at the highest levels of western governments.

“We have lost our lives this past six months. The whole family has. We’ve all concentrated on getting Peter out and resolving this whole thing. We’ve had to put our lives aside.” – Lois Greste, Peter Greste’s mother

Middle East correspondent Hayden Cooper has been there from the beginning. In this comprehensive analysis of the plight of Greste and his colleagues, Foreign Correspondent has gained access to key family members who have been fighting to highlight the cause and the injustice of the jailings and key players in the wider story of a battle between Egyptian authorities and the powerful broadcaster Al Jazeera.

8pm on Tuesdays on ABC1.