'Natural curiosity and a yearning for discovery and adventure led Peter Greste to a life reporting the headline news from around the world. But in 2013, he became headline news when Egyptian authorities arrested him and two Al Jazeera colleagues for news reporting that was “damaging to national security”. After an eventual retrial, Peter Greste was released and deported home to Australia.' (Introduction)
'Australian journalist Peter Greste, the former Al Jazeera correspondent who spent 400 days in an Egyptian prison, delivered the Sydney PEN Free Voices address at the 2018 Sydney Writers’ Festival. Mr Greste, who also worked as a foreign correspondent for Reuters, CNN and the BBC, predominantly in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa, joined the University of Queensland as Professor in Journalism and Communication since his release from prison and return to Australia.' (Introduction)
'Australian documentary filmmaker James Ricketson spent 15 months inside a Cambodian gaol after being arrested on charges of spying. Sentenced in August to six years in prison in a trial condemned by human rights activists, he was freed to return to Australia in late September after being granted a royal pardon. Fellow documentary maker Curtis Levy visited Ricketson in the notorious prison where the veteran filmmaker was held along with 30 other political prisoners.' (Introduction)
'Sydney academic Omid Tofighian writes about his role as translator of the book, No Friend but the Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison, by refugee Behrouz Boochani who has been incarcerated on Manus Island for five years.' (Introduction)
'Only 34 per cent of Indigenous Year 5 students in very remote areas are at or above national minimum reading standards, compared to 95 per cent for non-Indigenous students in major cities, according to the 2017 National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN).' (Introduction)
'Tom D.C. Roberts, winner of last year’s National Biography Award for Before Rupert: Keith Murdoch and the Birth of a Dynasty, delivered this year’s National Biography Award Lecture.' (Introduction)
