The Correspondent

The Correspondent by Australian journalist, Peter Greste, was originally published in 2017 with the title, The First Casualty. This revised edition was published to coincide with the film, The Correspondent, released in 2024. 

On 28 December 2013, Peter Greste and other journalists were arrested in Egypt on charges of being terrorists. He was finally freed from prison on 1 February 2015. Despite there being no evidence that the journalists had any connections to terrorist organisations and were just reporting on the political situation in Egypt, Greste spent 400 days in Egyptian prisons before he was allowed to return to Australia.

The book provides a graphic account of the challenges faced by journalists working in overseas countries, especially where there is political unrest. In alternate chapters the author describes his experiences of working in Afghanistan and the challenges journalists face in countries including Somalia and Syria. 

There is also a chapter on the deterioration of the the concept of Freedom of the Press in the USA. No doubt this chapter would be expanded if rewritten today considering the actions of the current American president in regard to the media. Another chapter examines changes that the author had noticed regarding the press in Australia.

As well as describing challenges facing journalists in reporting news events, especially overseas, The Correspondent provides a commentary on changes affecting how we think and live our lives in the twenty-first century.  

The Correspondent was the book selected for the Dervla McTiernan Book club that isn't a book club book for August 2025.