Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to talk about the importance of press freedom and welcome home Peter Greste, who was finally, and thankfully, released from the jails of the Egyptian government. After 400 days lost behind the bars of Tora Prison, Peter Greste is free. Last week I had hopes of being able to report as well that, after those 400 days, Peter's colleague Mohamed Fahmy would also be free to leave Egypt for Canada, having had to give up his Egyptian citizenship. But, with sadness for his family, Mohammed Fahmy has still not yet been freed.

As everyone in this place is no doubt aware, in June last year Peter was sentenced to seven years in prison on outrageous and politically motivated charges of defaming Egypt and aiding banned Islamists. Mohamed Fahmy was also sentenced to seven years jail, while Baher Mohamed was sentenced to 10 years, though their cases are set to be retried this week. The three were arrested over their coverage of the violent crackdown on Islamist protests following the military overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Egyptian authorities accused them of providing a platform for Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, now declared a terrorist organisation. I said in this place last year that the eyes of the world needed to be very much focused on Egypt and that the potential for the corruption of the high ideals of the Arab Spring needed to be monitored. Unfortunately, the rot has not eased. In fact, it has indeed set in.

In a democratic society, journalism is not a crime. Journalism is a necessity. These men are journalists. Their careers in journalism, careers they loved and of which they are understandably proud, may well have finished in the Egyptian sands. But I hope very much for his sake, for his family's sake, for Egypt's and its people's sake and for journalism's sake that Peter's career is not over.

Peter Greste has had a distinguished career as a journalist with CNN, Reuters, WTN, BBC and Al Jazeera. The long pre-trial incarceration, refusal of bail, procedural errors, extraordinary allegations and extremely severe sentences have been ridiculous and unjustified. The widespread international condemnation of the process was characterised by the comment of the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, that it was 'a chilling and draconian sentence'. This sums up the views around the globe.

A free press with freedom of expression and opinions is one of any country's most critical democratic rights and freedoms. In the UN General Assembly's first session in 1946, before any human rights declarations or treaties had been adopted, it adopted resolution 59(I), stating;

Freedom of information is a fundamental human right and … the touchstone of all the freedoms to which the United Nations is consecrated.

In this country, courageous journalism improves our democracy by enabling public participation in decision-making. Australian and global citizens cannot exercise their right to vote effectively, if they have that right, or take part in public decision making, if they have that opportunity, unless they have free access to information and ideas about difficult and challenging issues, as reported by journalists.

These invaluable freedoms of journalists to report, to comment and to speak, as we saw recently, were attacked viciously in Paris in January. The attacks related to Charlie Hebdo, a satirical, confronting magazine emerging out of the progressive and free-thinking mindset of the soixante-huitards, were attacks on this fundamental human right. They were attacks on ideas and on journalists who open up those ideas for us. The terrorists who launched their assault on the cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo may have thought that they were merely attacking a small, controversial paper, but in fact the consequences of their crime were much broader. The murder of the workers of Charlie Hebdo was an attempt to damage the rights and freedoms and the bonds of solidarity that lie at the base of French society and, beyond this, that underpin many of the world's multicultural democracies. All those who participate in and support free discussion across cultural differences and who appreciate the need to talk about the most difficult and offensive topics in an open way and reaffirm their belief in solidarity despite fundamentally different views of the world were drawn into this threat. But around the world we saw different religious, ethnic, social and cultural groups rise up and defend the principle by which our societies function. Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Hindu and other religious leaders all condemned the attacks and pledged themselves to stronger relationships and support.

I want to assure the press gallery in Australia too: I stand in solidarity with you as you come to terms with this brutal attack that happened in Paris this year. Whatever you do and however you do it, you will always have our support because, in the words of Peter Preston in The Guardian:

Press freedom knows no bounds and has no religion. Press freedom is your right to be informed, educated, entertained, stirred to laughter or action. Press freedom is every society’s safety valve.

…   …   …

… the fate and resilience of Charlie tells us something vital we were in danger of forgetting. Freedom isn’t always comforting. Freedom delivers horror as well as hope. But freedom—including press freedom—is something precious we instinctively hug close on one dire day, a day to remember. No buts. It matters.

It is a fact that totalitarian governments can never allow a free press. In 2014, Egypt was a world top 10 journalist jailer, imprisoning at least 12 reporters. Most of those were Egyptians like Mahmoud Abou Zeid, a 27-year-old freelance photographer who has been detained without charge since August 2013.

While, in name, Peter Greste was tried and convicted of the so-called 'crime' of helping to promote false news benefiting the Muslim Brotherhood, in reality he was tried and convicted of being a journalist. Along with his colleagues, Peter was arrested in late December 2013, two weeks into a routine assignment covering Egypt's political situation. The prosecution's most damning evidence against him included a documentary he had produced about Egyptian soccer, footage of sheep farming and photos of his parents on a European vacation.

According to the Egyptian foreign ministry, Egypt's judiciary:

… enjoys full independence, and the new constitution provides safeguards to ensure media freedom and to guarantee due process in judicial proceedings.

And yet, on the basis of evidence less conclusive and less relevant than images of Italian holidays and sheep eating grass, Egypt's 'fully independent' courts sentenced Peter and Mohamed to seven years in prison, while Baher received 10 years. In front of the world, this is as good as Egyptian due process gets. So the standards of due process afforded to those 22,000 untried Egyptians not in the global spotlight might be imagined—or perhaps better not.

I would like very much to recognise the extraordinary bravery and inspirational attitudes of Peter's family, particularly his parents Lois and Juris Greste. Again I applaud Tanya Plibersek, our shadow foreign affairs minister and Deputy Leader of the Opposition, for her early and unwavering support of Peter and the idea of a free press. She expressed brilliantly Labor's anger at Peter's treatment and how appalled we all were by his sentence, even though he has been deported. She made it absolutely clear, more than once, that Labor stood ready to assist the Abbott government to do everything it could to secure Peter's release, and talked about Labor's gratitude for the hard work of Australian diplomats on Peter's behalf.

Peter Greste is not a criminal; nor is Mohamed Fahmy or Baher Mohamed. They and their families are innocent victims of a terrible, frightening injustice. But Mohamed Fahmy is still not free; Baher Mohamed is still not free. They are at the front of Peter's thoughts. They must remain at the front of ours.