John Platt
In the quiet Christmas period of 2013, Australian journalist Peter Greste travelled to Cairo, Egypt, where he would relieve a colleague on a short-term assignment. Soon afterwards, on 29 December 2013, he was arrested, thrown into an Egyptian jail and put on trial for suspected terrorist activity.
In June 2014, Peter and two of his colleagues from media organisation Al Jazeera were found guilty of spreading false news reports on behalf of a banned organisation.
Peter was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment, the verdict sending shock waves around the world. Peter Greste spent a harrowing 400 days in a Cairo prison – fighting for his freedom and for the truth. He was an innocent man who had become collateral damage in a political war.
His story is now being retold in The Correspondent with Richard Roxburgh in the lead role.
“I remember when the story first broke about Peter being arrested. I followed it quite closely; I assumed it would be over in a week,” Richard, 63, tells TV WEEK. “For that not to happen and for him to be imprisoned… And then, for it to turn out that there was no way to spring this person out [of jail] … I was gobsmacked.”
Peter, 59, has spoken of his plight many times since his release and deportation from Egypt in 2015, and has also written his own biographical novel. Regardless, it was “an act of faith” to hand over his story to the film’s producers.
“Nothing quite prepared me for sitting down in the cinema and watching it for the first time,” Peter explains. “They caught the essence of what it was to be in that concrete box and part of that insane trial. And to have all control taken away from you. It took me back in a way I hadn’t anticipated.”
When approached to portray the Walkley award-winning reporter, Richard says he was “slightly concerned” about taking on such a high-profile figure.
“I’ve played a few real-life characters who are in the public consciousness. To play someone you can’t invent from scratch means you have to take stock of them, as an actor,” the TV WEEK Logie Award winner explains. “I was concerned about that. But, in conversations, it became clear it wasn’t going to be about me trying to “become” Peter – we don’t really look alike – it’s about everything else. It was a lot of work, but worth it.”
From Peter’s conviction and fight, to the outcry of fellow journalists and the Australian government, The Correspondent isn’t just a gripping narrative of one man’s journey, but the story of how his entire life shifted – and has never been the same since.
“I became a foreign correspondent because I loved the adventure of it, the license to indulge my curiosity and, what a friend once called be on ‘the hinges of history’,” Peter says.
“I will always miss that, but I have to accept that being a convicted terrorist makes it difficult,” he laughs wryly. “There’s a cell waiting for me in Egypt if I ever wind up back there.
“But I’ve made a career out of my experience. I’ve told the story countless times and written the book. In a way, I’ve weaponised it. They tried to shut me up and take away my voice; so, any time that I have an audience, it’s kind of saying, ‘screw you’ to the Egyptian authorities. They’ve given me a platform I would never have had.”
A searing comment on the assault on journalism and press freedom, Peter hopes The Correspondent will give insight into the impact of his harrowing experience, but he affirms he doesn’t want it to become “a lecture”.
“I hope it provokes conversation,” he says. “But it’s also just a gripping drama and a damn good film.”
The Correspondent releases in cinemas on April 17, 2025.
