PublishedViking, October 2017 |
ISBN9780670079261 |
FormatSoftcover, 368 pages |
Dimensions23.4cm × 15.4cm × 2.6cm |
Extremely timely, enlightening and passionate, The First Casualty is foreign correspondent Peter Greste's first-hand account of how the war on journalism has spread from the battlefields of the Middle East to the governments of the West
In a world where the first casualty of war is truth, journalism has become the new battleground.
Peter Greste spent two decades reporting from the front line in the world's most dangerous countries before making headlines himself following his own incarceration in an Egyptian prison. Charged with threatening national security, and enduring a sham trial, solitary confinement and detention for 400 days, Greste himself became a victim of the new global war on journalism.
Wars have always been about propaganda but today's battles are increasingly between ideas, and the media has become part of the battlefield. Extremists have staked a place in news dissemination with online postings, and journalists have moved from being witnesses to the struggle to a means by which the war is waged - which makes them a target. Having covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, as well as having spent time in prison in Egypt, Greste is extremely well placed to describe in vivid detail what effect this has on the nature of reporting and the mind of the reporter.
Based on extensive interviews and research, Greste shows how this war on journalism has spread to the West, not just in the murders at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo or the repressions of Putin's Russia, but Australia's metadata laws and Trump's phony war on 'fake news'.
In this courageous, compelling, vital account Greste unpicks the extent to which modern investigative journalism is under threat, and the fraught quest - and desperate need - for truth in the age of terrorism.
Bill is one of the founders of Boffins and has been involved in selecting the books we stock since our beginning in 1989. His favourite reading is history, with psychology, current affairs, and business books coming close behind. His hobbies are reading, food, reading, drinking, reading, and sleeping.
We all remember Peter Greste’s incarceration in Egypt, his sham trial for “threatening national security:, and his 400 days of solitary confinement and detention in an Egyptian gaol. This book is more than just an account of his horrifying experience. He’s been reporting for two decades from the front lines of conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. He asserts in this book that the media has become part of the battlefield; journalists have moved from being witnesses of war to a means by which war is waged. From the murders at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, to Trump’s phony war on “fake news” and Australia’s metadata laws, he tells the effect this is all having on the nature or reporting and the mind of the reporter – and of yow modern journalism and truth are under threat.
