Peter Cave

Cave was an ABC Radio reporter in Beijing in June 1989. Cave had been there for about a month interviewing the students, intellectuals and labour activists and had filed reports on "two half-hearted attempts" by the military to disperse the demonstrators and had a room with a balcony overlooking Beijing's Tiananmen Square. He has later said: "Just about everyone else had decided it was over and packed up," when at "about one in the morning I got a phone call from a colleague who had seen them run over a couple of people. I pulled back the blinds and saw an armoured personnel carrier go up and over a barricade and kill two people on bikes." With gunfire in the background he reported on the Tiananmen Square massacre. Cave won two awards for his reporting: the best radio news report award and the currents affairs award. Cave was "commended for outstanding journalism under particularly difficult circumstances".[1][7][8][9]

Cave was the London-based European correspondent for the ABC when he reported from Berlin on the fall of the Berlin Wall. His coverage won him his third Walkley, this time for best news report.[10]

Cave was on assignment in Iraq for the ABC on the outskirts of Baghdad when he, his cameraman, Michael Cox, and the driver and translator, were ordered by armed masked men to approach their car: in the back seat was an American hostage, Thomas Hamill a civilian truck driver. "The only thing that saved us was the quick thinking of our fixer , who told them we were Russians so they'd use us for propaganda rather than as hostages."[1] Cave was allowed to speak to Hamill and the resulting report was an international exclusive; Michael Moore used some of the footage in Fahrenheit 9/11. Cave won two Walkley Awards for the story: one for the radio news report, another for his television news report .[11][12]

Walkley Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism[13]

Throughout his 40-year career as one of journalism’s top foreign correspondents, Peter Cave has been recognised as a leader not only by his Australian colleagues but by his peers around the world. A former ABC foreign affairs editor, Cave has reported on everything from military coups in Fiji to the Tiananmen Square massacre, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the disintegration of Yugoslavia, and wars in the Gulf and Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Cave is renowned for his highly crafted reports and quick mixing skills, often produced in difficult and dangerous locations. He is a master storyteller whose journalistic prowess earned him posts in Tokyo, Washington and London. Between 1989 and 2004 he made current affairs stories on ABC Radio truly distinctive, not just within the ABC, but in broadcast journalism in general. Along with his prodigious abilities as a journalist, colleagues speak of his integrity, his honesty and sensitivity. Cave has delivered many university lectures and helped develop countless young journalists int capable foreign correspondents through selfless sharing of his own experiences and insights. Cave has also been a pioneer in trauma counselling and peer support for journalists in a profession where the traditional coping mechanism was alcohol. His leadership qualities shine brightest through his compassion for his fellow journalists.