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Mildura’s Middle East correspondent returns

Posted on November 4, 2011

FORMER Sunraysia journalist and 2011 Walkley Awards nominee Ben Knight will share his experiences working as a foreign correspondent in the war-torn Middle East at Mallee Family Care’s annual general meeting later this month.

Ben Knight

Ben, who started his career with ABC radio in Mildura before setting off to become one of Australia’s most respected journalists, spent almost four years reporting on the region.

Based in Jerusalem with his family, Ben has reported on some of the biggest stories in the world, in some of the most dangerous locations, often reporting from conflict zones.

They most recently included what has become known as the Arab Spring, in which there were a series of major conflicts.

He’s reported on the recent Libyan revolution and death of dictator Moammar Gaddafi, the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak earlier this year and the ongoing conflict along the Gaza strip among a plethora of bulletin-leading stories.

In a recent interview with the ABC, Ben provided a small insight into his life as a Middle East correspondent.

“One minute you’re eating lunch or mowing the law, or driving your kids to school, then four hours later you’re on your way to the airport, knowing you might not be home again for two or three weeks,” he said in an interview with Radio National host Elizabeth Jackson.

Ben also described the dangers and how he coped with them as a husband and father.

“In Libya, when the revolution was raging, I watched younger news photographers rushing ahead of us towards the frontline. They were clearly hungry for danger and adventure,” he told the ABC.

“And they found it. Some of them were shot, some of them were killed.
“At those times I found my boundary through a mixture of plain and simple fear, combined with thoughts of leaving my young children without a father, all for the sake of a better TV shot.”

Ben recently described his environment as “nearly four years of living without rules”, and is now embarking on the next phase of his career, with a move back to Australia.

His efforts reporting from the Middle East recently earned him nomination for this year’s prestigious Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism – the highest accolade in Australian journalism.

Ben was nominated for his story, ‘Tobruk celebrates freedom from Gaddafi.’

The awards will be presented on Sunday, November 27.

One of his first public appearances when he arrives back on Australian soil will be this month’s Mallee Family Care annual general meeting, on Wednesday, November 16, in Mildura’s La Trobe University theaterette.

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