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So, what are you doing for New Year's Eve?

I’m heading out to a party but I’m also thinking about a journalist whose courage and fearless reporting of South Africa’s evil apartheid regime helped change history and had a formative impact on my journalism.

30 years ago tonight crusading editor, Donald Woods, made a daring escape from South Africa after being banned from writing, speaking publicly and moving freely. Woods' banning followed his campaigning journalism in the wake of the brutal murder of his friend, the Black Consciousness leader, Steve Biko.

Assuming the identity of a Catholic priest, he fled across the border into the kingdom of Lesotho. He used the cover of New Year’s Eve frivolity to avoid detection and his escape was aided by the Australian diplomat, Bruce Haigh.

In his grasp was a manuscript about Biko's murder, secretly penned during his banning. It included post-mortem photos indicating Biko had been beaten to death while in custody. Woods lived in exile in the UK where he continued to write and campaign against apartheid. His activism and pursuit of Steve Biko's killers helped mobilise international opposition to apartheid.

Woods' courage and his story (which was turned into the excellent film, 'Cry Freedom') inspired my journalism and my belief that journalists can't always be simply bystanders to history.

So, when I raise my glass tonight, I'll think of Donald Woods and draw inspiration from his story as I contemplate the year ahead.

On a lighter note, I’ll also toast the bravado of the Sri Lankan journalists who last week detained a government minister after he stormed their TV station, angry about the newsroom’s decision not to cover one of his speeches.

According to the BBC, angry journalists at Rupavahini TV locked up the Labour Minister, Mervyn Silva, after one of his aides allegedly assaulted the News Director.

They shut him in an office, telling him he would not be released until he apologised for the assault. Mr Silva was splattered with red paint before he was eventually “rescued” by commandos.

Let this be a lesson to all Governments who believe journalists should be propagandists and public broadcasters should be servants of the 'state'. And to doctors of spin: beware the journalists' revenge!

Finally, I'll laugh heartily at the irony of the claim from Australia's shadow Justice Spokesman Christopher Pyne that the Federal Government is engaging in the suppression of free speech in the David Hicks case. In the aftermath of Hicks' release from prison at the weekend, Pyne accused the AFP of spiriting Hicks out of the limelight when the prison doors opened, denying journalists their right to pursue the story. "The last time I looked, there was a free press in this country and there shouldn't be a government action taken to prevent the media doing their job" he told The Australian.

Too funny, Chris! Wasn't it your Coalition Government that ensured Hicks was locked up for five years without trial in Guantanamo Bay and which supported an unenforceable gag order imposed by the US specifically banning him from speaking to the media? But you want us to take you seriously when you say the new Labor Government, in cahoots with the AFP, is undermining freedom of speech and the independence of the media? Thanks, I needed a good belly laugh and that little gag will keep me chuckling all the way into 2008.

UPDATE: The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has revealed 2007 was a deadly year for reporters with 171 killed in the course of their work.

134 of the dead journalists were murdered or killed violently with one third of all the deaths occurring in Iraq.

Raise your glass for them too and toast the much maligned profession which at its heart sees workers risking their lives on a daily basis to bring us the news others would prefer we didn't hear.    [read more]