Jill Jolliffe began her career as a journalist in 1975 covering the Indonesian takeover of Portuguese Timor for Reuters newsagency. Between 1978 and 1998 she was based in Portugal, freelancing for a range of media companies, including the Guardian, the Sunday Times, the Eastern Express, the BBC, the Age and The Christian Science Monitor. During this time she covered news, political and cultural events in Portugal, Spain, Angola, Mozambique, Western Sahara, Macau, China and south-east Asia. She returned to Australia in 1999 and travelled to East Timor to cover the withdrawal of Indonesian troops after a 24-year occupation. In 2006 she was named Journalist of the Year by Yale University’s Global magazine for her writing on justice and human rights issues. Jill Jolliffe continues to work as a journalist and is writing her autobiography as a PhD with Flinders University.