Journalist's family condemns jail term

ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION

The parents of Australian journalist Peter Greste, one of the Al Jazeera journalists jailed for seven years each by an Egyptian judge, have called the verdict an attack on free speech everywhere that has left them "shattered".

The three journalists all denied charges of working with the now banned Muslim Brotherhood and reporting false news.

They have been held at Egypt's notorious Tora Prison for six months, with the case becoming a rallying point for rights groups and news organisations around the world.

"This is a very dark time not only for our family but for journalism generally. We are devastated, shocked and dismayed at this finding. We are not usually a family of superlatives but I have to say this morning my vocabulary fails to convey just how shattered we are," his father, Juris Greste, told a news conference in Brisbane on Tuesday (June, 24).

Greste was sentenced along with Canadian-Egyptian national Mohamed Fah