Like many Dateline video journalists, John Martinkus reports from war zones.

Last year, he returned to Iraq for the first time since his kidnapping there in 2004. Embedded with American troops, his story illustrated just how hard their task to keep the peace and rebuild the country has become (Iraq's Death Valley). John also made another trip to Afghanistan, following Australian troops in their efforts to win the hearts and minds of the people (Tackling the Taliban).

John first came to Dateline in mid 2004 and since then he's reported extensively on Australia's involvement in Afghanistan, becoming the only Australian journalist to travel freely through the dangerous southern province of Uruzgan, rather than being embedded with troops. In 2005, he and colleague Stephen Dupont broke the story of American soldiers engaging in psychological warfare by burning the bodies of Taliban fighters. Their work was highly commended by Walkley Award judges.

Like all Dateline correspondents, John's work is often dangerous. He's visited Iraq on several occasions and in October 2004 he was abducted by Sunni insurgents and held for 24 hours. Another story that resulted from that trip, Inside Sadr City, received a Walkley nomination.

Born in Adelaide in 1969, John studied politics and international relations at Melbourne's La Trobe University. In 1994 he began regular visits to East Timor, filing stories for newspapers in Australia and New Zealand.

From 1998 - 2000 John lived in East Timor, reporting for Associated Press, Australian Associated Press, Fairfax and The Bulletin. During this time he covered the nation's bid for independence and the bloody conflict that resulted. He wrote A Dirty Little War (Random House 2001) which was short-listed for the New South Wales Premier Awards and he was nominated for a Walkley award for his coverage of the violence.

In 2002 John spent time in West Papua and Papua New Guinea, resulting in the publication of Paradise Betrayed: West Papua's struggle for Independence (Black Inc 2002).

In 2004 he wrote Indonesia's Secret War in Aceh (Random House 2004) which provides an unprecedented and comprehensive account of the conflict as the Indonesian military sought to hide it from the outside world.

Also that same year John spent time working in Iraq for Dateline and gathering material for his book Travels in American Iraq (Black Inc 2004).

For further information please contact SBS publicist Christine Heard on 02 9430 3794 or christine.heard@sbs.com.au