She was one of the journalists expelled from Uganda by its president Idi Amin in 1972 during his deportation of Asians. The next year, Tweedie was shot at by planes as an Israeli soldier sheltered her under a tank in a minefield. She successfully smuggled photographs past Israel's strict censorship rules to "The Observer". Tweedie later worked in Beirut, and in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami, she lived amongst the guerrillas in East Timor and began a friendship with the country's future president Xanana Gusmão. Another commission saw her tour the United States with the journalist Alistair Cooke.