John Pilger, Australian journalist and filmmaker, dies at 84
John Pilger, an Australia-born journalist and documentary filmmaker known for his coverage of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, has died, his family said overnight. He was 84.
A statement from his family, posted on X, formerly Twitter, said Pilger died over the weekend in London.
“His journalism and documentaries were celebrated around the world, but to his family he was simply the most amazing and loved dad, grandad and partner,” the statement said.
Pilger, who has been based in Britain since 1962, worked for Britain’s left-leaning Daily Mirror newspaper, broadcaster ITV’s investigative program World In Action and for the Reuters news agency.
He won an International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences award for his 1979 film Year Zero: The Silent Death Of Cambodia, which revealed the extent of the Khmer Rouge’s atrocities.
He followed that with a 1990 documentary titled Cambodia: The Betrayal, which examined international complicity in the Khmer Rouge remaining a threat.
He also won acclaim for a 1974 documentary looking into the campaign for compensation for children after concerns were raised about birth defects when expectant mothers took the drug Thalidomide.
Pilger was known for his opposition to American and British foreign policy, and he was also highly critical of Australia’s treatment of its Indigenous population.
In more recent years, he campaigned for the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has fought a lengthy battle against extradition to the United States.
Kevin Lygo, managing director of media and entertainment at ITV, described Pilger as “a giant of campaigning journalism” who offered viewers a level of analysis and opinion that was rare in mainstream television.
“He had a clear, distinctive editorial voice which he used to great effect throughout his distinguished filmmaking career. His documentaries were engaging, challenging and always very watchable,” Lygo said.
“He eschewed comfortable consensus and instead offered a radical, alternative approach on current affairs and a platform for dissenting voices over 50 years,” he added.
What a dreadful start to the new year!
John Pilger was one of the most important global journalists of the 20th Century.
His courage and dedication to holding the powerful to account is unequaled in the Western media.
He was one of the most important journalists to inspire me personally and his refusal to back down is the benchmark of what investigative journalists should aspire to.
His work to expose the West’s despicable role in creating the horror in Cambodia, his work to fight for Thalidomide compensation, his work against racism in Australia, his work at critiquing the madness of the West’s invasion of Iraq and the hypocrisy of Western Foreign Policy and his stand with Assange while others ran away mark him out as a unique voice, a voice we so desperately needed now as the geopolitics of 2024 explode.
We are a poorer planet without him on it.
RIP John – you did more for fearless journalism than the combined weight of most of the industry.
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Year Zero by John Pilgar is a good wacht. Makes you feel terrible but it’s great journalism. Pilgar was a bit young back in the 90s but you learn comprehensively what happened in Cambodia during the 70s,… https://youtu.be/wAM7smXmU2M?si=Xg469p9El_j6HbTp
Didn’t he also do a book about US links to Goff Whitlam’s departure? I think it was called ‘A Secret Country’ or something close to that. Also did an interesting Netflix documentary on the Pacific and China and the way China is being portrayed as the aggressor
“Pilgar was a bit young back in the 90s ”
Er… He was in his 50s. Even at seventy-five I don’t consider that a bit young.
Just watch the fucken documentary gonk and shush
“Just watch the fucken documentary gonk ”
Charming.
Sadly, since you recommend it I’ll likely give it a miss.
I have – and read most of his books. You’re still wrong, but now a fuckwit as well.
Fuck off
And yet there is absolute silence when it comes to Pilger’s reporting on Ukraine and China .He apparently was deemed to have “lost it”, no longer published by the Guardian, senility had apparently hit when his views about propaganda as it applied to the “threat” from China and the war in Ukraine were aired .
He maintained that he’d never experienced worse propaganda when it comes to these two conflicts .
https://braveneweurope.com/john-pilger-there-is-a-war-coming-shrouded-in-propaganda
https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/opinion/understanding-the-geopolitics-behind-the-war-in-ukraine/
Yes he clearly lost it later on becoming an apologist for totalitarianism. One rabbit hole too many.
Well respected and best remembered for (only) his early stuff.
dumkunt, kcc.
Rubbish, what Pilger came to realise is that the US led west is the most destructive force in the world, we are the bad guys and our corporate media has the role of hiding this and projecting anyone else as the bad guys.
But the mask has well and truly slipped as we are in the midst of two terrible events, both the fault of the west. Firstly the Ukraine situation was fomented with NATO expansion after promises not to, then the Maidan coup. Secondly Genocide of the Palestinians where the west is unbelievably supporting Israel! Even beyond these the mad US wants a fight with China and Iran.
The US led west are the baddies and Pilger was demonised for telling us that to our faces.
Don’t forget Pilger’s 2002 documentary , Palestine is Still the Issue
And it is still so true today!!
PALESTINE IS STILL THE ISSUE!!!!!
I thought that his works on East Timor and on Palestine were also worthy pieces of journalism. Sad to see that a truly brilliant journalist has gone.
Pilger was stunning one of the best – and there are only half a dozen of them in the entire world.
I read Heroes and was stunned by it.
I later read A Secret Country – great stuff, every Aussie should read it.
I heard him at a socialist conference in Melbourne.
We are much the poorer for his death. But his legacy will live on.
When I was working in parliament John Campbell phoned up and I said to him that I read somewhere that he was the president of the Pilger fan club, I said to him, no no that is not right, I wrote to Pilger in the eighties and he replied I am the president you must be the secretary, we had a good laugh about that.
Free Assange.
The lack of coverage and the lack of editorial support for a fellow journalist/publisher/whistleblower by the NZ main stream media is appalling.
The NZ Free Speech Union won’t even make a comment on journalistic freedom to support Assange, (why?).
Pilger was a brave man.
The collective works of John Pilger’s incisive reporting – faithfully, fearlessly speaking truth to power, stands in stark contrast to most of all else that claims to serve the public’s right to know, but which, in truth, has always served power before people. Vale John Pilger, but the fight goes on.
I thought he died about 5-6 years ago. Naturally, I was shocked to learn of this death.
“Just read.. read.. takes time.” Sad loss.
I hope someone with pluck will come along and pick up Pilger’s baton and challenge.
https://johnpilger.com/videos/one-british-family
It seems that the fight is bright in Australia! Now we should get behind Julian Assange who is approaching in February the test as to whether British steel can still measure up to its old slightly flexible standards. Now it is out of Europe Bye-Brexit and bowing to the USA can they say nay to the power of the new corporate pirates?
Generally a good voice for the unrepresented, but sad that he was duped by Putin towards the end. Same happened to Chomsky.
Legend by old world – holding power to account – media standards. Silenced in today’s – cheer leading for the powerful – media standards.
Legend.
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