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| WELCOME TO THE WORLD'S FIRST MURDOCHRACY |
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| In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger goes back to Australia, where Rupert Murdoch launched his worldwide media empire, and describes how his and Murdoch's homeland has become a murdochracy - a country where important media, issues and perception are influenced if not dominated by Murdochism: "an inspiration to his choir on seven continents". |
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| WHY THE OSCARS ARE A CON |
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| John Pilger asks why directors and writers allow Hollywood formula propaganda to dominate the movies, with a hot contender for Oscars airbrushing a million dead Iraqis, and Clint Eastwood dispatching the truth of the struggle against apartheid while George Clooney amuses himself with the same old stereotypes. |
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| THE KIDNAPPING OF HAITI |
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| John Pilger describes the "swift and crude" appropriation of earthquake-ravaged Haiti by the militarised Obama administration. With George W. Bush attending to the "relief effort" and Bill Clinton the UN's man, The Comedians, Graham Greene's dark novel about exploted Haiti comes to mind. |
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| WELCOME TO ORWELL'S WORLD 2010 |
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| John Pilger draws on George Orwell's prophetic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four to describe a superstate where truth and lies are indivisible, and peace is no longer peace, but rather a permanent war that, in the words of President Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, "extends well beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan". |
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| NORMALISING THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY |
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| John Pilger describes the lonely death of an honourable man, a whistleblower, as striking contrast to those British politicians and officials now running for cover from the part they played in the invasion of Iraq, the crime of the 21st century. |
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| THIRTY YEARS ON, THE HOLOCAUST IN CAMBODIA AND ITS AFTERMATH IS REMEMBERED |
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| In a report for the London Daily Mirror, John Pilger recalls the stricken society he found in Cambodia in 1979 which he described in his epic dispatches and documentary, Year Zero: the Silent Death of Cambodia. He reminds us that the Pol Pot horror emerged from the bombing ordered by Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, and that Cambodia was again "punished" when its liberators came from the wrong side of the cold war and the Thatcher government sent special forces to train the Khmer Rouge in exile. |
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| A POSTAL STRIKE IN BRITAIN IS THE WAR AT HOME |
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| John Pilger argues that the strike by British postal workers for the right to work with dignity, consultation and security has wider significance for all touched by the political regression that imposes high rates of poverty and gross wealth for an opulent minorty represented by "rescued banks" now celebrating record bonuses. |
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| WAR IS PEACE. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH |
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John Pilger draws on George Orwell's inspiration to describe the Call of Obama: "attractive to liberal sensibilities, if not to the Afghan children he kills". |
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| THE LYING GAME: HOW WE ARE PREPARED FOR ANOTHER WAR OF AGGRESSION |
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| John Pilger compares the current drum-beating for war against Iran, based on a fake "nuclear threat", with the manufacture of a sense of false crisis that led to invasion of Iraq and the deaths of 1.3 million people. |
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| LOCKERBIE: MEGRAHI WAS FRAMED |
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| John Pilger describes the suppression of facts behind the furore over the "compassionate" release of the so-called Lockerbie bomber, Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi. He writes that Megrahi was "in effect blackmailed by the governments of Scotland and England" so that it would not be revealed in his appeal that he had been framed for a crime he did not commit. |
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| COVER-UP: A FILM'S TRAVESTY OF OMISSIONS |
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| John Pilger recalls his undercover reporting from East Timor and reveals that a major new movie, Balibo, perpetuates the cover-up of the role played western governments in the genocial invasion of East Timor by Indonesia and the Australian government's part in the murder of its own journalists. |
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| BOOKS THAT COUNTER OUR "TRAINING" TO MAKE WAR |
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| John Pilger asks his readers to set aside the usual summer holiday reading lists and reach for books that help us make sense of extraordinary times and to resist our "training" to make war. |
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| MOURN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY |
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| In an essay for the New Statesman, John Pilger argues that while liberals now celebrate America's return to its "moral ideals", they are silent on a venerable taboo. This is the true role of Americanism: an ideology distinguished by its myths and the denial that it exists. President Obama is its embodiment. |
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| SMILE ON THE FACE OF THE TIGER |
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| John Pilger decodes the "historic" speech President Obama made in Cairo "reaching out to the Muslim world", according to the BBC: in reality showing the seductive face of American power as it proceeds towards its unchanged goal. |
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| BRITAIN: THE DEPTH OF CORRUPTION |
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| John Pilger describes how the current scandal of MPs' tax evasion and phantom mortgages conceals a deeper corruption that is traced back to the political monoculture of the United States. |
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| 'THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY' WINS BEST DOC AT THE 2008 ONE WORLD AWARDS |
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'The War on Democracy', directed by John Pilger & Chris Martin, has won Best Documentary at the prestigious One World Media Awards in London.
It beat a field that included the documentary Oscar winner, 'Taxi to the Dark Side'.
The citation read: "There are six criteria the judges are asked to use to select the winner of this award: the film's impact on public opinion, its appeal to a wide audience, its inclusion of voices from the developing world, its high journalistic or production standards, its success in conveying the impact of the actions of the world's rich on the lives of the poor and the extent to which it draws attention to possible solutions. One film met every one of these. It was the winner of the award: John Pilger's 'The War on Democracy'."
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| 'HEROES, THE FILMS OF JOHN PILGER 1970-2007' RELEASED IN ONE BOX SET |
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'Heroes, The Films of John Pilger 1970-2007' is the first definitive collection of ground-breaking films from John Pilger’s career.
Containing all of John Pilger's documentaries from the last four decades, the 16-disc DVD set also includes, for the first time, 'The Outsiders', Pilger’s Channel 4 series of interviews from the 1980s, as well as the award-winning cinema film 'The War on Democracy' and an updated edition of Anthony Hayward’s filmography of Pilger’s work.
A second new John Pilger DVD is also released. 'Behind The Facade' is the fourth in the series of UK box sets and contains 11 more previously unavailable documentaries.
Find out more and buy both of these new DVDs in the Films section. You can also read an interview with John Pilger in the Independent to coincide with the release. |
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| 'REPORTING THE WORLD' RELEASED ON DVD |
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A new John Pilger DVD box-set has been released in the UK, the third in a series which already includes 'In The Name Of Justice' and 'Documentaries That Changed The World'.
The 3-disc set 'Reporting The World' includes 15 more Pilger documentaries from his long and distinguished career, including 'Vietnam: Still America's War', 'The Secret Country' and 'Heroes'.
Find out more in the Films section. |
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| 2008 MARTHA GELLHORN PRIZE |
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| The 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for journalism has been shared by two 'extraordinary' winners - Dahr Jamail and Mohammed Omer. |
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| 'THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY' RELEASED ON DVD |
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Following ITV's showing of 'The War on Democracy' last August, more than 10,000 viewers contacted this website to ask about DVD distribution of the film.
'The War on Democracy' was released on DVD in Britain, the US and Australia in January and February 2008. Distribution throughout the US is through Bullfrog, which has carried many of Pilger's collected films.
Lionsgate and Hopscotch marketed the DVD following their successful cinema distribution of the film.
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| 'INSIDE BURMA' RELEASED ON DVD IN AUSTRALIA |
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A new John Pilger DVD, 'Inside Burma: Land of Fear', is to be released in Australia in February 2008. The film, first shown in 1996 and updated in 1998, exposes the history and brutality of one of the world's most repressive regimes. The film includes an interview with Aung San Suu Kyi.
Read John Pilger's latest article on Burma, published in the New Statesman in October 2007. In the same month, Pilger also paid tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi at a London meeting organised by PEN and the Writers' Network of Burma.
All Burma articles by John Pilger. |
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| A CHANGE IS GONNA COME |
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'The War on Democracy' features the music of the great Chilean balladeer Victor Jara and the legendary American soul singer Sam Cooke (pictured right).
John Pilger describes Cooke's 'A Change Is Gonna Come' as "one of the finest, most lyrical pieces of black music ever written and performed. I was in the southern United States when it was released. It was the time of the civil-rights movement, and Cooke's song spoke to and for all people struggling to be free. The same is true of the ballads of the Jara, whose songs celebrated the popular democracy of Salvador Allende before Pinochet and the CIA extinguished it." www.samcooke.com |
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| THE RISING OF LATIN AMERICA - THE GENESIS OF 'THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY' |
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| "Modern fictional cinema rarely seems to break political silences. The very fine Motorcycle Diaries was a generation too late. In this country, where Hollywood sets the liberal boundaries, the work of Ken Loach and a few others is an honourable exception. However, the cinema is changing as if by default. The documentary has returned to the big screen and is being embraced by the public." John Pilger writes in the Guardian as his acclaimed film 'The War On Democracy' hits UK cinemas. |
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| THE INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT - PILGER AT THE SOCIALISM 2007 CONFERENCE IN CHICAGO |
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John Pilger addressed the Socialism 2007 conference in Chicago on 16 June. He spoke about what Edward Bernays called the "invisible government which is the true ruling power" - the media - and how propaganda so often disguises itself as journalism.
Read transcript | Watch video |
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| NEW COLLECTION OF PILGER FILMS OUT ON DVD |
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John Pilger DVDs are now available to buy in the UK.
Released on DVD for the first time and personally chosen by John Pilger, the Documentaries That Changed The World & In The Name Of Justice box sets bring together 24 of Pilger's most hard-hitting and inspirational films.
You can also buy John's Australian and American DVDs. More |
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| 'FREEDOM NEXT TIME' UPDATED & OUT IN PAPERBACK |
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A fully updated paperback edition of John Pilger's latest book, Freedom Next Time, is published by Black Swan. For details contact Stina Smemo on ssmemo@transworld-publishers.co.uk
When Nelson Mandela stepped out of prison in 1990, the elation in South Africa and around the world was palpable. But true freedom for his people remains a distant dream. John Pilger describes how people battling to free themselves often glimpse freedom, only to see it taken away.
In South Africa, India, Palestine, Afghanistan and the forgotten Chagos islands, Pilger's vivid eyewitness reporting and tenacious interviews with the powerful blow away the secrets and lies of our rulers and turn a searchlight on to events consigned to shadows by an unrecognised, yet virulent censorship.
Click here to read the Guardian's review of this 'outstanding' book and John Pilger's impressions of the Hay Festival, where he launched 'Freedom Next Time'. |
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| JOURNALISM AS A WEAPON OF WAR |
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In April 2006, John Pilger addressed the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University, New York, in company with Seymour Hersh, Robert Fisk and Charles Glass.
He argued that censorship by journalism is rife in Britain and the US - and it means the difference between life and death for people in faraway countries.
Read the complete or the abridged version of the address, which featured on the front cover of the New Statesman (right). |
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