JohnPilger.com - the films and journalism of John Pilger

Hold the front page! We need free media, not an Order of Mates

2013-05-08T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger returns to where he began his career in journalism and argues that Australia, his homeland, provides a model of media that was once free and independent and is no more.

New John Pilger film, Utopia, to be broadcast on ITV and released worldwide

2013-04-28T23:00:00+00:00

A new John Pilger film on Australia, Utopia, commissioned by ITV and backed by the UK company, Network Distributing, and produced by Dartmouth Films, will be delivered in the summer in Britain, and broadcast worldwide near the end of the year and early 2014."Interned in often rat-infested cells, almost 60 per cent of Western Australia's young prisoners are Aboriginal - out of 2.5 per cent of the population... Their rate of incarceration is five times that of apartheid South Africa."In an article for the Guardian, John Pilger gives a taste of the latest film about Australia, his homeland - the first was The Secret Country, broadcast in 1985.

Dance on Thatcher's grave, but remember there has been a coup in Britain

2013-04-24T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes reporting Margaret Thatcher's many wars, at home and abroad, from the side of her enemies - such as miners and Vietnamese children. He argues that her acolytes ensure she 'didn't really die at all'.

The new propaganda is liberal. The new slavery is digital.

2013-03-14T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger examines propaganda as not so much a conservative concept as a quintessentially liberal concept, an extremism that never speaks its name.

WikiLeaks is a rare truth-teller. Smearing Julian Assange is shameful.

2013-02-14T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger replies to Jemima Khan who, with others, lost bail money when Julian Assange sought and was granted political asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London. Jemima Khan has attacked Assange and his supporters as "blinkered".

The real invasion of Africa is not news and a licence to lie is Hollywood's gift

2013-01-31T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the invasion of Africa and how its stated reasons are both false and unnewsworthy, leaving official truth to Hollywood.

Welcome to the Shammies, the media awards that recognise truly unsung talent

2013-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger inaugurates a very different prize for sham journalism, and not the journalism made infamous by Rupert Murdoch who "has been honoured enough".

Leveson's Punch and Judy show on the press masks 'hacking' on a scale you can barely imagine

2012-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger argues that the Leveson inquiry into the British press served to preserve a corrupt system, having omitted all mention of hacking on an scale that it touches us all.

As Gaza is savaged again, understanding the BBC's historical role is vital

2012-11-22T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger traces the political history of the BBC's reporting of colonial war as an essential part of an establishment consensusus, with Palestine as a vivid example.

The political trial of a caring man and the end of justice in America

2012-11-08T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the ordeal of a doctor who founded a charity to help the people of Iraq: a miscarriage of justice that says more about America today than the circus of a presidential re-election.

Making the world a more dangerous place - the eager role of Julia Gillard

2012-10-24T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the important part played by the Australian government in the spread of nuclear dangers, with Prime Minister Julia Gillard's ending of her party's long-standing ban on the sale of uranium, an essential ingredient of nuclear weapons.

Australia's Julia Gillard is no feminist hero

2012-10-15T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger argues that Australian prime minister Julia Gillard's internationally praised attack on opposition leader Tony Abbott as anti-woman masked the consequences of her policies for vulnerable Australians, especially women and black Australians.

The life and death of an Australian hero, whose skin was the wrong colour

2012-10-03T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger pays tribute to his friend, the Australian Aboriginal fighter for justice, Arthur Murray, an heroic figure almost unknown in the white society whose justice was denied him and his family.

Apartheid never died in South Africa. It inspired a world order upheld by force and illusion

2012-09-18T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger reports that racial apartheid in South Africa was always reinforced by economic apartheid, which was never dismantled and is now a model for "free market" subjugation across the world.

The liberal way to run the world - "improve" or we'll kill you

2012-09-05T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger discuss what has become a political taboo in the West - the imperal violence of liberalism. From Kennedy to Blair and Obama, the most powerful ideology dares not say its name.

The pursuit of Julian Assange is an assault on freedom and a mockery of journalism

2012-08-22T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the augmented Anglo-American government and media campaign against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as Assange is granted political asylum by Ecuador and remains in that country's London embassy.

How the chosen ones ended Australia's sporting prowess and revealed its secret past

2012-08-08T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes how sports-obsessed Australia's disappointing showing at the London Olympics offered a glimpse of a secret past.

Blair, Olympic deals and the glimpse of another Britain

2012-07-18T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger reports on two letters that illuminate two very different Britains, and on how the London Olympics is being used to rehabilitate Tony Blair, the invader of Iraq.

Murdoch may be a convenient demon, but the media is a junta

2012-06-29T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger examines the struggle for supremacy among the media monopolies in Australia, where Rupert Murdoch launched his empire. He describes a worldwide system that dominates media in western countries, of which Murdoch is but one part.

History is the enemy as 'brilliant' psy-ops become the news

2012-06-20T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the appropriation of news and contemporary history by public relations, or psy-ops, as President Obama launches a campaign to conceal the truth about the war in Vietnam - so that 'other Vietnams' can proceed, suitably disguised.

The Leveson Inquiry into the British press - oh, what a lovely game

2012-05-30T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes how the Leveson public inquiry in the press set up following the phone-hacking revelations exemplifies the "matrix of official and social relations within which power in Britain is exercised".

Never forget that Bradley Manning, not gay marriage, is the issue

2012-05-15T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger warns that same-sex marriage, now embraced by Barack Obama and his vice-president, is deployed as a distraction from issues of life and death and meaningful justice, such as those illuminated by the case of Bradley Manning.

You are all suspects now. What are you going to do about it?

2012-04-25T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the politicising of the law in western democracies and the emergence of increasingly draconian police powers: the corollary of a contrived state of 'permanent war'. Why should this be accepted?

East Timor: a lesson in why the poorest threaten the powerful

2012-04-04T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger returns to the once silent issue of East Timor, a tiny country rich in resources and ravaged by its neighbour, Indonesia, with the help of the Indonesian dictators western sponsors. And yet East Timor broke free. President Obama's threats to China once again highlight the undeclared power of small, impoverished countries.

Up, up and away: how money power works Down Under

2012-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger reports on an Australian icon, the the world's oldest and safest international airline, and what happened when global finance took over.

The dirty war on WikiLeaks is now trial by media in Sweden

2012-03-10T00:00:00+00:00

In an article for the Guardian in London, John Pilger describes the attacks on WikiLeaks and the smearing of its editor Julian Assange that now permeate much of the Swedish media. A decision by the UK Supreme Court on Assange's extradition to Sweden is now imminent, over which hangs the prospect of his transfer to the United States where a fabricated indictment awaits him.

Julia Gillard’s rise marks the triumph of machine politics over feminism

2012-03-08T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger asks: What has happened to the politics of modern feminism? Has feminism forgotten its roots and been appropriated by its natural enemies? The rise of Australia's first female prime minister helps us understand.

It's time we recognised the Blair government's criminality

2012-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger reviews the paperback of Gareth Peirce's 'Dispatches from the Dark Side: on Torture and the Death of Justice'. Peirce, Britain's pre-eminent human rights lawyer, argues that the Labour government of Tony Blair, in its pursuit of rapacious war and in support of policies of rendition and torture, was criminal.

The Assange case means we are all suspects now

2012-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

As the Supreme Court in Britain hears the Julian Assange case, John Pilger examines the implications of an intensified US campaign to silence WikiLeaks and prosecute Assange for a crime that doesn't exist, threatening the principle of free speech and all unfettered journalism.

The world war on democracy

2012-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger argues that, behind its democratic facade, the true nature of western political culture is that of American-led violence and ruthlessness in the cause of enduring dominance. He pays tribute to Lisette Talate, who has died. A Chagos islander forcibly expelled from her homeland by Britain in order to make way for a US military base, her resistance and that of people like her all over the world offer real hope, not the counterfeit slogans of those like Barack Obama.

In the land of facades, mark the first signs of an Indian spring

2011-12-29T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes his return to India, now promoted as an "economic tiger" and a "global leader", where the reality is very different for the lives of those beyond the advertisers' hoardings.

Once again, war is prime time and journalism's role is taboo

2011-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger argues that the theatre of the inquiry in London into media phone hacking deflects from the role of journalism in promoting war and other crimes of state.

In Mexico, a universal struggle against power and forgetting

2011-11-10T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger reports from Mexico where the past often a vivid and surreal presence and the present sends a univeral message.

The Son of Africa claims a continent’s crown jewels

2011-10-19T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger analyses President Obama's decision to send special forces to Uganda, Congo and Central African Republic. This amounts to a US invasion of the African continent - following the West's de facto conquest of Libya. The dangers and ironies ought to be clear.

The ‘getting’ of Assange and the smearing of a revolution

2011-10-05T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes in the New Statesman how the WikiLeaks founder and editor is subjected to 'a drip feed of hostility' from those who were once his allies. The information revolution is a threat not only to great power but to its media gatekeepers.

War and shopping - an extremism that never speaks its name

2011-09-21T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the surreal experience of a Westfield mega mall. The biggest mall in Europe has just opened in London, controlling the main entrance to the 2012 Olympics. In the West, consumerism and war are apparently natural allies, with indebted shopping now 'normal' - like 'perpetual war'.

Hail to the true victors of Rupert's revolution

2011-09-07T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the lethal similarities between the propaganda that led to the invasions of Iraq and now Libya, and the arms industry's view of "a very worthwhile region to target".

Damn it or fear it, the forbidden truth is an insurrection in Britain

2011-08-17T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the conditions that have led to the social explosion across the UK and argues that while crime may feed on riots, it does not ignite them.

In Cuba, the revolution continues, softly, as times change

2011-08-03T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger reports from Havana on his first assignment to Cuba in many years. He finds a softer, easier society, with the idea and symbol of revolutionary Cuba, unchanged.

Amid the Murdoch scandal, there is the acrid smell of business as usual

2011-07-20T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger examines the spectacle of the Murdoch scandal and its cover for a system that welcomed Rupert Murdoch's "rapacious devotion to the free market".

The strange silencing of liberal America

2011-07-06T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger examines the 'Obama effect' on much of liberal opinion and anti-war dissent in the United States, of which the recent banning of his film, 'The War You Don't See', is a symptom.

The invasion of Australia - official at last

2011-06-30T23:00:00+00:00

In a report for the Guardian, John Pilger salutes the City of Sydney's recognition of the invasion of Australia and describes the growing resistance, in culture and conscience, against an unspoken apartheid.

Brainwashing the polite and professional way

2011-06-22T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger reviews a forgotten book, Disciplined Minds, and examines how a new class of managers defend the status quo at all costs.

John Pilger's latest film 'The War You Don't See' available to watch online

2011-06-14T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger's latest film 'The War You Don't See' is now available to watch online (worldwide excluding Australia) for $4.99'The War You Don't See' premiered at the Barbican in London on Tuesday 7 December 2010 and on British television on Tuesday 14 December 2010. It is also available to buy on DVD in the UK and in Australia On 7 June 2011, the Lannan Foundation in the United States banned the film and cancelled a visit by John Pilger without explanation. Read John Pilger's response to Patrick Lannan's subsequent statement about the cancellation.On 17 November 2011, John Pilger presented 'The War You Don't See' at its Indian premiere in Delhi. Read an interview with John Pilger in The Indian Express.Reviews: The Guardian | Total Film | Time Out | Little White Lies | The Quietus | Cine Vue | ABC NewsWatch the trailer | John Pilger - Why are wars not being reported honestly? | Watch Democracy Now! interview with John Pilger about the film | Read New Internationalist interview with John Pilger about the film | Listen to a BBC Radio 4 interview with John Pilger about the film | ABC Breakfast interview | ABC Late Night Live interview | ABC Book Show interviewMore about the film.

Welcome to the violent world of Mr. Hopey Changey

2011-05-25T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes a new colonial phase as the Western powers seek to turn back the Arab revolution that began in January. The newly endowed 'warrior president' is leading the charge.

How the Murdoch press keeps Australia's dirty secret

2011-05-11T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the fraudulent intent of Australian governments' "intervention" against the Aboriginal people and the critical role of the dominant Murdoch press.

Marching for Anzac in the 51st State

2011-04-19T23:00:00+00:00

In his column for the New Statesman's Easter issue, John Pilger describes growing up with the militarism that today drives the celebration of one modern history's great military disasters.

David Cameron's gift of war and racism, to them and us

2011-04-05T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger argues that the West's attack on Libya merely follows a long history of rapacious assaults on resource-rich countries: the opposite of "protecting civilians".

How the so-called guardians of free speech are silencing the messenger

2011-03-10T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger recalls the warning of the revolutionary Tom Paine in describing the relentless attacks on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, which come from the protectors of the status quo.

Behind the Arab revolt is a word we dare not speak

2011-02-24T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger examines the imperial force that has preserved an unfree Middle East and whose true political nature is rarely uttered, except occasionally by those who have known it from within.

The Egyptian revolt is coming home

2011-02-09T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger argues that the Egyptian revolt, with epic spectacle and inspiration, has wider possibilities than a change of regime in Cairo.

Australia's Katrina moment

2011-01-27T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger reports on the the scandalous neglect and failure of Australian governments to plan for a disastrous great flood long predicted, and the suppression of the reasons why.

The war on WikiLeaks: A John Pilger investigation and interview with Julian Assange

2011-01-13T00:00:00+00:00

In a cover article for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the information revolution that threatens old power orders in politics and the media, igniting a war on Wikileaks and its founder. "If I can be indicted," Julian Assange tells Pilger, "other journalists can too".

Protect Assange, don’t abuse him

2010-12-16T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger argues that years of 'identity politics' have had a marked effect on those who might otherwise see clearly the principles raised by WikiLeaks and the need to defend Julian Assange.

Why are wars not being reported honestly?

2010-12-10T00:00:00+00:00

In an article for the Guardian, John Pilger says that the public needs to know the truth about wars and explains how journalists have colluded with governments to hoodwink us.

Vietnam: the last battle. John Pilger reports from Saigon

2010-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

In an essay for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes his return to Vietnam, whose war he reported for almost a decade. He finds old friends, their spirit unchanged, and asks if Vietnam's independence, for which millions died, is now under threat from the conditions of its membership of the "international community".

Welcome to the new John Pilger website

2010-11-09T00:00:00+00:00

Welcome to the new John Pilger website, a remarkable resource and historical record and now arguably the most comprehensive online collection of the work of a leading journalist. For the first time, the majority of John Pilger's 58 films for television and cinema can be viewed online. New features include a video and article search, a newsletter, social media tools and an RSS feed. The site's relaunch has been made possible by the University of Lincoln, which is preparing a complete digital archive of John Pilger's work.

The party game is over. Stand and fight

2010-11-04T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the disenchantment with parliamentary politics as the British "coalition" government pursues its devotion to 'an extreme political cult of money worship'. He suggests there is only one course of action now.

Chile's ghosts are not being rescued

2010-10-13T23:00:00+00:00

As the 33 Chilean miners are brought to the surface after ther epic rescue, John Pilger describes the unspoken life in Chile behind the media facade that the government of President Sebastion Pinera has skilfully exploited.

The BBC is on Murdoch's side

2010-09-29T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger says that while the dangers of Rupert Murdoch's dominance are understood, the role played by the respectable media, such as the New York Times and the BBC, notably in the promotion of colonial wars, is at least as important.

C'mon, time to rebrand your life!

2010-09-15T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger examines the effect of 'extreme corporatism' - money - on sport. He contrasts the last of the great sporting stars who were not celebrities in the modern sense with the enrichment of Rupert Murdoch and the corruption of sports like cricket.

Flying the flag, faking the news

2010-09-01T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger traces the history of propaganda to Edward Bernays, the American nephew of Sigmund Freud, who invented the term "public relations". Bernays believed in "engineering public consent" and creating "false realties" as news. Here are examples of how this works today.

Why Wikileaks must be protected

2010-08-18T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the importance of Wikileaks as a new and fearless form of investigative journalism that threatens both the war-makers and their apologists, notably journalists who are state stenographers.

Tony Blair must be prosecuted

2010-08-04T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger writes about the "paramount war crime" defined by the Nuremberg judges in 1946 and its relevance to the case of Tony Blair, whose shared responsibility for the Iraq invasion resulted in the deaths of more than a million people. New developments in international and domestic political attitudes towards war crimes mean that Blair is now 'Britain's Kissinger'.

The new warlord of Oz

2010-07-21T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the rise of Julia Gillard, Australia's first female prime minister who, in following her "role model" former prime minister Bob "Silver Bodgie" Hawke, has capitulated to the mining companies and reaffirmed Australia's race-based refugee policies and tradition of fighting in other people's wars.

The charge of the media brigade

2010-07-07T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes how an all-pervasive corporate media culture in the United States prepares the way for a permanent state of war. And yet for all the column inches and broadcast hours filled, the brainwashing is not succeeding. And this, he suggests, is 'America's greatest virtue'.

The black art of news management

2010-06-02T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the "master illusions" which have formed the basis of black propaganda and provided "false flags" for political chicanery and for wars and atrocities, such as Iraq and the Israeli assault on the Gaza peace flotilla.

The heresy of the Greeks offers hope

2010-05-19T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger inverts the perception of Greece as a "junk country" and sees hope in the uprising of ordinary Greeks protesting against the "bailout" of an economy plunged into debt by the tax-evading rich. Greece, he writes, is a microcosm for the developed world, where class war are the words seldom used because they are the truth.

Voting in Britain for war. Take your pick

2010-05-03T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes how Edwardian notions of war are again being promoted in western democracies, along with the militarising of history, journalism and parliamentary politics. In Britain, the three main candidiates for prime minister are declared warmakers; and yet popular feeling is very different.

Why sharks should not own sport

2010-04-21T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes how the rich and powerful have taken over and distorted the people's pleasure - sport, from Tiger Woods Inc to the World Cup, soon to begin in South Africa. Pilger looks at the way Fifa and multiple sponsors have invaded South Africa and ordinary South Africans have been pushed aside in the cause of profiteering.

Have a nice world war, folks

2010-03-25T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the increasing American war front across the world: from Afghanistan to Africa and Latin America. This is the Third World War in all but name, waged by the only aggressive "ism" that denies it is an ideology and threatened not by introverted tribesmen in faraway places but by the anti-war instincts of its own citizens.

Welcome to the world's first murdochracy

2010-03-11T00:00:00+00:00

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".

Listen to the heroes of Israel

2010-02-25T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger reminds us of the struggle by an extraordinary few in Israel against the repression and lawlessness of the occupation of Palestine. They are the inspiration to break the loud silence in the Jewish diaspora.

Why the Oscars are a con

2010-02-11T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger asks why directors and writers allow Hollywood formula propaganda to dominate the movies, with a hot contender for the Oscars airbrushing a million dead Iraqis, Clint Eastwood dispatching the truth of the struggle against apartheid and George Clooney amusing himself with the same old stereotypes.

The kidnapping of Haiti

2010-01-28T00:00:00+00:00

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 Green's dark novel about exploted Haiti - comes to mind.

For Israel, a reckoning

2010-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the growing boycott, disinvestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine. Based on the anti-apartheid campaign that helped bring down the racist regime in South Africa, BDS is becoming a catch-cry for freedom in countries whose governments continue to ignore the Palestinians' struggle against another form of apartheid and which Nelson Mandela has described as "the greatest moral issue of our time".

Welcome to Orwell's world 2010

2009-12-30T00:00:00+00:00

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".

Normalising the crime of the century

2009-12-10T00:00:00+00:00

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.

Return to a secret country

2009-11-27T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of A Secret Country, his best-selling history of Australia, with a description of Aboriginal Australia and its relationship with white authority following Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's apology to the "stolen generations" last year.

Free the forgotten bird of paradise

2009-11-12T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the wholesale corporate takeover of the natural resources of West Papua, known as the "forgotten bird of paradise" by its impoverished indigenous people. A mountain of copper and gold, forests and fisheries, oil and gas: the "acquisition" of untold riches, sanctioned by the Suharto tyranny, was unique and remains a metaphor for "globalisation".

Breaking the great Australian silence

2009-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

In a speech at the Sydney Opera House to mark his award of Australia's human rights prize, the Sydney Peace Prize, John Pilger describes the "unique features" of a political silence in Australia: how it affects the national life of his homeland and the way Australians see the world and are manipulated by great power "which speaks through an invisible government of propaganda that subdues and limits our political imagination and ensures we are always at war - against our own first people and those seeking refuge, or in someone else's country".

Thirty years on, the holocaust in Cambodia and its aftermath is remembered

2009-10-26T00:00:00+00:00

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 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.

A postal strike in Britain is the war at home

2009-10-21T23:00:00+00:00

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.

War is peace. Ignorance is strength

2009-10-14T23:00:00+00:00

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".

The lying game: how we are prepared for another war of aggression

2009-09-30T23:00:00+00:00

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.

For many Britons, the party game is over

2009-09-16T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger analyses the impact of 'Blair's wars' on the Labour Party and its historic convergence with the Tories into a single ideology state.

Lockerbie: Megrahi was framed

2009-09-02T23:00:00+00:00

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.

Cover-up: a film's travesty of omissions

2009-08-19T23:00:00+00:00

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.

Books that counter our "training" to make war

2009-08-05T23:00:00+00:00

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.

Murdoch: a cultural Chernobyl

2009-07-22T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes "an iceberg of relentless inhumanity" beneath the Guardian's revelations about illegal phone tapping at Murdoch's Sunday tabloid and the impact of his empire in Britain and all over the world.

Mourn on the fourth of July

2009-07-08T23:00:00+00:00

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.

Power, illusion and America's last taboo

2009-07-03T23:00:00+00:00

A transcription of John Pilger’s address to Socialism 2009 in San Francisco

Back to the point of departure

2009-06-24T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger reflects on the idea of a journey, and wonders, like TS Eliot, if the point of travelling is also to find out where you came from. However, the unsuspected and tragic can change everything.

Smile on the face of the tiger

2009-06-10T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger de-codes 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.

Britain: the depth of corruption

2009-05-27T23:00:00+00:00

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.

Distant voices, desperate lives

2009-05-13T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the catastrophe facing the Tamil people of Sri Lanka, whose distant voices have appealed to the world for almost as long as the Palestinians.

Obama's 100 days: the mad men did well

2009-04-29T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the power of advertising - from the effects of smoking to politics - as he reaches behind the facade of of the first 100 days President Barack Obama.

The reds down under are revolting

2009-04-15T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes a personal loss as the quality of Australia's once distinguished wine declines - a lesson for others as the greed of "cash cropping" threatens a nation's food supply.

Fake faith and epic crimes

2009-04-01T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes a worldwide movement that is 'challenging the once-sacrosanct notion that imperial politicians can destroy countless lives and retain an immunity from justice'. In Tony Blair's case, justice inches closer.

War comes home to Britain

2009-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the basic freedoms being lost in Britain as the "national security state", imported from the United States by New Labour, takes effect.

Cambodia's missing accused

2009-02-20T00:00:00+00:00

In an article for the Guardian, John Pilger calls on his long experience with Cambodia's struggles in lamenting missing faces in the dock at the UN-backed trial of crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge period. Where are Pol Pot's accomplices and collaborators in the West?

Hollywood's new censors

2009-02-19T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes how censorship in Hollywood works in the age of the 'war on terror'. Unlike the crude days of the cold war, it's by omission and 'introspective dross'.

The politics of bollocks

2009-02-05T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger borrows from Lord West of Spithead to deconstruct current mythology, such as the 'impartiality' of the BBC and the 'radical changes' implemented by President Obama.

Come on down for your Freedom Medals

2009-01-22T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger writes that "as deserving as Tony Blair is of his George W. Bush Freedom Medal, others cry out for a place in his company". Following Israel's assault on Gaza, he offers two additional nominees.

Holocaust denied: the lying silence of those who know

2009-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

Writing in the New Statesman, John Pilger calls on 40 years of reporting the Middle East to describe the 'why' of Israel's bloody onslaught on the besieged people of Gaza - an attack that has little to do with Hamas or Israel's right to exist.

The good news for 2009, a seasonal wish list

2008-12-18T00:00:00+00:00

The festive edition of the New Statesman offers a menu of good news to celebrate in 2009. John Pilger adds his own wish list.

Beware of Obama's Groundhog Day

2008-12-11T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger reckons 'Groundhog Day', the black comedy about time repeating itself, might be a parable for the Age of Obama - as the president-elect's major appointments turn out to be almost totally retro, without a single figure representing those who voted for him.

Kafka has a rival. The Foreign Office lectures us on human rights

2008-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

In an article for the Guardian, John Pilger describes the black irony of an "open day to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" at the Foreign Office, guardian of rapacious British power and policies that invert the meaning of human rights.

The power and corruption that makes unpeople of an entire nation

2008-11-27T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the latest chapter in the extraordinary story of the 'mass kidnapping' of the people of the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean, British citizens expelled from their homeland to make way for an American military base. On 22 October, Britain's highest court of appeal, the Law Lords, demonstrated how British power works at its apex by handing down a transparently political judgement that dismissed the Magna Carta and banned an entire nation from ever going home.

Beware of the Obama hype. What 'change' in America really means

2008-11-13T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger writes that the lauding of Barack Obama has a history and that 'historical moments' ought to be less about their symbolism and accompanying histrionics than what they really mean. The question is: what is Obama's true relation to unchanging American myths about the imposition of its notorious power?

Under cover of racist myth, a new land grab in Australia

2008-10-23T23:00:00+00:00

In a report for the Guardian, John Pilger describes the deception behind the pretext for a "national emergency" declared by the Australian government in Aboriginal areas. A political cry of "save the children" can also mean the profits of uranium and toxic waste.

The diplomacy of lying

2008-10-22T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the truth and lies of great power as practised by British "diplomacy'', and the prospects for peace and order following the US presidential election on November 4.

The people's sporting star who had 'the grace'

2008-10-08T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger celebrates the life of Sep Prosser, one of Australia's great swimmers and swimming coaches, whose celebrity was based on an ingredient now missing from so much sport: grace.

South Africa: the liberation's betrayal

2008-10-01T23:00:00+00:00

In an article for the Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg, John Pilger describes the 'social and economic catastrophe' that replaced the African National Congress's 'unbreakable' promise' to end the poverty of the majority.

The new world war - the silence is a lie

2008-09-24T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the 'great silence' over the annual British party conferences as politicians and their club of commentators say nothing about a war provoked and waged across the world the responsibility for which lies close at hand.

A murderous theatre of the absurd

2008-09-10T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger examines news as parody as those prominent in the British media seek to justify the official versions of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The ghost of Pinochet haunts the campaign against Chavez

2008-08-16T23:00:00+00:00

In an article for the Guardian, John Pilger describes how he sought the help of Chile's former political prisoners, tortured by Pinochet, in the making of his film, The War on Democracy, and how they bear witness to the historical meaning of the current campaign of propaganda and lies aimed at Venezuela and Hugo Chavez.

Don't forget Yugoslavia

2008-08-13T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger digs beneath the received wisdom for the break-up of Yugoslavia and points to a largely ignored memoir by the former chief prosecutor in The Hague - and an echo from current events in the Caucasus.

The lies of Hiroshima are the lies of today

2008-08-05T23:00:00+00:00

In an article for the Guardian on the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, John Pilger describes the 'progression of lies' from the dust of that detonated city, to the wars of today - and the threatened attack on Iran.

Obama, the prince of bait-and-switch

2008-07-23T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the devaluing of civilian casualties in colonial wars, and the anointing of Barack Obama, as he tours the battlefields, sounding more and more like George W. Bush.

How Britain wages war

2008-07-09T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes the insidious militarisng of Britain as the effects of two colonial wars and the cover-up of atrocities come home.

One journalist's story: from triumph to torture

2008-07-01T23:00:00+00:00

In an article for the Guardian, John Pilger describes presenting a top journalism award to a young Palestinian, Mohammed Omer, and how, on his return home to Gaza, he was seized by the Israelis, who demanded the prize money and tortured him.

In the cause of fear and ignorance

2008-06-25T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes another Britain: "a vicious, sectarian and mostly unreported war" against Muslims. People snatched from the homes following 9/11 are consigned to a Kafkaesque oblivion, and worse.

In the great tradition, Obama is a hawk

2008-06-11T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger reaches back into the history of the Democratic Party and describes the tradition of war-making and expansionism that Barack Obama has now left little doubt he will honour.

Burma, victim of the 'War on Terror'

2008-05-30T23:00:00+00:00

Writing for the Guardian, John Pilger marks the Burmese junta's renewal of the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi with an examination of the intimidations of the 'war on terror' on those who help to free her and her people.

From Kennedy to Obama: Liberalism's last fling

2008-05-28T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger refers back to his travels with Robert Kennedy to describe the false hopes offered by those, like Barack Obama, who exploit the appeal of liberalism then present a very different reality.

Destroying the best of Britain

2008-05-07T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes how the New Labour government is destroying one of the the venerable features of "communal decency" in Britain - the local post office. Economies need to be made, though not in the pursuit of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Latin America: the hidden war on democracy

2008-04-23T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger argues that an unreported war is being waged by the United States, and Britain, to restore power to the privileged classes at the expense of the majority.

The struggle against apartheid has begun again in South Africa

2008-04-09T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes how economic apartheid has become a model for much of the world and resistance to it has begun again in the country where apartheid was said to be in the past.

Honouring the 'unbreakable promise'

2008-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

Almost fourteen years after South Africa's first democratic elections and the fall of racial apartheid, John Pilger describes, in an address at Rhodes University, the dream and reality of the new South Africa and the responsibility of its new elite.

A tribute to Philip Jones Griffiths, who understood war and peace, and people

2008-03-27T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger pays tribute to his friend, the great photo-journalist Philip Jones Griffiths, who has died. "No photographer," he writes, "produced such finely subversive work, knowing that truth in war is always subversive."

The quiet rendition of Moudud Ahmed

2008-03-12T00:00:00+00:00

In an article for the Guardian, John Pilger describes the extraordinary life of Moudud Ahmed, who in 1971 led him into liberated East Pakistan, later Bangladesh. Now a political prisoner of the military dictatorship in Dhaka, Moudud Ahmed is seriously ill in a country which, says his wife Hasna, "is itself a prison".

Australia's hidden Empire

2008-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest article for the New Statesman, John Pilger reports from his homeland on Australia's hidden empire - a 'sphere of influence' that stretches from the Aboriginal slums of Sydney to East Timor and Afghanistan. The arrival of a new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, offers important continuity.

Catching the last tram home

2008-02-20T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger catches a ghostly tram to returns to where he grew up in Australia, the scene of his first encounter with the brutal, though enjoyable world of newspapers.

Bringing down the new Berlin Walls

2008-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest article for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes how the Palestinian breakout of Gaza offers inspiration for people struggling to bring down the new Berlin Walls all over the world.

Suharto, the model killer, and his friends in high places

2008-01-28T00:00:00+00:00

In an article for the Guardian, John Pilger says the death of General Suharto, the former dictator of Indonesia, is an opportunity to review the role of this "model" for high crimes in the modern era - from Indonesia, to Chile, to Vietnam - and the powerful friends who ensured he would never suffer the fate of Saddam Hussein.

The danse macabre of US-style democracy

2008-01-24T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger looks back on the US presidential campaigns he has reported and draws parallels with the current 'ritual danse macabre' that covers for democracy and the veiled propaganda that accompanies it.

The 'good war' is a bad war

2008-01-10T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes how the invasion of Afghanistan, which was widely supported in the West as a 'good war' and justifiable response to 9/11, was actually planned months before 9/11 and is the latest instalment of 'a great game'.

Blair's legacy: from liberalism to Murdochracy

2007-12-18T00:00:00+00:00

In an article for the Guardian, John Pilger writes that in Britain, after more than a decade of the New Labour "project", once noble terms such as democracy, reform, even freedom, have been emptied of their true meaning and replaced by a murdochracy.

How the Anglo-American elite shares its 'values'

2007-12-13T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the origins and 'shared values' of the British-American Project for a Successor Generation, founded in 1983 by Ronald Reagan with support from Rupert Murdoch. Today's BAP meets every year alternately in the US and Britain and includes scientists, economists, community leaders and journalists, a number of them liberals or 'on the left'.

Exposing the guardians of power

2007-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger pays tribute to the influence of an extraordinary British website Medialens.org whose creators David Edwards and David Cromwell have challenged the declared objectivity and other myths of the liberal media. On 2 December, they will receive the Gandhi International Peace Prize.

No tears, no remorse for the fallen of Iraq

2007-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

In the New Statesman, John Pilger looks back on Remembrance Day - Veterans Day in the US - and describes the presence of hypocrisy as the bowed heads of the establishment mourned none of the million dead of Iraq and the destruction of their society.

Sicko 2: The destruction of Britain's health service

2007-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes how the notorious US healthcare companies exposed by Michael Moore in his film, Sicko, are now invading Britain and warms of the destruction by stealth of the model for universal for health care, Britain's acclaimed National Health Service.

The hypocrites who say they back democracy in Burma

2007-10-25T23:00:00+00:00

Addressing a London meeting, 'Freedom Writ Large', organised by PEN and the Writers Network of Burma, John Pilger pays tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi and the writers of Burma, 'the bravest of the brave', and describes the hypocrisy of Western leaders who claim to back their struggle for freedom.

Why they're afraid of Michael Moore

2007-10-16T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger marks the European release of Michael Moore's latest film, Sicko, with an examination of why the documentary film-maker exerts such influence, with fans and enemies alike. "In societies ruled by an invisible government of media," he writes, "no one has broken through like Moore, who breaks every rule by reporting from the ground up, instead of from the top down."

My last conversation with Aung San Suu Kyi

2007-10-02T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger recalls his last conversation with Aung San Suu Kyi, under premanent house arrest in Rangoon. Filmed secretly by Pilger and David Munro, the legitimate leader of the Burmese people provides a glimpse of her aloneness and courage.

Class is still the issue

2007-09-05T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the parallel worlds of the great 'unmentionable', class, in modern Britain: in the streets and in the media.

Israel: an important marker has been passed

2007-08-22T23:00:00+00:00

In a column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes his first encounter with a Palestinian refugee camp and what Nelson Mandela has called "the greatest moral issue of our age" - justice for the Palestinians. 'Something has changed', he writes, referring to the world view of sanctions and a boycott against Israel.

Good ol' Bill, the liberal hero

2007-08-07T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger looks forward to the arrival of Bill Clinton in London where an "audience" with him will cost up to £799 a head. In examining Clinton's liberal credentials and comparing them to George W. Bush's record, Pilger illuminates what Hillary Clinton might offer America and the world as the first female president.

How truth slips down the memory hole

2007-07-24T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest article for the New Statesman, John Pilger applies to current events Orwell's description in '1984' of how the Ministry of Truth consigned embarrassing truth to a memory hole. He highlights the killing of a Palestinean cameraman by the Israelis as an example of how "we" are trained to look on the rest of the world as quite unlike ourselves: useful or expendable.

The London bombs also belong to the new Prime Minister

2007-07-04T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger breaks the taboo of the latest 'potential' bombs found in London. They are prime minister Gordon Brown's bomb, too, the 'inevitable consequence of the lawless invasion of Iraq' which Brown backed and whose death toll now equals that of the Rwanda genocide.

The invisible government

2007-06-15T23:00:00+00:00

In a speech in Chicago, John Pilger describes how propaganda has become such a potent force in our lives and, in the words of one of its founders, represents 'an invisible government'.

The rising of Latin America - the genesis of 'The War On Democracy'

2007-06-12T23:00:00+00:00

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.

The British Army rebels against propoganda

2007-06-05T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger quotes from a letter received from a British army officer serving in Iraq and sent to the BBC. The officer calls the war unwinnable and wrong, and appeals to the media not to swallow "the office/White House line". For the first time, journalists are now being scrutinised by the soldiers whose war they report.

Imprisoning a whole nation

2007-05-21T23:00:00+00:00

In an article for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes how Gaza in Palestine has come to symbolise the imposition of great power on the powerless, in the Middle East and all over the world, and how a vocabulary of double standard is employed to justify this epic tragedy.

The Kennedy myth rises again

2007-05-09T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger recalls the night Robert Kennedy was shot in his presence and the myths that followed his untimely death. Having elevated Kennedy to be one of his heroes, Prime Minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown describes him as the pinnacle of "morality" - when this myth really tells us about Brown himself and his political twin, Tony Blair.

Iran may be the greatest crisis of modern times

2007-04-11T23:00:00+00:00

In a cover piece for the New Statesman, John Pilger evokes the memory of Germans 'looking from the side' at Bergen-Belsen to describe the challenge facing us in the West as the Bush/Blair 'long war' becomes 'perhaps the greatest crisis of modern times'.

The swimmer's journey home

2007-03-28T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger touches on the life behind his public face. "I am a swimmer," he writes. From his childhood on Australia's famous Bondi Beach to a career that has taken him to many places the opposite of benign, Pilger has swum through, as he puts it, "the difficulties".

Closing the gap between torturer and victim

2007-03-14T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger reports on new revelations that torturers in America's 'war on terror' were directed personally by the US secretary of defence. He argues that the historical antedote to such barbarity is the new exuberant democracy movement in Latin America.

Australia: the 51st State

2007-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest article for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the remarkable servility of John Howard's government in Australia to the Bush administration - Howard is known as Bush's 'deputy sheriff' - and how this is eroding the country's freedoms.

Mourning a secret Australia

2007-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

In a column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes another 'day of mourning' for the first inhabitants of his homeland, Australia, which for many whites remains a secret country behind the neo-conservative bluster of John Howard's government.

Iran: a war is coming

2007-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest piece for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes American plans to attack Iran, possibly with nuclear weapons. Although the majority of Americans voted last November to end the war in Iraq, the Bush cabal remains undeterred by inspid protests from Democrats and is proceeding with another, even more dangerous adventure.

Cruelty and xenophobia shame and stir the lucky country

2007-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

In an article for the Guardian, John Pilger returns to his homeland, Australia, and described the social regression of a once proud liberal democracy and says that the flag-waving "values" of the neo-con prime minister may be coming unstuck in Guantanamo Bay.

Looking to the side, from Belsen to Gaza

2007-01-18T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the warnings of genocide in Gaza, and the suffering of 1.4 million Palestinians living a "life in a cage" as the world looks on. He quotes Israeli journalist Amira Hass on the experience of her mother in a Nazi concentration camp and the Germans who watched, "looking from the side".

Setting the limits of invasion journalism

2006-12-07T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger reports an unprecedented study by three UK universities which found that, contrary to myth, 80 per cent of the media followed "the government line" on Iraq and only 12 per cent challenged it. He analyses the subtleties and insidious nature of censorship in free societies and asks why this is neglected by many media colleges.

Now let's charge Saddam's accomplices

2006-11-09T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger wonders why Saddam should be alone in the dock. Surely, those who aided and abetted his crimes, and were accomplices in other great crimes committed against the Iraqi people, should be prosecuted, too.

The Blair doctrine: blood and money

2006-11-06T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger describes how the distintegration of real and mythical democracy in the United States influences British politics under Tony Blair, such as the reduction of Parliament to a 'craven talking shop' and the promotion of war and 'thoughtcrimes'.

Busy fondling their self-esteem

2006-10-11T23:00:00+00:00

As the news reveals a study that puts civilian deaths in Iraq at 655,000, John Pilger recalls the words of a song by the great Chilean balladeer, Victor Jara, to describe those who see themselves as rational and liberal are, in fact, complicit in an unrecognised crime.

In praise of the 'subversive' documentary

2006-09-13T23:00:00+00:00

In an article for the Guardian, timed with a season of his own documentaries at the Barbican, John Pilger pays tribute to 'that most powerful and subversive medium, the political documentary' - 'at its best, fearless, and able to show the politically unpalatable and to make sense of the news' and he urges support for those, like 'citizen' documentary makers, who break through the insidious censorship of 'current affairs'.

No news is slow news

2006-09-13T23:00:00+00:00

In the latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes how the obvious becomes invisible in today's mainstream news agenda. The news that doesn't make the front pages or the BBC bulletins is 'slow news'. For example, the resistance to foreign power by the Palestinians, ordinary Iraqis and Afghans is 'slow news' while the internecine machinations of Bush and Blair is 'regular news'.

The revolution will not be televised

2006-09-10T23:00:00+00:00

As he launches a season of his films, John Pilger argues that, in the age of Big Brother, television is no longer nurturing challenging documentary-makers.

The return of people power

2006-08-29T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger reaches behind the news of war and suffering and is inspired by the rise of popular resistance throughout the world: from Lebanon to Latin America, to an unprecedented level of political awareness in Britain.

The real threat we face in Britain is Blair

2006-08-16T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger writes about the the alleged plot to blow up airliners flying from London and says that "unimaginable mass murder" has already taken place - in Iraq - and that the real threat the British face is in Downing Street.

Empire and Israel

2006-07-26T23:00:00+00:00

The National Museum of American History is part of the celebrated Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Surrounded by mock Graeco-Roman edifices with their soaring Corinthian columns, rampant eagles and chiselled profundities, it is at the centre of Empire, though the word itself is engraved nowhere. This is understandable, as the likes of Hitler and Mussolini were proud imperialists, too: on a "great mission to rid the world of evil", to borrow from President Bush.

What did you do during the Dock Strike?

2006-07-12T23:00:00+00:00

Members of the flexible workforce might find a lesson in the dockers' fight against casualisation.

East Timor: the coup the world missed

2006-06-21T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the latest phase of East Timor's struggle for independence, which, in the 1990s, he went undercover to report. One of the world's newest and poorest states now faces the overweening power of its vast neighour, Australia. Once again, the prize is oil and gas.

Palestine: A war on children

2006-06-14T23:00:00+00:00

In a cover piece for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes how the US and Israel have finally resolved the problem of the Palestinians, who voted for the "wrong" government. They are to starve them while missiles are fired at their homes and picnickers on a beach.

A Worse Slaughter

2006-05-31T23:00:00+00:00

Blair makes much of 'humanitarian values' but sells arms to Indonesia which are used against East Timor.

Out of Eden

2006-05-28T23:00:00+00:00

The Indian Ocean paradise of Diego Garcia was once home to more than a thousand contented British subjects. In 1966, Harold Wilson's government sold it to the US in a secret, illegal deal and terrorised the population into leaving.

Bolivia: a glimpse of freedom

2006-05-23T23:00:00+00:00

The long, wide, bleak streets of cobblestones and tufts of petrified grass reach for the sacred mountain Illimani, whose pyramid of snow is like a watchtower.

Chavez is a threat because he offers the alternative of a decent country

2006-05-12T23:00:00+00:00

Venezuela's president is using oil revenues to liberate the poor - no wonder his enemies want to overthrow him, writes John Pilger in the Guardian.

Return of the Death Squads - Iraq's hidden news

2006-05-03T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the the difference between Iraq as seen on the corporate news and the real news, such as the return of US-trained and armed death squads, reminiscent of Central America and Vietnam.

The real first casualty of war

2006-04-23T23:00:00+00:00

Censorship by journalism is virulent in Britain and the US - and it means the difference between life and death for people in faraway countries.

The quiet death of democracy

2006-04-12T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes how a bill passing through the British parliament will undermine centuries-old concepts of freedom and human rights - democracy itself.

The war lovers

2006-03-23T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes a kind of war lover and war salesman (and woman) very different from the 'almost endearing fools' he has met in real wars.

Secret war against defenceless West Papua

2006-03-09T00:00:00+00:00

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes how the terrible history of East Timor is repeating itself in nearby West Papua, another stolen resource-rich province of Indonesia, whose notorious army is again colluding with the West.

Put out more flags: the making of another America

2006-02-28T00:00:00+00:00

Writing in the New Statesman, John Pilger's second dispatch from Australia, his homeland, describes how the neo-conservative government of John Howard has set out to change the basic culture of Australian society.

Iran: the next war

2006-02-10T00:00:00+00:00

In a cover article for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the headlong rush by the United States, aided by Britain, to attack Iran. Like the attack on Iraq, there is a secret agenda.

No mourning for Kerry Packer

2006-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

Behind the glamour of Australian sport, black footballers, including whole teams, are often dead before 40, writes John Pilger.

The death of freedom

2006-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

The rights of ordinary people to speak out against an unjust war and atrocities unleashed in their name are being crushed. Fascism is at the door. Who else, asks John Pilger, will fight it?

If you want to know the truth about Iraq, join the millions who have given up on the silences of the mainstream media

2005-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

The Indian writer Vandana Shiva has called for an "insurrection of subjugated knowledge". The insurrection is well under way. In trying to make sense of a dangerous world, millions of people are turning away from the conventional sources of news and information and to the world wide web, convinced that mainstream journalism is the voice of rampant power.

America's new enemy

2005-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

Latin Americans have spent the past few years finding their voices. Now they may have the strength to defy their northern neighbour.

Applauding a military refusenik

2005-10-31T00:00:00+00:00

An RAF officer is about to be tried before a military court for refusing to return to Iraq because the war is illegal.

We need to be told

2005-10-16T23:00:00+00:00

When journalists report propaganda instead of the truth, the consequences can be catastrophic - as one largely forgotten instance demonstrates.

Blame Basra on the British

2005-10-02T23:00:00+00:00

Is there to be no honest accounting for the events in Basra? Do we simply accept John Reid's customary arrogance?

Behind America's facade

2005-09-18T23:00:00+00:00

The destruction caused by Katrina has enabled us to glimpse realities that are usually carefully hidden away. And what we discover is that New Orleans and Baghdad are not so far apart.

John Pilger hails the Brigaders

2005-08-07T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger explains how the legacy of the International Brigades helps us understand not only the nature of fascism, but that even those who are not fascists have similar goals.

Blair's bombs

2005-07-24T23:00:00+00:00

The senseless repercussions of interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine demand that we renew our anger at our leaders. Our troops must come home. We owe it to all those who died in London on 7 July.

Fighting Fascism, then and now

2005-07-18T23:00:00+00:00

At an extraordinary memorial event in London for the International Brigades who went to the aid of the Spanish people in the late 1930s, John Pilger paid tribute to the 'brigaders'.

The ghost at Gleneagles

2005-07-10T23:00:00+00:00

In the orgy of summit coverage something has been overlooked: the two men at the heart of it, telling us how the world should be run, are the men responsible for Fallujah and Abu Ghraib.

Tony Blair's "vision for Africa" is about as patronising and exploitative as a stage full of white pop stars (with black tokens now added)

2005-06-26T23:00:00+00:00

The front page of the Observer on 12 June announced, "$55bn Africa debt deal 'a victory for millions'". The "victory for millions" is a quotation of Bob Geldof, who said, "Tomorrow 280 million Africans will wake up for the first time in their lives without owing you or me a penny...". The nonsense of this would be breathtaking if the reader's breath had not already been extracted by the unrelenting sophistry of Bob Geldof, Bono, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, the Observer et al.

Blair's forgotten victims

2005-04-24T23:00:00+00:00

By voting for Blair, you will walk over the corpses of at least 100,000 people, most of them innocent, slaughtered in defiance of international law.

Be proud of what you've achieved

2005-03-21T00:00:00+00:00

Speaking in Sydney, Australia, at a rally to commemorate the second anniversary of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, John Pilger said that his compatriots who opposed the invasion should be proud of their achievements and those of millions like them.

Kebabing the Tonier-than-thou club

2005-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

Those who regard themselves as commissars of the respectable, moral, liberal class do not convey to us the enormity of what happened in Iraq. Their silence is quite disgusting.

Our children are learning lies

2005-02-21T00:00:00+00:00

In our schools, children learn that the US fought the Vietnam war against a "communist threat" to "us". Is it any wonder that so many don't understand the truth about Iraq?

Fear and silence in the 'lucky' country

2005-02-07T00:00:00+00:00

Australia, once the land of the "fair go", has collaborated with Guantanamo more closely than any other western government and is guilty of human rights abuses of its own.

John Pilger denounces EU appeasement of Burma

2005-01-24T00:00:00+00:00

With an eye to its vast Asian market, Europe promotes human rights when the price is right. In Burma, crimes against humanity are allowed to continue without challenge.

Reminders of Kosovo

2004-12-13T00:00:00+00:00

Kosovo - the site of a genocide that never was - is now a violent "free market" in drugs and prostitution. What does this tell us about the likely outcome of the Iraq war?

Iraq: the unthinkable becomes normal

2004-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Mainstream media speak as if Fallujah were populated only by foreign "insurgents". In fact, women and children are being slaughtered in our name.

Americanism threatens war on the world

2004-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

"Anti-Americanism" has long been a pejorative, used to denigrate critics of an imperial system. But it is the opposite, "Americanism", which threatens a war on the world.

The Secret Files that reveal how a nation was deported

2004-10-17T23:00:00+00:00

In this second article on the expulsion of the Chagos islanders, published in the Daily Express, London, John Pilger reveals more of the secret files that mark the conspiracy between Britain and the United States to 'cleanse' the main island, Diego Garcia.

Why we ignored Iraq in the 1990s

2004-10-03T23:00:00+00:00

Even before the 2003 war, we were attacking Iraqi civilians with our inhumane economic sanctions. Yet where were the media protesting against this injustice?

Understanding Australia's black uprising

2004-07-11T23:00:00+00:00

Aboriginal children today have the same life expectancy as white children in 1900. Yet most Australians can't understand why there was an uprising in Sydney this year.

John Pilger warns that the documentary form is an endangered species

2004-07-07T23:00:00+00:00

Writing in The Independent, John Pilger says that, in survey after survey, when people are asked what they want more of on television, they say documentaries - especially those that make make sense of news.

Another fake

2004-05-30T23:00:00+00:00

Shareholders wanted the Mirror editor out long before the allegedly bogus photos. Does anyone care that the BBC and other papers fall for the hoaxes of US and UK rulers?

A tribute to my mother

2004-05-16T23:00:00+00:00

My mother, aged 19, sold her books to pay the fare to her first teaching job in the bush. The currency of her generation was determination and courage.

Torture is news but it's not new

2004-05-06T23:00:00+00:00

Writing in the Daily Mirror, John Pilger recalls the news coverage of the war in Vietnam and how American atrocities and torture were not considered newsworthy. The same was true of the brutality of British colonial adventures.

Only Australia remains true to the uber-sheriff in Washington

2004-04-04T23:00:00+00:00

Ten years ago, I filmed secretly in East Timor, a small country in south-east Asia whose brutal occupation was largely unknown to the outside world.

The source of terror in Palestine

2004-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

No front pages in the west mourn victims of the enduring bloodbath in occupied Palestine, the equivalent of the Madrid horror week after week, month after month.

Universal justice is not a dream

2004-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

In an article for the Melbourne Age, John Pilger says that with the the establishment of an International Criminal Court, the promise of universal justice is no longer far-fetched.

Once again, white Australia is reminded of life behind its picture postcard

2004-02-23T00:00:00+00:00

Epidemics of disease ravage Aboriginal communities in Australia as they did the slums of 19th-century England. No wonder there are riots in Sydney.

Gilligan was an exception

2004-02-09T00:00:00+00:00

The war correspondent James Cameron was smeared as a "dupe of communism". "When they call you a dupe," he told me, "they're really complaining that you are not their dupe".

Another Hutton whitewash?

2004-02-05T00:00:00+00:00

Writing in the Daily Mirror, John Pilger asks whether the latest inquiry called by Tony Blair - into the "failure of intelligence" - will turn out, like the Hutton inquiry, as a whitewash.

The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine

2004-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

Writing in the Guardian, John Pilger reviews what he describes as a 'spell-binding' new documentary, S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, directed by the Cambodian film-maker, Rithy Panh.

Power, propaganda and conscience in the 'War on Terror'

2004-01-26T00:00:00+00:00

John Pilger delivers the Summer School Lecture at the University of Western Australia in Perth on power, propaganda and conscience in the 'war on terror', with special reference to the part played by Australian government, media and scholarship.

American terrorist

2004-01-12T00:00:00+00:00

Forget Hutton. He will not reveal what the US and UK authorities really don't want you to know: that radiation illnesses caused by uranium weapons are now common in Iraq.

Opposition views are absent at Dyke's BBC

2003-12-08T00:00:00+00:00

When Greg Dyke attacked American television's cheerleading coverage of Iraq, how did he manage to keep a straight face? The BBC gave even less voice to opposition views.

We know when Bush is lying - his lips move

2003-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

Blair and Straw dare to suggest that the millions who have rumbled the Bush gang are simply being "fashionably anti-American" - another desperate act by desperate men.

John Pilger laments the silence of the writers

2003-11-10T00:00:00+00:00

For the great writers of the 20th century, art could not be separated from politics. Today, there is a disturbing silence on the dark matters that should command our attention.

Colin Powell said Iraq was not a threat

2003-09-21T23:00:00+00:00

Writing in the Daily Mirror, John Pilger reveals that both US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Bush's closest adviser Condaleeza Rice said, in 2001, that Saddam Hussein was effectively disarmed and no threat - putting the lie to their own propaganda.

The Betrayal of Afghanistan

2003-09-19T23:00:00+00:00

In a major article in The Guardian magazine, John Pilger describes Afghanistan since its liberation from the Taliban, which he filmed for his latest documentary, 'Breaking the Silence'. Apart from notional freedoms, little has changed.

Put Blair in the dock

2003-09-14T23:00:00+00:00

While we are allowed to read internal e-mails in Whitehall, we can't see the traffic between Blair and Bush that would reveal the biggest lie of all.

Needed - an inquiry into a slaughter

2003-08-23T23:00:00+00:00

Writing in the Independent on Sunday, John Pilger says that, while the Hutton inquiry into the death of David Kelly has revealed more evidence of the deception behind the attack on Iraq, a full public inquiry into why Britain went to war is now needed.

Who are the extremists?

2003-08-21T23:00:00+00:00

Writing in the Daily Mirror, John Pilger identifies the root cause of the bloody bombing of the UN compound in Baghdad, which Washington and London have blamed this on 'extremists from outside'.

War on truth

2003-08-03T23:00:00+00:00

The White House sets the tone and the media echo a line that celebrates the victimhood of the invader and the evil of the Iraqis. And then London takes its cue.

Bush's Vietnam

2003-06-22T23:00:00+00:00

Once more, we hear that America is being "sucked into a quagmire". The rapacious adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan are going badly wrong.

The catalogue of Tony Blair's deceptions are now being revealed by the day

2003-06-02T23:00:00+00:00

In his latest article for the Daily Mirror, John Pilger argues that the "high crime" of the invasion of Iraq that "will not melt away" and says the catalogue of Tony Blair's deceptions are now being revealed by the day, unravelling any credibility left.

Britain supports terrorism

2003-05-25T23:00:00+00:00

The official version is that Britain's foreign policy is basically benevolent: that it promotes democracy, peace and human rights. The truth is that Britain supports terrorism.

Journalism is rotting away

2003-04-27T23:00:00+00:00

Something deeply corrupt is consuming journalism. A war so one-sided it was hardly a war was reported like a Formula One race, as the teams sped to the chequered flag in Baghdad.

The saving of one little boy must not be a cover for the crime of this war

2003-04-21T23:00:00+00:00

The unthinkable is becoming normal. The saving of one little boy must not be a cover for the crime of this war and we should not forget its true horror.

A crime against humanity

2003-04-13T23:00:00+00:00

They have blown off the limbs of women and the scalps of children. Their victims overwhelm the morgues and flood into hospitals that lack even aspirin.

We now glimpse the forbidden truths of the invasion of Iraq

2003-04-05T23:00:00+00:00

A man cuddles the body of his infant daughter; her blood drenches them. A woman in black pursues a tank, her arms outstretched; all seven in her family are dead. An American Marine murders a woman because she happens to be standing next to a man in a uniform. "I'm sorry,'' he says, "but the chick got in the way.''

"We dropped a few civilians", said Sgt Eric Schrumpf of the US Marines

2003-04-04T23:00:00+00:00

"We had a great day," said Sgt Eric Schrumpf of the US Marines last Saturday. "We killed a lot of people."

Today is a day of shame for the British military

2003-03-26T00:00:00+00:00

Today is a day of shame for the British military as it declares the Iraqi city of Basra, with a stricken population of 600,000, a "military target".

We all have a choice

2003-03-25T00:00:00+00:00

When Bush and Blair begin their illegal and immoral attack on a country that offers us no threat, we all have a choice.

Civil disobedience is the sole path left for those who cannot support the Bush-Blair pact of aggression

2003-03-17T00:00:00+00:00

Civil disobedience is the sole path left for those who cannot support the Bush-Blair pact of aggression. Only then will politicians on both sides of the Atlantic be forced to recognise the folly of their ways.

Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were almost certainly destroyed following the Gulf War

2003-03-13T00:00:00+00:00

The Blair Government has known, almost from the day it came to office in 1997, that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were almost certainly destroyed following the Gulf War.

Blair ignores Sun's smear of British journalist hanged by Saddam

2003-03-03T00:00:00+00:00

When Saddam hanged a British journalist in 1990, MI5 had the journalist smeared in the Sun, and the Mail agreed he was a spy. What did Blair say? John Pilger can find nothing.

As the world protests against war, we hear again the lies of old

2003-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

"A painful decision," say the supporters of an invasion. But it is not they who will feel the pain: it will be the Iraqi infants writhing in the dust when the cluster bombs fall.

Importance of the march against Iraq attack

2003-02-14T00:00:00+00:00

It is not possible to overstate the significance and urgency of the march and demonstration against an unprovoked British and American attack on Iraq, a nation with whom we have no quarrel and who offer us no threat.

The Observer: the great betrayal

2003-02-03T00:00:00+00:00

In its leaders supporting the war in Iraq, the Observer proves that it has truly buried its great liberal editor David Astor, and his principled, "freethinking" legacy.

Impeccable politicians who, at a safe distance, order the mass killing of ordinary people

2003-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

William Russell, the great correspondent who reported the carnage of imperial wars, may have first used the expression "blood on his hands" to describe impeccable politicians who, at a safe distance, order the mass killing of ordinary people.

George Bush's other poodle

2003-01-20T00:00:00+00:00

John Howard, Australia's PM, is the mouse that roars for America, whipping his country into war fever and paranoia about terrorism within.

The "secret" war which has seen a 300 per cent increase in bombing raids on Iraq

2002-12-20T00:00:00+00:00

The American and British attack on Iraq has already begun. While the Blair government continues to claim in Parliament that "no final decision has been taken", Royal Air Force and US fighter bombers have secretly changed tactics and escalated their "patrols" over Iraq to an all-out assault on both military and civilian targets.

Two years ago a project set up by the men who now surround George W Bush said what America needed was "a new Pearl Harbor". Its published aims have come alarmingly true

2002-12-16T00:00:00+00:00

The propaganda used to 'justify' war against Saddam aims only to distract from the real prize: Iraq's rich reserves of oil

2002-12-03T00:00:00+00:00

On November 7, the day before the United Nations Security Council voted on a resolution that made an American and British attack on Iraq more than likely, Downing Street began issuing warnings of imminent terrorist threats against the United Kingdom.

The fanatics who threaten murder

2002-10-06T23:00:00+00:00

The Palestinians are no longer alone; Israel, despite the craven intimidation of some of its supporters, has ceased to be immune from truthful media criticism.

Today, true democracy will demonstrate its resilience on the streets of London

2002-09-27T23:00:00+00:00

In the week that Parliament was manipulated by the Government and denied a proper vote on whether Britain should join the Bush gang in its assault on Iraq, many thousands of people will converge on London in what is expected to be the greatest demonstration against war for a generation.

The tragedy of an epic injustice that is at the root of Bush's and Blair's threats of war

2002-09-15T23:00:00+00:00

Last October, in the early hours of the morning, a young expectant mother called Fatima Abed-Rabo awoke with intense labour pains; and she and her husband Nasser set out in a friend's car for the hospital in Bethlehem, in Israeli occupied Palestine.

The Blair government continues to insist that Iraq poses a threat to the Middle East, despite clear evidence to the contrary

2002-08-26T23:00:00+00:00

The Blair government was told in January by the Americans that there was no justification for attacking Iraq in the "war on terrorism" and that their main aim was getting rid of Saddam Hussein who stood in the way of the West's control of Middle Eastern oil wealth.

'War on Terror' a smokescreen created by the ultimate terrorist, America itself

2002-07-21T23:00:00+00:00

As the West prepares for an assault on Iraq, John Pilger argues that 'war on terror' is a smokescreen created by the ultimate terrorist ... America itself.

Israel and the media

2002-06-30T23:00:00+00:00

If you got your news only from the television, you would have no idea of the roots of the Middle East conflict, or that the Palestinians are victims of an illegal military occupation.

Denying the Israeli past

2002-06-02T23:00:00+00:00

Ethnic cleansing attended the birth of Israel but, more than 50 years later, the country is still in denial about its bloody past. Those who speak out risk their jobs.

The response of Britain's media to the conspiracy in Venezuela provided an object lesson in how censorship works in free societies

2002-04-28T23:00:00+00:00

Last month, I wrote about Venezuela, pointing out that little had been reported in this country about the achievements of Hugo Chavez and the threat to his reforming government from the usual alliance of a corrupt local elite and the United States.

How dare George Bush preach peace to Israel when he's meeting Blair to plan war on Iraq

2002-04-04T23:00:00+00:00

George W Bush yesterday called on Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian cities occupied by its forces during the last week.He excused Israel's violence, but lectured the Palestinians and the rest of the Middle East on the need for restraint and a lasting peace. "The storms of violence cannot go on," said Bush. "Enough is enough."

Should we go to war against these children?

2002-03-25T00:00:00+00:00

A compliant press is preparing the ground for an all-out attack on Iraq. It never mentions the victims: the young, the old and the vulnerable.

Waging war against refugees

2002-01-28T00:00:00+00:00

Few asylum-seekers actually reach Australia's shores, and if they do, their treatment beggars belief.

Blair's meeting with Arafat served to disguise his support for Sharon and the Zionist project

2002-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

Tony Blair's heroic peacemaking is not as it seems. Take the Middle East. When Blair welcomed Yasser Arafat to Downing Street following 11 September, it was widely reported that Britain was backing justice for the Palestinians.

This war of lies goes on

2001-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

There is no victory in Afghanistan's tribal war, only the exchange of one group of killers for another. The difference is that President Bush calls the latest occupiers of Kabul "our friends".

September 11 - why weren't there similar outcries at earlier atrocities?

2001-10-03T23:00:00+00:00

This week saw the end of an exhibition I helped put on at the Barbican in London, devoted to photo-journalism that makes sense of terrible events.

Blair has made Britain a target

2001-09-20T23:00:00+00:00

The prime minister's "we are at war" statements are irresponsible in the extreme. It is said that some of his senior officials understand this, as do many MPs: thus the messages of "restraint" now being whispered to journalists.

Spoils Of A Massacre

2001-07-22T23:00:00+00:00

In Indonesia 35 years ago, a military dictator took over, a million people were killed and a red carpet was rolled out for western capital. It was the start of globalisation in Asia, a model for the rest of the world, leaving a legacy of sweatshops and corruption.

The state is more powerful than ever; the view that big business alone shapes the new world order is wrong

2001-07-08T23:00:00+00:00

There is a view fashionable in the media that the world is being taken over by huge multinational corporations, accountable to no one.

The violence of a few protesters in Gothenburg is trivial. Blair runs a violent government, which sells lethal weapons

2001-06-24T23:00:00+00:00

The young people who have had the courage to take to the streets on every continent, and were among the 20,000 protesters at Gothenburg, should take satisfaction from the panic of new right politicians like Blair and Berlusconi.

In the remotest parts of Australia's great outback, refugees are incarcerated, insulted and abused

2001-06-10T23:00:00+00:00

There has been a lot of political partying in Australia this year. First, there was the centenary of Federation, the coming together of the Australian states in 1901 as "a proud independent entity".

The salacious demolition job on Martha Gellhorn cannot obscure a remarkable human being

2001-04-15T23:00:00+00:00

The other day, the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism was awarded in honour of the great American reporter who lived in this country until she died three years ago. Gellhorn adhered to no consensus of the kind that shapes and distorts so much journalism. She regarded governments, indeed all authority, as her professional enemies, and their propaganda as "official drivel".

British and American pilots are blowing the cover...

2001-03-19T00:00:00+00:00

Britain and America's pilots are blowing the cover on our so-called 'humanitarian' no-fly zone.

Iraq: the great cover-up

2001-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

On the eve of an election campaign, the Blair government is attempting,with mounting desperation, to suppress a scandal potentially greater than the arms-to-Iraq cover-up. This is the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps many more, caused by decisions taken in Whitehall and Washington.

The Peter Hains beware...

2001-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

While his more senior colleagues in Whitehall and Washington understandably fall silent on the mounting deaths in Iraq, the Foreign Office minister Peter Hain has become a strangely aggressive voice in promoting the failed and lethal embargo.

US foreign policy has not changed since Vietnam and, potentially, it is more dangerous than ever

2000-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

The other day, an Indonesian friend took me to his primary school where,in October 1965, his teacher was beaten to death, suspected of being a communist.

Australia ignores the plight of the East Timorese, but keeps a watchful eye on their oil and gas

2000-12-11T00:00:00+00:00

The Australian prime minister, John Howard, recently described his government's actions over East Timor last year as "wholly honourable and decent".

The price of Vietnam being allowed to come out of isolation was the destruction of its health services

2000-11-27T00:00:00+00:00

In reporting Bill Clinton's visit to Vietnam, the BBC's diplomatic correspondent declared that what the Vietnamese needed was "more economic growth". The question begged: why send a reporter all the way to Hanoi when the British ambassador would have happily propagated this line?

The West has its reasons for validating Israel's violence; human rights are not an issue

2000-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

Richard Falk, professor of international relations at Cornell, once wrote that western foreign policy was formulated "through a self-righteous, one-way moral/legal screen [with] positive images of western values and innocence portrayed as threatened, validating a campaign of unrestricted political violence".

Charles Perkins: a tribute

2000-10-18T23:00:00+00:00

Charlie Perkins was, in many ways, Australia's Mandela. Indeed, had the Australian racial composition, been reversed, as in South Africa, he would have surely fulfilled that role.

Australia is the only developed country whose government has been condemned as racist by the United Nations

2000-10-12T23:00:00+00:00

According to the folksy writer Matthew Engel, the glories of the Olympic Games have a cathartic effect on nations. The 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles 'helped the US regain the confidence it lost in Vietnam'.

Labour claims its actions are lawful while it bombs Iraq, strarves its people and sells arms to corrupt states

2000-08-06T23:00:00+00:00

"All governments are liars," wrote the great American muckraker I F Stone, "and nothing they say should be believed." He exaggerated, although not by much.

A voice that shames those who are silent on Timor

2000-07-22T23:00:00+00:00

Last month Prime Minister Paul Keating launched a "trade and cultural promotion" with Indonesia. Surrounded by businessmen and representatives of the arts, Keating made an extraordinary speech that was praised in the Australian press for its "maturity".

Burma in the balance

2000-07-20T23:00:00+00:00

A military junta and multinational corporations on one side, and Buddhist democratic forces led by Aung San Suu Kyi on the other, are engaged in battle for Burma.

In the Gulf war, every last nail was accounted for, but the Iraqi dead went untallied. At last their story is being told

2000-06-25T23:00:00+00:00

The great American reporter Seymour Hersh is at war with the American military over his j'accuse in the New Yorker that a much-lauded general, now a member of President Clinton's cabinet, ordered his troops to fire on retreating Iraqis on the eve of the Gulf war ceasefire in 1991.

Turkey, which has killed 30,000 Kurds, has now invaded northern Iraq

2000-05-14T23:00:00+00:00

This month, two extraordinary men came to London and spoke about a silent holocaust, and not a word of what they said was reported.

Robin Cook's lies are worthy of David Irving, while the government perpetrates crimes against humanity

2000-04-30T23:00:00+00:00

The Foreign Office continues to send out its standard dissembling letter on Iraq. Dozens of copies have been forwarded to me by members of the public bemused or angered by the contempt in which they are clearly held by the civil servants responsible.

Try as he might, Robin Cook cannot give credence to his vast lies

2000-04-02T23:00:00+00:00

The facts of Iraq's epic suffering are now unassailable. The latest report by Unicef says that half a million young children have died in eight years of economic sanctions. That represents almost 200 deaths every day.

Iraq: yet again, they are lying to us

2000-03-20T00:00:00+00:00

The Foreign Office repeatedly hides the truth from the public: on Cambodia, on East Timor, on arms sales and now on sanctions.

Sanctions on Iraq kill 200 children every day; bombing raids have cost the taxpayer

2000-03-06T00:00:00+00:00

Last August, the defence minister John Spellar described the no-fly zones over Iraq as "international zones, designed by the international community". This is false.

Squeezed to Death

2000-03-04T00:00:00+00:00

Half a million children have died in Iraq since UN sanctions were imposed - most enthusiastically by Britain and the US. Three UN officials have resigned in despair. Meanwhile, bombing of Iraq continues almost daily. John Pilger investigates for the Guardian.

A Moral Outrage

1999-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

It was the public, not politicians, who forced the Australian government to end the betrayal of East Timor.

Phoney War

1999-10-18T23:00:00+00:00

The US is planning a massive intervention in Colombia under the pretext of fighting the 'narco-guerrilla'.

Australia's Under Side

1999-10-04T23:00:00+00:00

What is the "international community" really doing in East Timor? After their arrival almost two weeks ago, Australian troops have secured only the capital, Dili, and a few towns.

We helped them descend into hell

1999-09-22T23:00:00+00:00

It had been a long night of waiting for the Indonesian troop convoy to pass. Two of us then crossed the border into East Timor clandestinely, through a forest of dead, petrified trees that appeared as silhouetted needles around which skeins of fine white sand drifted, like mist. As the sun rose, there stood the surreal crosses.

Under the Influence

1999-09-20T23:00:00+00:00

For the few of us who reported East Timor long before it was finally declared news, the "disclosures" last weekend that Washington had trained Indonesia's death squads are bizarre.

Jakarta's Godfathers

1999-09-06T23:00:00+00:00

It is grotesque hypocrisy for Tony Blair to weep for the children of Dunblane.

As British bombs rain down daily on Iraq, the Blair intelligentsia worries about Martin Amis turning 50

1999-09-05T23:00:00+00:00

Following the "moral crusade" in the Balkans, there were calls for heretics to apologise. It was reminiscent of the hysteria surrounding the death of Diana Spencer and, like the froth on a cappuccino, blew away once reality was restored. The crusaders have now fallen silent, many realising they were gulled and lied to.

Western war reporting is selective and the real stories of the Kosovan crisis remain largely untold

1999-08-23T23:00:00+00:00

Last week, 14 members of the same Iraqi family were reportedly killed when their house was hit by a missile. There were no military installations nearby.

Fixed Race

1999-08-20T23:00:00+00:00

Australia is gearing up to host the 2000 Olympics, yet its own sporting history is far removed from the spirit of the Games. Some of its greatest sportspeople were denied the chance to make their mark. Why? Because of the colour of their skin. And even today, to be aborigine, is to be a second-class citizen.

Cowards of Oz

1999-07-26T23:00:00+00:00

Few care about their subjection to the Queen. But they're jumpy about the Asiatic hordes.

Moral Tourism

1999-06-14T23:00:00+00:00

Whatever Nato says, the war was waged against innocent civilians and the tyrant is still in place.

Acts of Murder

1999-05-17T23:00:00+00:00

How many NATO aircraft have really been shot down or crashed? This is suppressed, of course.

Nuclear War, courtesy of NATO

1999-05-03T23:00:00+00:00

Kosovo, like Vietnam, has liberal support. But what of our weapons?

In Baghdad, the babies are dying: there's no anaesthetic, no antibiotics, no clean water, and sometimes no breast milk

1999-05-02T23:00:00+00:00

On 26 March the New Statesman published a letter by Derek Fatchett, the Foreign Office minister, objecting to my suggestion that the enforced suffering of the people of Iraq by the US and British governments was a crime comparable with those of General Pinochet or General Suharto or Henry Kissinger.

Morality, don't make me laugh

1999-04-19T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger sees only one Balkan winner: the arms trade.

A private and quiet sacrifice

1999-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

Just as Aung San Suu Kyi is Burma's most famous heroine, her husband Michael Aris was one of its heroes.

Blair shed his tears for Diana. Does he have any for the 6,000 children being killed by the west in Iraq each month?

1999-03-19T00:00:00+00:00

Whether or not General Pinochet is sent for trial, the question looms: who is next? Henry Kissinger and George Bush come to mind. Their terrorism is documented from Chile to South-east Asia.

Armed only with a camera

1999-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

One of the greatest documentaries ever made is to be given a rare screening in Britain. John Pilger reveals how The Battle Of Chile records Pinochet's crimes against humanity.

Blood on Our Hands

1999-01-25T00:00:00+00:00

More than 200,000 people have been killed since Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975. For decades, the British government was complicit in these killings. All that was supposed to change in May 1997. Instead, it's been business as usual. John Pilger reports on the sham of Labour's ethical foreign policy.

Whatever the Defence Secretary says, the killing of 82 Iraqi civilians is a crime, which has achieved nothing

1999-01-22T00:00:00+00:00

The New Statesman last week published a letter from the Defence Secretary, George Robertson, who took exception to my description of his government's recent actions in Iraq as murder.

The press is obsessed with petty vendettas while British ministers continue to support a silent holocaust

1999-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

There was a great deal of publicity and empathy last week for the four tourists, two of them Britons, murdered in Yemen. There has been nothing for the 68 Iraqi civilians murdered by the American and British governments shortly before Christmas.

When the Olympics comes to Sydney, it will provide a facade for a shameful Australia

1998-12-11T00:00:00+00:00

Sydney is one of the world's most desirable cities. I grew up here and I keep coming back to my former home at Bondi, with its cocktail of salt spray, milk shakes, dogshit and other summer fragrances; a Hindu returning to the Ganges will understand.

A cry for freedom

1996-05-31T23:00:00+00:00

Arriving in Burma, the facades are almost normal: traffic in the streets of Rangoon, crowds in the markets and tea stalls, astrologers announcing the future at the great Shwedagon pagoda; families playfully dousing small ivory Buddhas in water.

In a Land of Fear

1996-05-03T23:00:00+00:00

For 34 years the people of Burma have been ruled by a military junta as tyrannical and secretive as any in the modern era. Now, desperate for hard currency, the country's dictators are at pains to establish Burma as a holiday destination.

Vietnam Now

1995-04-21T23:00:00+00:00

John Pilger reported the Vietnam War for a decade, right up until the last day. Twenty years on he returns to find a country facing a new battle. This time there are no bombs and there is no napalm. But already the civilian casualties are mounting again.

The West's 'dirty wink'

1994-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

In 1975 Indonesia invaded East Timor. Like Saddam's attack on Kuwait, the occupation was declared by the UN to be illegal. But no action ever followed. In the last 18 years a third of the East Timorese population has been killed, while Western governments have remained silent, or, like Britain, have sold arms worth hundreds of millions to Indonesia...