There have been a wealth of tributes paid to John Pilger.
Anthony Hayward’s Guardian obituary recognises John as “a journalist who never shirked from saying the unsayable. Across half a century, in newspapers and in his documentary films… he became an ever stronger voice for those without a voice, and a thorn in the side of those in authority.” theguardian.com/media/2024/jan/01/john-pilger-obituary
The Sydney Morning Herald‘s obituary notes John’s “lifetime’s work to speak truth to power and stand up for the vulnerable, marginalised and dispossessed, often in hidden, unfashionable corners of the world such as East Timor, Vietnam and Palestine. His own country did not escape his scorching gaze, and he was relentless in his criticism of its treatment of Indigenous Australians.
It also states that “Pilger had a complicated relationship with his home country. While he was disapproving of the political classes and what he saw as their colonialist, imperialist foreign policies, he was quick to acknowledge the aspects of antipodean life that he loved, including the egalitarian nature of the beach and its diverse, multicultural society. Although he never lived in Australia again after he left in 1962, he returned frequently, saying in 2018, wherever I’ve reported from in the world, I’ve never forgotten Sydney.”
www.smh.com.au/national/crusading-journalist-john-pilger-always-backed-the-underdog-20220722-p5b3qx.html
John Pilger’s 1962 Baby Hermes typewriter
Consortium News lauds John as “one of the greatest journalists and filmmakers of any generation”. Patrick Lawrence writes that “All correspondents bring their politics with them – a natural thing, a good thing, an affirmation of their engaged, civic selves not at all to be regretted. The task is to manage one’s politics in accord with one’s professional responsibilities, the unique place correspondents occupy in public space. John understood this as well or better than any of us. It was the ballast that gave weight to everything he did.”
consortiumnews.com/2024/01/08/patrick-lawrence-the-outsider-among-us
Media Lens pays this heartfelt tribute to John: “How did his writing stand completely apart in delivering such inspirational, oxygenating impact? Part of the answer is that Pilger’s work transcended the dry intellectuality of more academic dissidents. He wrote with their precision and insight, but with an added dimension of passion, emotion and personal warmth. His writing is ablaze with an outrage rooted, not in some mindless ‘anti-American’ hatred, but in its exact opposite: a deeply felt love for ordinary people treated as trash by the powerful. Pilger really did care, injustice tortured him, and it is this compassion that is communicated to readers and viewers in every article, book, film and in the many emails he sent us over two decades. Remarkably, reading and watching Pilger enhances our sense of our own dignity because he reminds us of how much we can care, of how much we do care.”
www.medialens.org/2024/john-pilger-a-majority-of-one
Daniel Finn in Jacobin observes that “the mass murder of Palestinians in Gaza today is another object lesson in the reality that lurks beneath the rhetoric of Western politicians. Across the whole period since the 1960s, few individuals did more than John Pilger to bring home that reality to a mass audience, and the impact of his reporting will be felt for many years to come.”
jacobin.com/2024/01/john-pilger-obit-western-propaganda
Propaganda In Focus praises John’s defence of “the disenfranchised, the weak and the vulnerable against the rapacious colonialist power complexes that preyed upon the sectors of society that could not fight back. He was a champion of truth and many of us have stood on his shoulders to attempt to emulate his courage under fire. The world has lost a powerful force for justice and truth.”
propagandainfocus.com/journalist-and-film-maker-john-pilger-1939-2023
Gulf News describes John as “warrior of principled journalism”.
gulfnews.com/opinion/op-eds/the-inimitable-john-pilger-warrior-of-principled-journalism-1.100435672
The South China Morning Post comments that the “loss of a journalist of Pilger’s calibre and stature marks a deep loss for journalism at a time when the need for voices of reason has never been so acute”.
www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3249639/john-pilgers-death-loss-journalism-and-world
The Middle East Eye recalls this exchange between John and David Munro… “David Munro, the brilliantly gifted director and producer of 20 of John Pilger’s 50 films and documentaries once wrote to him, “You opened my eyes and I thank you, since when they’ve never been shut.” No one knew Pilger better than Munro and their friendship continued even after Munro moved on to other personal projects, with John saying, “We never exchanged a harsh word.”
It adds: “It is a fitting honour that The British Library holds the archive of Pilger’s huge work, accessible for history. New generations will learn there so much about the world seen from places like Nicaragua, Palestine, Cambodia, Timor Leste and Vietnam at firsthand, and also discover Washington decision-making in an unvarnished light.”
www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/john-pilger-life-telling-truth-power
BBC Radio 4’s obituary on The Last Word features his son Sam, also a journalist, who speaks movingly about his father.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001tsdm
You can also listen to John Pilger’s 1990 appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p00940hj
