Remembering John Pilger
On Saturday, John Pilger, the pioneering Australian journalist, died at the age of 84.
Pilger spent decades as a monumental force in global journalism, using his platform to not only report the news but also to highlight injustices perpetrated by various governments and those in power. His pieces ranged from Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge to campaigning for the release of Julian Assange.
I first came across Pilger’s work in 2017 when I was working on an episode of the podcast about the Chagos Islands. Before then, I had never heard of this tiny archipelago in the Indian Ocean but John Pilger had been highlighting the plight of these people for years by that point. His work not only helped me to produce that episode but a further episode when the issue returned to the courts as well as an edition of this newsletter.
To really understand the heart-breaking history of the Chagos Islands, Pilger’s 2004 documentary is still the main resource that I would recommend. His recent passing is as good a reason as any to reproduce it here:
Rest in peace, John Pilger (1939-2023).