John Pilger Was a Tireless Critic of Western Imperialism
The reporter John Pilger, who died at the end of 2023, showed what a life committed to attacking the powerful through journalism and taking the side of the oppressed looks like.
John Pilger addresses a mass antiwar demonstration marking the 10th anniversary of the Afghanistan war, in Trafalgar Square, London, on October 8, 2011. (Ian Nicholson / PA Images via Getty Images)
Journalism lost one of its brightest, undimmed stars when John Pilger died on the penultimate day of the old year.
Perhaps it was the fact that two of his great-great grandparents were Irish convicts transported to Australia that made him a champion of the underdog. For whatever reason, his loyalties were universally with the downtrodden: the indigenous people of his native Australia, the working class of the industrialized economies, the movements for national independence, and always the victims of the world’s great powers and their unrelenting war machines.
He made sixty documentary films and wrote extensively in the press, most famously in the Daily Mirror and the Guardian, the two most significant left-liberal newspapers in the UK. For his work, the industry rewarded him with countless awards, including Emmy’s and citations as Journalist of the Year and Reporter of the Year.
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