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| BEWARE OF THE OBAMA HYPE. WHAT 'CHANGE' IN AMERICA REALLY MEANS |
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| In his latest column for the New Statesman, 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? |
| | 'HEROES, THE FILMS OF JOHN PILGER 1970-2007' RELEASED IN ONE BOX SET |
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'Heroes, The Films of John Pilger 1970-2007' is the first definitive collection of ground-breaking films from John Pilger’s career.
Containing all of John Pilger's documentaries from the last four decades, the 16-disc DVD set also includes, for the first time, 'The Outsiders', Pilger’s Channel 4 series of interviews from the 1980s, as well as the award-winning cinema film 'The War on Democracy' and an updated edition of Anthony Hayward’s filmography of Pilger’s work.
A second new John Pilger DVD is also released. 'Behind The Facade' is the fourth in the series of UK box sets and contains 11 more previously unavailable documentaries.
Find out more and buy both of these new DVDs in the Films section. You can also read an interview with John Pilger in the Independent to coincide with the release. |
| | 'THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY' WINS BEST DOCUMENTARY AT THE 2008 ONE WORLD AWARDS |
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'The War on Democracy', directed by John Pilger & Chris Martin, won Best Documentary at the prestigious One World Media Awards in London on 12 June 2008. It beat a field that included the documentary Oscar winner, 'Taxi to the Dark Side'.
The citation read: "There are six criteria the judges are asked to use to select the winner of this award: the film's impact on public opinion, its appeal to a wide audience, its inclusion of voices from the developing world, its high journalistic or production standards, its success in conveying the impact of the actions of the world's rich on the lives of the poor and the extent to which it draws attention to possible solutions. One film met every one of these. It was the winner of the award: John Pilger's 'The War on Democracy'."
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| | 'REPORTING THE WORLD' RELEASED ON DVD |
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A new John Pilger DVD box-set has been released in the UK, the third in a series which already includes 'In The Name Of Justice' and 'Documentaries That Changed The World'.
The 3-disc set 'Reporting The World' includes 15 more Pilger documentaries from his long and distinguished career, including 'Vietnam: Still America's War', 'The Secret Country' and 'Heroes'.
Find out more in the Films section. |
| | 2008 MARTHA GELLHORN PRIZE |
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| The 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for journalism has been shared by two 'extraordinary' winners - Dahr Jamail and Mohammed Omer. |
| | 'THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY' RELEASED ON DVD |
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Following ITV's showing of 'The War on Democracy' last August, more than 10,000 viewers contacted this website to ask about DVD distribution of the film.
'The War on Democracy' was released on DVD in Britain, the US and Australia in January and February 2008. Distribution throughout the US is through Bullfrog, which has carried many of Pilger's collected films.
Lionsgate and Hopscotch marketed the DVD following their successful cinema distribution of the film.
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| | 'INSIDE BURMA' RELEASED ON DVD IN AUSTRALIA |
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A new John Pilger DVD, 'Inside Burma: Land of Fear', is to be released in Australia in February 2008. The film, first shown in 1996 and updated in 1998, exposes the history and brutality of one of the world's most repressive regimes. The film includes an interview with Aung San Suu Kyi.
Read John Pilger's latest article on Burma, published in the New Statesman in October 2007. In the same month, Pilger also paid tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi at a London meeting organised by PEN and the Writers' Network of Burma.
All Burma articles by John Pilger. |
| | A CHANGE IS GONNA COME |
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'The War on Democracy' features the music of the great Chilean balladeer Victor Jara and the legendary American soul singer Sam Cooke (pictured right).
John Pilger describes Cooke's 'A Change Is Gonna Come' as "one of the finest, most lyrical pieces of black music ever written and performed. I was in the southern United States when it was released. It was the time of the civil-rights movement, and Cooke's song spoke to and for all people struggling to be free. The same is true of the ballads of the Jara, whose songs celebrated the popular democracy of Salvador Allende before Pinochet and the CIA extinguished it." www.samcooke.com |
| | THE RISING OF LATIN AMERICA - THE GENESIS OF 'THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY' |
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| "Modern fictional cinema rarely seems to break political silences. The very fine Motorcycle Diaries was a generation too late. In this country, where Hollywood sets the liberal boundaries, the work of Ken Loach and a few others is an honourable exception. However, the cinema is changing as if by default. The documentary has returned to the big screen and is being embraced by the public." John Pilger writes in the Guardian as his acclaimed film 'The War On Democracy' hits UK cinemas. |
| | THE INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT - PILGER AT THE SOCIALISM 2007 CONFERENCE IN CHICAGO |
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John Pilger addressed the Socialism 2007 conference in Chicago on 16 June. He spoke about what Edward Bernays called the "invisible government which is the true ruling power" - the media - and how propaganda so often disguises itself as journalism.
Read transcript | Watch video |
| | NEW COLLECTION OF PILGER FILMS OUT ON DVD |
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John Pilger DVDs are now available to buy in the UK.
Released on DVD for the first time and personally chosen by John Pilger, the Documentaries That Changed The World & In The Name Of Justice box sets bring together 24 of Pilger's most hard-hitting and inspirational films.
You can also buy John's Australian and American DVDs. More |
| | 'FREEDOM NEXT TIME' UPDATED & OUT IN PAPERBACK |
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A fully updated paperback edition of John Pilger's latest book, Freedom Next Time, is published by Black Swan. For details contact Stina Smemo on ssmemo@transworld-publishers.co.uk
When Nelson Mandela stepped out of prison in 1990, the elation in South Africa and around the world was palpable. But true freedom for his people remains a distant dream. John Pilger describes how people battling to free themselves often glimpse freedom, only to see it taken away.
In South Africa, India, Palestine, Afghanistan and the forgotten Chagos islands, Pilger's vivid eyewitness reporting and tenacious interviews with the powerful blow away the secrets and lies of our rulers and turn a searchlight on to events consigned to shadows by an unrecognised, yet virulent censorship.
Click here to read the Guardian's review of this 'outstanding' book and John Pilger's impressions of the Hay Festival, where he launched 'Freedom Next Time'. |
| | VICTORY FOR THE CHAGOS ISLANDERS |
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The Appeal Court in London has upheld the previous High Court declaration that the expulsion of the people of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean by the British government was "repugnant, illegal and irrational". The Chagos Islanders are now free to return to their homeland. They were expelled during the 1960s and 1970s in order to hand this British colony to the Americans for a military base.
Stealing a Nation, the Pilger film broadcast on ITV in 2004, first exposed the scandal. Out of Eden, an edited extract from John Pilger's new book Freedom Next Time, was published in the Guardian earlier this year.
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| | JOURNALISM AS A WEAPON OF WAR |
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In April 2006, John Pilger addressed the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University, New York, in company with Seymour Hersh, Robert Fisk and Charles Glass.
He argued that censorship by journalism is rife in Britain and the US - and it means the difference between life and death for people in faraway countries.
Read the complete or the abridged version of the address, which featured on the front cover of the New Statesman (right). |
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| UNDER COVER OF RACIST MYTH, A NEW LAND GRAB IN AUSTRALIA |
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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. |
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| THE DIPLOMACY OF LYING |
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In his latest column for the New Statesman, 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. |
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| THE PEOPLE'S SPORTING STAR WHO HAD 'THE GRACE' |
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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. |
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| SOUTH AFRICA: THE LIBERATION'S BETRAYAL |
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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. |
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| THE NEW WORLD WAR - THE SILENCE IS A LIE |
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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. |
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| A MURDEROUS THEATRE OF THE ABSURD |
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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. |
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| DON'T FORGET YUGOSLAVIA |
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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. |
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| THE LIES OF HIROSHIMA ARE THE LIES OF TODAY |
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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. |
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| OBAMA, THE PRINCE OF BAIT-AND-SWITCH |
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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. |
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| HOW BRITAIN WAGES WAR |
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John Pilger describes the insidious militarisng of Britain as the effects of two colonial wars and the cover-up of atrocities come home. |
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| ONE JOURNALIST'S STORY: FROM TRIUMPH TO TORTURE |
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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. |
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| IN THE CAUSE OF FEAR AND IGNORANCE |
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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. |
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| IN THE GREAT TRADITION, OBAMA IS A HAWK |
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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. |
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| FROM KENNEDY TO OBAMA: LIBERALISM'S LAST FLING |
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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. |
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