Pavita Khosa, Sydney
On December 1, 150 people came to hear John Pilger launch his latest book. The event was organised by the North Sydney Library.
Tell Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism and its Triumphs pays tribute to some of the greatest works of investigative journalism over the past 50 years. Pilger described it as his personal favourite, featuring 35 journalists who had the integrity "to tell the unofficial truth ... that challenges the received wisdom".
Pilger highlighted the lack of independent reporting on the Iraq war and the paucity of information on the effects of the UN blockade of Iraq that began in 1990.
Pilger discussed the vital role of information control today, and its special importance in generating war propaganda. He said that in the lead-up to the war on Iraq, the media played a crucial role in "legitimising and amplifying" the lies about weapons of mass destruction. Without the media's support, Pilger believes the war would not have occurred.
Pilger decried the Australian media's combination of concentrated ownership and lack of diversity, analogous to "big sharks in a small pond". He cited the 2004 Reporters Without Borders survey of media independence, in which Australia came 41st, just above various totalitarian countries.
Pilger praised Indymedia, ABC's Radio National and SBS's Dateline, although warned of increasing political pressure on the latter. Pilger ended the forum with a ringing endorsement of Green Left Weekly, ranking its reportage among the best in the world. He praised the quality of its "ongoing narratives" on both international and domestic issues. Pilger singled out the work of GLW's former Moscow correspondent, Renfrey Clarke, as the best he had seen on the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Ironically, when Socialist Alliance activists were distributing GLW outside the council hall after the forum, two council rangers threatened them with fines. When the activists then retreated to the footpath, the rangers declared all parts of North Sydney council off-limits and photographed the activists.
From Green Left Weekly, December 8, 2004.
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