Australia-born investigative journalist and documentary maker John Pilger, known for his support for WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange, and his coverage of the aftermath of Pol Pot’s regime in Cambodia and the Thalidomide scandal, has died in London, his family said on Sunday.
Pilger, who had mostly lived in Britain since the early 1960s, had worked for Reuters, Britain’s left-wing Daily Mirror and commercial channel ITV’s former investigative program World In Action.
The ITV film Year Zero: The Silent Death Of Cambodia in 1979 revealed the extent of the Khmer Rouge’s crimes, and Pilger won an International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences award for his 1990s follow-up ITV documentary Cambodia: The Betrayal.
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Pilger also made the 1974 documentary for ITV called Thalidomide: The Ninety-Eight We Forgot, about the campaign for compensation for children after concerns were raised about birth defects when expectant mothers took the drug.
He received BAFTA’s Richard Dimbleby Award for factual reporting in 1991.
GIANT OF JOURNALISM
“It is with great sadness the family of John Pilger announce he died yesterday 30 December 2023 in London aged 84,” the family wrote on social media. “His journalism and documentaries were celebrated around the world, but to his family he was simply the most amazing and loved Dad, Grandad and partner. Rest In Peace.”
Kevin Lygo, managing director of media and entertainment at ITV, called Pilger a “giant of campaigning journalism.”
He had always “eschewed comfortable consensus” in favor of a “platform for dissenting voices over 50 years,” Lygo said.
Pilger also campaigned for the release of Assange, who has been embroiled in a lengthy battle against extradition to the US, and put up the cost of his bail.
Former Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters paid tribute, calling him a “friend” and a “great man.”
WikiLeaks called Pilger a “ferocious speaker of truth to power, whom in later years tirelessly advocated for the release and vindication of Julian Assange.”
OUTSPOKEN
During his career, Pilger made a series of remarks criticizing US and British foreign policy, and the treatment of indigenous Australians.
Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said on social media that he had given “a voice to the unheard and the occupied: in Australia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Chile, Iraq, East Timor, Palestine and beyond. Thank you for your bravery in pursuit of the truth — it will never be forgotten.”
His most recent documentaries included The Coming War On China, broadcast in 2016 on ITV.
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