A major US military build-up is underway in the Asia Pacific, with the purpose of confronting China. John Pilger raises the alarm on an underreported and dangerous provocation. When I first went to Hiroshima in 1967, the shadow on the steps was still there. It was an almost perfect impression of a human being at ease: legs splayed, back bent, one hand by her side as she sat waiting for a... Continue Reading
In this guest edition of The Interview, John Pilger talks to Julian Assange, the founder and editor of WikiLeaks. Julian Assange, the founder and editor of WikiLeaks, gave this interview to John Pilger in the embassy of Ecuador in London where he has lived as a political refugee for more than four years. Granted asylum by the government of Ecuador, Assange faces arrest and extradition to... Continue Reading
Those in power in America do not like to see the status quo challenged. The American journalist Edward Bernays is often described as the man who invented modern propaganda. The nephew of Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psychoanalysis, it was Bernays who coined the term “public relations” as a euphemism for spin and its deceptions. In 1929, he persuaded feminists to promote cigarettes for... Continue Reading
The nuclear risk is obvious, though suppressed by the media across “the free world,” says John Pilger. The exoneration of a man accused of the worst of crimes, genocide, made no headlines. Neither the BBC nor CNN covered it. The Guardian allowed a brief commentary. Such a rare official admission was buried or suppressed, understandably. It would explain too much about how the rulers of the... Continue Reading
Pro-Brexit voters have struck a blow for real peace and democracy in Europe, says John Pilger. The majority vote by Britons to leave the European Union (EU) was an act of raw democracy. Millions of ordinary people refused to be bullied, intimidated and dismissed with open contempt by their presumed betters in the major parties, the leaders of the business and banking oligarchy, and the... Continue Reading
The election of Trump or Clinton is the old illusion of choice that is no choice: two sides of the same coin. Returning to the United States in an election year, I am struck by the silence. I have covered four presidential campaigns, starting with 1968; I was with Robert Kennedy when he was shot and I saw his assassin, preparing to kill him. It was a baptism in the American way, along with the... Continue Reading
There is a criminal silence around Australia’s treatment of its indigenous people. I had a call from Rosalie Kunnoth-Monks the other day. Rosalie is an elder of the Arrernte-Alyawarra people who lives in Utopia—a vast and remote region in the "red heart" of Australia. The nearest town is Alice Springs, more than 200 miles across an ancient landscape of spinifex and swirling skeins of red... Continue Reading
At present, it’s a war of propaganda, lies and distraction, says John Pilger. But this can change in an instant. I have been filming in the Marshall Islands, which lie north of Australia, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Whenever I tell people where I have been, they ask, “Where is that?” If I offer a clue by referring to “Bikini,” they say, “You mean the swimsuit.” Few... Continue Reading
East Timor won its independence in 1999 with the blood and courage of its people. But the tiny democracy was then bullied by Australia, says John Pilger. Secret documents found in the Australian National Archives provide a glimpse of how one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century was executed and covered up. They also help us understand how and for whom the world is run. The documents... Continue Reading
The Julian Assange affair is rooted in America. The time to free the WikiLeaks founder is now, says John Pilger. One of the epic miscarriages of justice of our time is unraveling. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention—the international tribunal that adjudicates and decides whether governments comply with their human rights obligations—has ruled that Julian Assange has... Continue Reading
