Photo of John Pilger by Maggie Hannan, licensed under Creative Commons attribution licenceI wanted to share with you a recent article by Australian whistle-blowing journalist John Pilger (I've blogged about him before) about the aftermath of the destruction of Cambodia in the 1970s by the Americans and then the Khmer Rouge. Pilger was one of the first journalists to enter this poverty-stricken country, where 2 million people had been murdered. He describes what he witnessed in haunting imagery. But what really caught my eye was when he mentioned that his news reports, along with the photos taken by Eric Piper, prompted readers of the British newspaper the Daily Mirror to send aid to 70,000 children in the first aid convoy from the western world.
In 1979, Pilger made a documentary about Cambodia, Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia. The ordinary British public donated £20 million to the Cambodians. Not the government - the people. This is a lot of money, but it was a HELL of a lot of money in 1979. The support helped to end the American/British blockade of Cambodia.
What I'm seeing in some of your blog posts is that you think a photographer has an ethical duty to publicise suffering so that people will act. I personally feel the same, and I think this amazing story provides outstanding support for that thesis.
I highly recommend reading this article - I think you will see why I admire Pilger so much.
