12. (Photo)journalists and the conscience of a nation

Photo of John Pilger by Maggie Hannan, licensed under Creative Commons attribution licence

I 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.

6. Media lies and war

I thought you might like to read a blog by John Pilger about how the corporate-owned media manufacture lies in order to comply with warmongering government agendas. Yes, I'm talking about the United States, the sole military superpower. For those of you who have never heard of John Pilger, now is the time to get to know him. He's an Australian journalist who reports on the plight of the downtrodden and cuts through the lies and deceptions of so-called democratic governments with extraordinary clarity and insight. It is no exaggeration to say that reading Pilger in any depth will permanently change your view and understanding of the world - and ensure that your prior naivete never returns!