A #Classic of Journalism: “The War On Democracy” by John Pilger

John Pilger has twice won the highest award in British journalism, Britains’s Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US. For ”The War On Democracy” he won the One World Media Award 2008.

“Many journalists now are no more than channelers and echoers of what George Orwell called the ‘official truth’ […] They simply cipher and transmit lies. It really grieves me that so many of my fellow journalists can be so manipulated […] Journalists don’t sit down and think, ‘I’m now going to speak for the establishment.’ Of course not. But they internalise a whole set of assumptions, and one of the most potent assumptions is that the world should be seen in terms of its usefulness to the West, not humanity. This leads journalists to make a distinction between people who matter and people who don’t matter […] It’s only when journalists understand the role they play in this propaganda, it’s only when they realize they can’t be both independent, honest journalists and agents of power, that things will begin to change.” (John Pilger)