Forgive me for not being an absolute authority on John Pilger (I'm still ploughing through 'Hidden Agendas'). That's not the issue. I went to see his sell-out talk at Humber Mouth because he represents the kind of journalism I admire and, if I'm honest, long for in my own career.
The kind of journalism I fell in love with more than a decade ago when I discovered the reports of Martha Gellhorn, one of the finest journalists of all time who bore witness to sixty years of war and world events. She wrote how it was, from the ground up, amplifying the voices of the little people trampled upon by the powerful. I stockpiled her books, read and re-read them and still do ('The View from the Ground' is my most precious, a blueprint for journalism).
Pilger coming to Hull for me was the next best thing. Gellhorn is dead and I'll never get a chance to hear her speak, especially about Iraq, about Blair, about Bush. Pilger knew Gellhorn: they talked. And like Pilger, Gellhorn had a sharp eye, a sharp intelligence and a sharp tongue and she used all three with guts.
Strangely, Gellhorn too was tall, leggy, white-haired in her later years, and handsome. At the end of the talk, I queued with others to have Pilger sign his latest book (I'll plough through that one next, I promise). I asked him, ''What would Martha make of all this that's going on in the world? Would she still be angry?'' He looked deadly serious and said, ''She was angry up until the day she died.''
Lee Karen Stow
John Pilger at the Ferens
By Martin J Deane
Blair is the most right wing Prime Minister I have ever known. And that includes Thatcher!
In a wide ranging talk on Tuesday night, John Pilger shared his experiences of nearly 40 years of investigative journalism giving a flavour of the man who, over 40 years, has made it an art. In his opening remarks, John Pilger said how he used to cover northern England for the Daily Mirror and how it was always its labour history that first attracted him to Hull.
His new book just out, Freedom Next Time, formed the basis of his talk covering 5 countries and looks at the kind of freedom each country has achieved.
It may not be rocket science but there are so few people of his calibre in mainstream journalism that many Britons may have never heard of the Chagos Islands, nor what we did to its people, or are convinced that peace and justice rule in Afghanistan or believe that going to war on Iraq was a good thing - were it nor for him.
As well as outstanding articles and books such as Heroes, Pilger has made films like Breaking the Silence on the U.S. agenda behind Afghanistan and Iraq, and Palestine is Still the Issue (remade in 2002), on the persecution of the Palestinian people by Israel.
John Pilger spoke on Afghanistan, South Africa, India, Palestine, Chagos and took questions from the audience...Read more at Thisisull.com
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