John Pilger's death is a loss for journalism and the world
He is gone on the mountain,
He is lost to the forest,
Like a summer-dried fountain,
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When our need was the sorest.
Perhaps these classic lines from Walter Scott's Coronach, a Celtic lament for a dearly departed chieftain, can convey the sense of emotion and loss that I find myself unable to articulate in paying tribute to John Pilger.
As if the overall train wreck of a year that 2023 was in so many ways was not depressing enough, it had to end on an even lower note with the death on December 30 of one of the last, truly great journalists of our time.
This is a belated eulogy, but it's just as well that I write it weeks after the mainstream media obituaries have been read and forgotten, when everyone in this world of ever-shrinking attention spans has already moved on to whatever the next news cycle brings that is deemed InstaGoogleTweetFace-worthy. Consider this a humble attempt to keep his memory alive just a little while longer, to remind everyone that such a consequential voice of conscience is no longer with us.
I never got to meet the man in person, but I was fortunate enough to keep in touch with Pilger long distance over the last couple of years, and had the privilege of recording a long conversation with him on camera via video link in July 2022. An encouragingly large number of people watched and appreciated the interview shared on the South China Morning Post's YouTube channel, and he in turn was appreciative when I told him how well his words of wisdom on world affairs resonated among our audience.
When I contacted Pilger again late last year for a follow-up interview, he told me he had been unwell and was not long out of hospital but would perhaps be able to do it later. I did not realise how serious it was at the time, but had planned to check in on him again with a New Year's greeting, only to learn the news of his death.
The loss of a journalist of Pilger's calibre and stature seems all the more immense in these times, when public trust in the media is so low, sadly not without justification, and when so many tend to consume the news not to stay informed but rather to look for validation of their personal biases and identity politics. Never has the need for voices of reason like his been so acute, nor the replenishing pool so dry.
As a reporter, author and filmmaker, Pilger was a giant of journalism, an indefatigable seeker of truth and uncompromising chronicler of inconvenient facts that you would otherwise be hard-pressed to glean from the dominant narrative of the legacy Anglo-Saxon media and its conqueror's perspective of history.
His reporting on Asia, in particular, was eye-opening journalism, and his experience as a war correspondent covering major conflicts from Vietnam and Cambodia through to Iraq and across the Middle East shaped him into a tireless campaigner for the casualties of Western imperialism and interference. He was a staunch defender of the downtrodden, just as much as he was a fearless critic of the powerful, especially in the geopolitical context.
Pilger was deeply concerned about the possibility of the United States and its allies provoking a catastrophic war with China, and constantly called them out for it.
His 2016 documentary, The Coming War on China, should be mandatory viewing for anyone seeking to understand who exactly poses the greatest danger to world peace, and why it has everything to do with the mightiest superpower on the planet attempting to contain the rise of a rival by any means deemed necessary. What sounded so prescient in that exemplary piece of journalism seven years ago now seems alarmingly imminent.
He updated those sentiments in an opinion piece that the Post published in May 2023:
"I write this on the anniversary of the last day of the longest war of the 20th century, in Vietnam, which I reported and left me with vivid lessons.
"All through that war, the propaganda said a victorious Vietnam would allow the Great Yellow Peril to its north to sweep down. Countries would fall like 'dominoes'. Ho Chi Minh's Vietnam was victorious, and none of the above happened. Instead, Vietnamese civilisation blossomed, remarkably, in spite of the price they paid: 3 million dead by one count.
"If the current propagandists - call them provocateurs - get their war with China, this figure will be a fraction of what is sure to come."
You can imagine why this kind of heretical voice would not be allowed to interrupt the chanting of the "China-threat" mantra by the legacy Western media parroting the propaganda of their governments and politicians. Just as he was labelled a "pinko commie" for daring to say anything positive about China, Pilger was similarly derided for the slightest defence of Russia, and branded an "anti-Semite" for having the temerity to speak up for the Palestinians.
When I asked him what kept him going against such odds, he replied: "Sometimes I feel like giving up, but I have such a passion for journalism. It's addictive, and it's been addictive all my life, and I believe it is so important. And when you're faced with the day-after-day examples of the worst kind of journalism that isn't journalism at all, then I think that's only further encouragement to keep going."
Pilger was an inspiration to me when I started out as a rookie reporter, so I was unashamedly flattered when he expressed his own appreciation for my work, specifically my ranting about the hypocrisy of Western governments and their media acolytes preaching press freedom while one of their own, Julian Assange, rots in jail as a tragic victim of their vindictive double standards. Pilger fought for his release until the end.
"People like you make the world a better place," I told him on camera. Allow me to update that sentiment by declaring that the world is worse off without him, and my profession all the poorer for it.
Goodbye, John. In the words of Walter Scott again:
Like the dew on the mountain,
Like the foam on the river,
Like the bubble on the fountain,
Thou art gone, and for ever!
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2024. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
