Legendary Australian journalist and documentary filmmaker John Pilger has sadly died aged 84, his family have announced.

A statement posted to his account on X said: “It is with great sadness the family of John Pilger announce he died yesterday 30 December 2023 in London aged 84. “His journalism and documentaries were celebrated around the world, but to his family he was simply the most amazing and loved Dad, Grandad and partner. Rest In Peace.”

It is with great sadness the family of John Pilger announce he died yesterday 30 December 2023 in London aged 84. His journalism and documentaries were celebrated around the world, but to his family he was simply the most amazing and loved Dad, Grandad and partner. Rest In Peace. pic.twitter.com/j90QTAPgzC

— John Pilger (@johnpilger) December 31, 2023

John Richard Pilger was an Australian journalist, writer, scholar, and documentary filmmaker. He had mainly been based in Britain since 1962. He had also been a visiting professor at Cornell University in New York and was a strong critic of American, Australian, and British foreign policy, which he considered to be driven by an imperialist and colonialist agenda. 

John Pilger was renowned for his truthful bravery, and had twice won British journalism’s highest award, that of Journalist of the Year, for his work all over the world, especially as a war correspondent.

He had also been celebrated for his documentary filmmaking and had won France’s Reporter sans Frontières, an American television Academy Award, an ‘Emmy’, and the Richard Dimbleby Award, given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, for a lifetime’s factual broadcasting.

John Offered a Radical Approach to Current Affairs

Kevin Lygo, the managing director of media and entertainment at ITV, said: “John was a giant of campaigning journalism. He had a clear, distinctive editorial voice which he used to great effect throughout his distinguished filmmaking career. His documentaries were engaging, challenging and always very watchable.

“He eschewed comfortable consensus and instead offered a radical, alternative approach on current affairs and a platform for dissenting voices over 50 years. “John’s films gave viewers analysis and opinion often not seen elsewhere in the television mainstream. It was a contribution that greatly added to the rich plurality of British television. 

John Pilger an “Agent of the People.”

John Pilger was undoubtedly one of the greatest, most fearless, yet much-maligned and censored campaigning journalists. He was also a genuinely good human being which can be seen in his many quotes some of which are below.

“Journalism is about holding power accountable, asking uncomfortable questions, and giving a voice to the voiceless” “The real test of journalism is not just reporting what is happening but why it is happening”

“You’re working within a system that is inherently hostile to truth telling. One only has to see the media reaction to the truth tellers Edward Snowden, Julian Assange. The bitter reaction of people who shamed much of the media, almost at a stroke”

“The whole essence of media is not about information. It’s about power.” “It is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agendas of the message and the myths that surround it.”

“If those who support aggressive war had seen a fraction of what I’ve seen, if they’d watched children fry to death from Napalm and bleed to death from a cluster bomb, they might not utter the claptrap they do.”

“The major western democracies are moving towards corporatism. Democracy has become a business plan, with a bottom line for every human activity, every dream, every decency, every hope. The main parliamentary parties are now devoted to the same economic policies – socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor – and the same foreign policy of servility to endless war. This is not democracy. It is to politics what McDonalds is to food.”

“In the end, it’s about the people – those who suffer, those who are responsible, and those who care enough to take a stand” “The role of a journalist is to challenge the status quo, not serve it” “Official truths are often powerful illusions” “Empathy is the fuel for investigative journalism”

“The powerful fear truth, for truth has the power to topple their empires” “Our duty is to speak truth to power, regardless of the consequences” “The greatest crime of war is not only the loss of life, but the loss of truth”

“There isn’t a war on terror, there is a war of terror” “Journalism should be a beacon of hope in a world of darkness”

“Many journalists now are no more than channelers and echoers of what 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 that they become really what the French describe as functionaires, functionaries, not journalists”

“The true measure of a journalist is not their popularity, but their ability to challenge the powerful and give voice to the powerless” “Silence in the face of injustice is complicity“

“Spartacus was the rebellious leader of Rome’s slaves in 71-73 BC. There is a thrilling moment in the Kirk Douglas movie Spartacus when the Romans call on Spartacus’s men to identify their leader and so be pardoned. Instead hundreds of his comrades stand and raise their fists in solidarity and shout, ‘I am Spartacus!’ The rebellion is under way. Julian and David are Spartacus. The Palestinians are Spartacus. People who fill the streets with flags and principles and solidarity are Spartacus. We are all Spartacus if we want to be”.

Tributes to John Pilger

Many more tributes have been shared over social media platforms, for the immensely well thought of man. He will be sorely missed.

Below is one of John Pilger’s documentaries shot in 2002.

John Pilger Documentary – Palestine is Still the Issue 2002

John Pilger, an Agent of the People – 9th October 1939 – 30th December 2023, age 84 – May he Rest in Peace.