as arts as culture, to finish the 1st year and wanted to continue his studies there to find a home, it was an intelligent student. he went abroad to complete his education. after graduating from high school with honors, she went to russian, finish the 1st year. he was happy, we kept in touch with him and were old please. the height of even can be done. this attack was backed by the u. s. america always foster's terrorism, and does not distinguish between innocence and enemies. mohammed was martyred, make god have mercy on his soul and his family the so it continues on line right now with all t dot com along with the rest of our top stories as well. i keep sharing a sub today with all of us here. the new statement oxy international,

the mothership, and most cope with back soon, the top of the every generation has a journalist to whom most people can point as being transformative in world events . here in the united states, we still talk about bob woodward and carl bernstein, who broke the news of the watergate scandal which led to the resignation of president richard nixon. robert parry broke the story of the iran contra affair, and seymour hersh told the world about them. ely, mastercard, during the vietnam war? well, there's another giant of journalism who died recently. and today we're going to remember his life. i'm john to reaku. welcome to the whistle blowers

the . 2 2 2 2 2 john pilcher wasn't australian journalist, writer scholar and documentary filmmaker. he was a student of us, british and australian foreign policy, which he considered to be driven by expansionist agendas. pills you had a very long career in journalism 1st as a reporter, then as an editor and all the while. as a filmmaker, he produced more than 50 documentaries, many of which were highly awarded, including one with the best of the british version of the academy awards. pilcher became a household name in the 1970s when he secretly entered cambodia. in the aftermath of the overthrow of pol pot's and broke the story of the cambodian genocide, which became known as the killing fields, those stories and the accolades that went with them. we're just the beginning for

john pilcher. he became a frequent consultant for television news programs on the events of the day. his books became international best sellers, and he spent in years as a friend, colleague, and advisor to would give weeks co founder julian assange. today we will celebrate the life of john pilcher with 2 friends and former colleagues were joining 1st by jo lorio. he's the editor in chief of consortium news founded by the late robert perry. and he's a former journalist for the boston globe. the wall street journal. and the times of london. joe, thanks so much for being with us. no problem, john. good to see you joe. let's start with your own personal experience with john pilcher. the 2 of you were a long time friends where and how did you meet? and when did you begin working together on issues like wiki, leaks? i've known john for about 60. i've knew of his work, of course, for many years, for decades. extremely big. admire like so many millions of people. and i got to know him when i became interested short,

he moves back in 2018. so about 6 years ago he knew bob, harry, he was on the committee of the month of gal horner ward, and bob, the one that award. so they and he really appreciated what about did and, but consortium is was and when i became editor i invited him to become a board member, which he did. and then i began interviewing with him on our webcast several times and i met with him several times in the in sydney where i was there. we met at various occasions we actually 1st time we met in person was at a, an event for julian, the sons' we bought spoke and an outdoor event in martin place in sydney. and i had dinner with him at a rolling club in sydney. john was a fanatical fan of rowing. he grew up and was a roller and long term growing contracts where his reception for his funeral on tuesday was here in london at the thames rowing club. so that he was an

extraordinary man. he made it look easy. he made it look easy, john and i can tell he hasn't chick practitioner of the same profession. it is not easy to why he did it. i think so many great things that could be said about him. but one of the most important things for me is how he connected the decisions of what he called impeccable politicians in london and brussels in washington and the suffering that their decisions caused it mostly poor countries in developing world . john pilcher had a huge impact on the way the world saw the genocide in cambodia. he produced a documentary after his investigative work there called year 0. the silent death of cambodia. that film was shown in schools all across the u. k. and viewers spontaneously donated some $45000000.00 and solicited to help rebuild cambodia after watching that film tell us about the work that he did there. and about the results of that work in cambodia and abroad. his most important film,

probably of the 60 films that he made was about him body. the 1st, when i can body your 0, which the british on the students name, one of the greatest, talking some documentaries of the 20th century. and it certainly is. and there is a section in there where he looks into the camera and, and says that it says that very thing that the decisions of these uh, he's showing children. cambodian children suffering is just a heart wrenching film to see this was right after the camera rouge have been driven out by the vietnamese who intervened to stop the cambodian genocide, the only real evidence or example of responsibility to protect that. i know if they actually did that, the v and amazing, intervene for that reason to stop the killing of the kid. my roof backed by the united states and britain. and i guess what, they were opposed to the vietnam. he's doing that. and john looks in the camera with these children dying. it's hard to look at. and he says,

these children are at the end of a process, begun by impeccable politicians who took their decisions a great distance from the results of the savagery. their style may have been different from paul part, but the effect of the same. the bombs alike following rain, wrote a child in 1973 a year in which the tonnage of bombs dropped in cambodia exceeded by half. the entire tonnage dropped on japan in world war 2. the price of a cambodian life was incidentally a $100.00 compensation of any quotes of british journals who says that print seeing, look. he said that the 2 men most responsive for the tragedy in cambodia today arm and as 19 seventy's night late seventy's or mister nixon and doctor kissinger, expanding the warrant to my country. they killed a lot of americans and many other people and they treated and they started, they created that came a roof. so this is to me, the essence of jump feel just work is that he did not leave alone. the decisions of

the leaders of the west and the, and the suffering that they caused, that the corporate media establish meaning that he was a part of studiously worked to cover up to break that link between the decisions of the west and leaders and the suffering on the ground junk pills or seem to have something of a soft spot for the little guy for the oppressed, for the downtrodden. we saw that in cambodia, but he was also outspoken in his support and activism for us really as indigenous people. he long criticized australia as government for its treatment of the country's indigenous people, which he compared to south africa's apartheid system. and he specifically criticized australia as quote, the only developed country whose government has been condemned as racist by the united nations committee on the elimination of racial discrimination and quote, what impacted his work have on the rights of native australians. well, that's

a good question. i think he surely was part of a movement as he described in his book, a secret country where there was something really that was similar to what happened in the united states with the american indian movement where the camera front and center issue. again, there's never been a treaty between australia and any of the indigenous people. i liked the treaties of the us had and broke it. so many native tribes as they started to organize and they had a voice. there weren't changes in government uh, government changes that helped give them more rights and i think jump till jump slate and instrumental role and public pressure that was brought on the government to make those changes. and i think he needs to be applauded about his, from utopia, about indigenous is just extraordinary. and it points out what a great interview he was. you know, i'm, i make the argument that his greatness a lot of his greatness just because of the cowardice and the laziness of his contemporaries. he just did his job as a reporter and they, they did their job of supporting what the rules of the west wants wanted the people

to know. and john pilcher, when he sat down with a c, i a operative and he presented was the facts of the suffering that celia and causes. and you have to verify what was going around on twitter again after john died. and, and he also set down with a government official in, in australia where they found, we found that they had lied to these government fruits and lied about rates by a bridge, any man in a certain town. and he exposed that and he was able to confront as a person, has done many andrews myself. that is the hardest and even to do for me anyway, when you get the evidence, i guess a room door and then you present and you confront them with it. and they're going to be very hostile to you and he was very calm. the way he presented that not only did he stand up for the rights of, of originates in australia, but also a working class. the people in australia and england in 1971. he did

a film uh for i tv. it's called conversations with a working man, and he followed the life of it's a, it's a half, it's a, i think it's a 45 minute film about this guy, john walker. and he works in a di factory and i'm believe will be horrible conditions and he's involved in the union and morning wanting to strike. and john really reveals how awful the life of a working class man was backed in 1971. and when i gave a speech in front of the new york, uh, the concert bridge, consulate in new york and assigned rally, i blamed britain for being a co participant with united states in imperial adventures. they aren't the portal that most people think they are drawn, wrote me an e mails praising my speech, which tells you that is really something to get an email from tom pilcher, appraising your work and then you i told him that i had just seen this film and he said he was one of his favorite films and we discussed whether this man might still be alive. and while i'm in britain,

i'm going to go and try to find him or his defendants, people in that town in yorkshire, a as a way to see well how, what impact jump children had there. so john was way ahead of the game and criticizing neal liberal policies of boucher, he wrote about 5 of the stories in the new york times in the early 19 eighties period went that you took over and that was his theme. what's coming to want to destroy the lives of many working people and that this is, this is the wrong way to go. and of course, this was just one that was getting started. and i want to mention of the new york times that publish those articles. they didn't write one word about jump hilcher in terms of an arbitrary and this just shows you how the main stream really marginalized, john pilcher, and really, as he said, he had a space in growing up in the mainstream media as a reporter with the daily mirror and he was all over the world reporting. and then he made those for, and he had an extraordinary period where they, but there was a john told was allowed to work within the main stream. and then it closed down.

and he was driven out. guardian got rid of him, the new station got rid of him and he started writing for independent media like consorting moves. and he really liked consorting moves and that really made me happy too. he said it was like reading a real newspaper, the kind of newspaper that he knew and he wrote for growing up john off and put himself in danger when chasing a story. one thing that many people don't know, including many who have followed his work, is that he actually snuck into east timor during the brutal indonesian occupation of that country and shot a documentary called death of a nation. the timor conspiracy. that documentary was so well received, that it contributed to an international outcry that eventually led to the withdrawal of indonesia from east timor and to the countries independence. but the australian foreign minister at the time, gareth evans condemned john saying, quote, pills here has a track, record of distorted sensationalism,

mixed with sanctimony and quote. that statement is interesting to me because it doesn't deny a single thing that john killed you said in the documentary. so why were so many insiders and government officials, so anti pills or what was it that they were so afraid of your troops as the truth about what they were doing? and john went and found it, and it wasn't easy, but he did it and that's what he was after. and he would take it to a country like that. he would go to cambodia right after the king. my roof left. he was there on the ground to show the people and the suffering. and then he confronted, as i said, the government officials, they don't want journalists like that. they don't want journalists, you know, the world courageous should never be put in front of the journalist of journals for really doing their job. but if there's 2 journalists in the last half century that have deserved that, of course it's junk children, his good friend julian sondra, which he's a great, great, was a great defender and

a great friend off. and john ad julian has really lost a, another friend after losing daniel ellsberg last year. so john pilcher did what western governments pretend journalism journal a should do. they say they defend freedom of the press, but never want them to really do because when they really do, they start to condemn the declassified. you carry out a piece of the day about certain documents that have been declassified. british government documents that showed the jump told you were certainly on their radar and they were, they were upset with him. they didn't like what he was doing and they want to do whatever they can and how you're going to put jump builder in jail. right. so they got julia saunders in jail now you couldn't put pilcher in jail, but you can get them fired or blackballed and blacklisted away from the main stream . he was a star report, a growing up at the mirror and he and in cinema and on television. and they found a way to silence him. and i was happy that the consortium is one of the outlets

that he was able to continue to credibly put farm work right up until the last stage. jo, laurie a journalist and editor. thank you so much for being with us today. we appreciate you coming on the show and talking about your friend and your former colleague john pills. you're, you're welcome john, to talk to you. so we're going to take a short break and when we come back we'll discuss john hilders work on behalf of which he leeks. and julian assigns with another of his friends. randy critical. don't go away the the,

the welcome back to the list of lawyers and john to reaku. we're happy to be joined by randy credit. co. randy is a long time comedian and social justice activist. he's a former director of the william and counsellor fund for social justice and the host of the radio show live on the fly, which airs every friday afternoon from 3 to 4 pm on new york's w. b. a. i radio were speaking about the green john pills or the australian journalist editor, author and filmmaker who passed away in december 2023. randy, thanks so much for being with us. hey, it's great to be back. it's always great to be on. we do. john. thank you for inviting me once again. randy, i only got to know john told her late in his life and in the context of his support for julian assigned gen for wiki leaks. tell us about the relationship between culture and assigned. how did they become acquainted? and was john a week a week supporter from the beginning?

yes, i was totally amazed, mesmerized by the revolutionary journalistic work of julia. besides, go away back. i think before 2010, i've been review them 30 times over the last 8 years and he goes way back. he gave a julian a 2010 the prestigious mark to gal horn award. even though it's, there's no video of it, but he's talked about it many times. she was very close friends with the germans, martha gilmore, and he was like the main person that ran the gal horn institute or whatever organization. it's called in to gave out this prestigious award. i think one of the last times was when i saw you, they gave it to robert perry. so, but it's rarely given out. but julian,

he met way back then and they became great friends. he visited them many times once he was ensconced inside the ecuadorian embassy and was really was such an enthusiastic supporter that defender a guy hard supporter and defender and up until his dying breath. you know, i had my last email was on october, october 17th. i think, and it was saying that a, you know, gotta keep binding, keep finding it, keep trying. and he did a, so it really spanned a long period of time, you know, over a decade or 14 years, they were french. one of the very consistent criticisms that pilcher had over the last decade and a half of his life was that the media in general either were not supporters of assange and wiki leeks, or were actively hostile to assigned and wiki leeks. despite the fact that they regularly used information revealed by wiki leaks, and they're reporting,

what was the response among media people to those accusations, or did they ever respond to him? i don't think they responded. you know, people that the guardian didn't respond. people shouldn't be seated on or whatever . i mean she wouldn't do show said they one year tail on eric melbourne. wanted me to get him on the show and he refused to have anything to do with that because he thought they were all seriously complicit in this uh, this persecution of discharge ever either by omission or by direct action with their journalism. sure they exploited is work for financial reasons, but it did not defend him. and so john was, uh, was like, 2nd by they have pocket se, but not surprised because you know, he called the big lie. whitker b would say, what they're doing right now is what gerbils called the big wide. and, you know,

john was one of the few people that for 6 decades was able to operate even in a commercial. uh, you know, institution like itc. even the guardian in 2014, he was riding war, making these films. and you know, all those programs he did in all of the awards and he won a but still, his conscience guided his work and his great body of work. it's empty. it's a british library ensconced there. he's 62, the films of this man was the most productive and the most honest and serious journalist of my lifetime. and that's over 6 decades in there, in the united states pills record at some controversy back in 2016 in 2000. and 17, when he said in speeches that donald trump was less dangerous than hillary clinton was. he said that trump was more pragmatic. and was not beholden to the anti russia,

anti china, pro israel forces that are seen to run u. s. foreign policy culture was criticized for throwing his lot in with trump, who was more conventionally right wing than clinton was. tell us about that. the way you looked at the record of the bill clinton, the, the record of obama, a record of l. b. j. a many, you know, the democrats have been the war party and the republicans too. but he was right now about a trump supporter, but he was right in saying that that, that trump was less dangerous on, on an international level, then maybe a domestic level. you may be different, but on an international level, he felt not withstanding trumps of support. you know, his support of israel moving the embassy to jerusalem. but over all in 2016 he was, you know, and i was like 1st kind of shocked by that when i saw it. but the,

the alternative was hillary clinton, who, i mean, take a look at her. he looked at what she did in hunters with the, you know, uh, i forgot her name birth uh, birth uh, uh, the labor leader. she was murdered. the killer was involved in actress libya, syria, and she was surrounded by a secretary of state, and she was gonna bring them into the old office, victoria, no one jake sullivan and tony blinking types. so he knew that the, that she was a real con. we're trump is not a neil con, which has international implications. so for a person that lives on the other side of the planet. yes, trump was it much less than the 2 able ship? that's how you would describe them. but certainly not a stretch guy was going to break up now, you know, you know, imagine if nickel has really been broken up, we wouldn't have the situation that's going on in ukraine today. so uh, ill,

going back to bill clinton, the bombing of yugoslavia, benito really needs to be abolished. and the trump, uh, you know, was the anti needle individual. and so that's where john picked it up for boss trillion send for people, one don't shining on people in africa. and the baby's trough was less dangerous. he was right. so he had a stake and that election and hillary clinton was not the one that he thought would be beneficial to the world. john pilcher had a long life and a long and respected career. give us your thoughts on his legacy and on those people in issues that he inspired. well, you know, it's very difficult to sum up i've, i've done a 3 already tribute to john pilcher and one was 2 hours now. there's an hour piece on that, mike done? yeah, i mean the legacy we're talking about the we're talking about the beethoven of journalism, the, the einstein of journalism, the bill concert, john brown and journalism. then he's, he was definitely a. yeah,

a long what you would call with male a little call the brown a media. i mean that's there was the 6 decade so work. plus he started, he was 19, you didn't quit, it was $84.00 when he died. no one compiled anything like john pilcher and no one ever we're talking about 62 brilliant films, hundreds of interviews and he did a hundreds of thousands of articles and 20 books. i mean, the guy has a, it's the white house of are the library of alexandria, a type of material that john pills, his legacy left behind. and i, i just don't see anyone close to him in terms of their production as a journalist, as a war correspondent guide to workforce funded as well. uh, and as a, as a filmmaker in a me buying as most of the films themselves,

raising the money. and it was all for causes that were in port rented be nectar, rod, but in the eighty's, whether it be in the nation, in the sixty's as to whether it be a be it, ma'am. he was there in the 19 seventy's, a quiet knew me and, and then it was and he was in a pack a palace died many times into the tube is 2 of his documentaries, palestine is still the issue. and then camp bodya. he went to cambodia 4 or 5 times a day for fun. documentaries, on indigenous april of, uh, australia the port a jack, one of the type of but stories about the or, and the uh on wanted in, in the london and the in prisons in london. i mean, i could, the engine joined the sides, of course he was the meal zohler for drivers, but for assigns that same type of ashen and stick to it too much of that and it

never waned all the way through. he was, even though he was in bad health, and i got emails from him over the last year that i'm looking at the pneumonia at one time. but he was still taking all of that energy to try to save assigns. they'll never be anyone like john field you're. i've loved the guy and i get emotional thinking about it. i had a great friendship with them. i spent the day at his house logged in the 2017. when i saw us on june the may he always make you have a great sense of humor and a appreciative sense of humor. indeed, always talk about the bad coffee that he may, buddy into the guy was so humane and he loved nature. he had to call it is uh i forgot what he called it, but in the backyard uh in this house is quite house in london. yet this huge gardners pride and joy is what he called it. a john pilcher was a real young man to terry and, and he hated oppression as much as john brown 80. and he worked with his pin

to try to stop wherever reared its ugly head. so i, you know, there's not enough words. there's not enough time to really describe john pillage. it's one of those things. so it's a like a civil war series by ken burns, you'd have to do on john pilcher and the work that he accomplished. randy credit goes, thank you so much for coming on with us today. appreciate that. to author kilroy oldster once wrote that the greatest challenge in life is to be our phone person and to accept that being different is a blessing and not a curse. a person who knows who they are lives a simple life by eliminating from their orbits. anything that is not align with his or her overriding purpose in values. john pilcher was the proverbial light by which others could see his honest div dedication and hard work or what gave him such deep significance. i'd like to thank our guests, jo loria and randy credit co for joining us today and for sharing their thoughts

and reminiscences of their friend john filter. and thanks to our viewers for joining us for another episode of the whistle blowers, i'm john terry onto. we'll see you next time the. 2 2 the, [000:00:00;00] the,

[000:00:00;00] the, [000:00:00;00] the boys are liberators. may god bless you with health and be your guardian angel. thank you. it's a case of relief for locals, enough to erica, off the russian forces, take the city following years of life on the ukrainian control path size. russia reports even more advanced is often down the don't ask for public fund lot which i use the most smoke rising from southern gas or the city over that i 57 people are killed by israel is at abolishing military operations. that area have had,