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Airdate: The War You Don’t See

Journalist John Pilger asks whether an "embeded" journalist is little more than a propoganda tool in this excellent doco.

This Sunday night SBS ONE airs a thought-provoking doco, The War You Don’t See by journalist John Pilger, on the role of the media in war zones.

With particular reference to Iraq and Afghanistan, Pilger discusses the idea that an “embeded” journalist is little more than a propoganda tool, only shown what the military want them to see (Generation Kill anybody?).

Seriously good stuff from a very respected voice.

Renowned filmmaker and award-winning Australian journalist John Pilger explores the role of media in war in his commanding and timely documentary, The War You Don’t See.

Pilger, himself a war correspondent, traces the history of ‘embedded’ and independent reporting from the carnage of the First World War to the destruction of Hiroshima, the invasion of Vietnam to modern-day conflict in the Middle East. He exposes how the practice of embedding journalists within the military controls not only what they are allowed to see, but how they are allowed to report it, and that “voluntary embedding” extends right across the media.

With a particular focus on television reporting of current wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine by the most popular channels in the United States and the United Kingdom, Pilger not only investigates how the truth of war can often remain hidden, but questions the implications of the media’s failure to report beyond the government line.

Pilger said: “At the heart of this documentary are the lives of countless civilian men, women and children who are so often caught in the crossfire. Their lives depend on the truth being reported. Unless journalists are the voice of the people, not the power, they will have blood on their hands.

“This film is about wars that are also backed by Australian governments and reported by Australian journalists. So it’s highly relevant to us,” he continued.

The War You Don’t See features interviews with senior figures at major UK broadcasters, the BBC and ITV, high profile journalists from both sides of the Atlantic, as well as independent filmmakers. The former CBS anchorman Dan Rather refers to “fear in the newsroom”. The result is a remarkable revelation of what Pilger describes as behind the scenes ‘disinformation’.

Pilger also interviews Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, a movement Pilger describes as a ‘landmark in journalism’, discussing the role of whistleblowing in revealing incidents and crimes of war that would otherwise not be seen.

It airs 8:35pm Sunday on SBS ONE.

3 Responses

  1. SBS is very brave for airing anything by John Pilger. I can already hear the 2GB/News Limited hate-mongers calling SBS a cesspool of left-wing thought. But why did they have suspend Dateline for a week? Couldn’t this just go in the Cutting Edge doco slot at 9:30pm?

    I’ll be watching, btw…

  2. I can’t improve on what @Trix has written below other than to add that this is one of those docos we should all make time to see despite its unpleasantness.
    TV news is so packaged and sanitised, and video games so graphic and desensitising, that younger people have no concept of the brutality of war. Perhaps a few horrific shots of maimed children will bring home the truth to a sheltered generation.

    And David – I agree, ‘Generation Kill’ is the ultimate war story in so many ways.

  3. I’ve read several of his books and seen a few of his documentaries over the years. He’s a polarising voice in the political landscape but I’ve always found him to be thought provoking, impassioned and a very astute observer of geopolitics and its impact on humanity.

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