Pilger on the manufacture of truth

By Susan Price GEELONG — John Pilger, renowned journalist, author and film-maker, gave the Edward Wilson Memorial Lecture in Geelong on October 26, to an auditorium of over 400 people. Pilger gave an engaging talk on the history and development of media monopolisation in Australia, intertwined with personal reminiscences about his early years as a journalist in Sydney. His talk presented a broad spectrum of evidence of the distortion in the western press due to the ever-increasing concentration of ownership, not only of media outlets, but also of international news services. From the blatant lies and distortions in the coverage of the Gulf War, to the cover-up of the deaths of six journalists in East Timor in 1975, Pilger took the audience through a thorough exposé of the establishment media's attempts to create the news and manufacture the truth. Pilger said he regretted that the diversity of Australian society is not reflected in diversity within the media, and that censorship is often more thorough in capitalist nations than under totalitarian dictatorships. "Freedom of expression is precarious in Australia, and there are few protections for honest journalists who resist the erosion of democracy." Pilger examined the "rehabilitation of imperialism" or the use of the media in creating new enemies within the Third World. As an example, he cited the story of Iran developing nuclear capabilities, a fact that was denied by the International Atomic Energy Commission. On Australia's role in the Asia-Pacific region, Pilger launched a scathing attack on the "arrogant behaviour of BHP in Papua New Guinea", the hypocritical position of the Australian government on nuclear testing in the Pacific and its support for Indonesia's occupation of East Timor. "Australia is a colonial power in the region in all but name." In discussion, Pilger took up the role of the alternative media, in breaking through the heavy monopolisation in Australia, and made special mention of Green Left Weekly.