Investigative Journalism and its Triumphs

Tell Me No Lies

An incisive anthology of investigative journalism, edited and introduced by the bestselling reporter and film-maker John Pilger.

A first-rate selection of investigative articles from some of the world's best reporters

One of the most powerful and upsetting books I have read all year

Genuine objective journalism not only gets the facts right, it gets the meaning of events right. It is compelling not only today, but stands the test of time. It is validated not only by 'reliable sources' but by the unfolding of history. It is journalism that ten, twenty, fifty years after the fact still holds up a true and intelligent mirror to events

John Pilger grew up in Sydney, Australia. He was a war correspondent, author and film-maker. He twice won British journalism's highest award, that of Journalist of the Year, for his work all over the world, notably in Cambodia and Vietnam. He was also voted International Reporter of the Year and winner of the United Nations Associated Peace Prize and Gold Medal. For his broadcasting, he 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. In 2003, he received the Sophie Prize for 'thirty years of exposing deception and improving human rights'. He died in December 2023.

Tell Me No Lies is a celebration of the very best investigative journalism, and includes writing by some of the greatest practitioners of the craft: Seymour Hersh on the My Lai massacre; Paul Foot on the Lockerbie cover-up; Wilfred Burchett, the first Westerner to enter Hiroshima following the atomic bombing; Israeli journalist Amira Hass, reporting from the Gaza Strip in the 1990s; Gunter Wallraff, the great German undercover reporter; Jessica Mitford on 'The American Way of Death'; Martha Gelhorn on the liberation of the death camp at Dachau. 
 
The book - a selection of articles, broadcasts and books extracts that revealed important and disturbing truths - ranges from across many of the critical events, scandals and struggles of the past fifty years. Along the way it bears witness to epic injustices committed against the peoples of Vietnam, Cambodia, East Timor and Palestine. 
 
John Pilger sets each piece of reporting in its context and introduces the collection with a passionate essay arguing that the kind of journalism he celebrates here is being subverted by the very forces that ought to be its enemy. Taken as a whole, the book tells an extraordinary 'secret history' of the modern era. It is also a call to arms to journalists everywhere - before it is too late.

Heroes

The bestselling book from one of the finest investigative journalists of our time.

John Pilger is the antidote to easy, comfortable thinking, to smugness, to ignorance. He is necessary

Pilger has a gift for finding the image, the instant, that reveals all. He is a photographer using words instead of a camera

Pilger is the closest we have to the great correspondents of the 1930s. The truth in his hands is a weapon, to be picked up and used in the struggle against injustice

The heroes of John Pilger's narrative are the many ordinary people he has witnessed coping with their lives in difficult and often brutal conditions: dissidents in the Soviet Union; victims of conflicts in Vietnam, Cambodia, Africa, India, the Middle East and Central America. They also include the Irish labouring generation of his great-great-grandfather, transported in irons to Australia for uttering 'unlawful oaths'. 
 
It is a vivid, engrossing and sometimes blackly amusing personal story covering the periods for which his journalism is renowned. John Pilger has witnessed many of the major world upheavals of the past thirty years, as well as the daily realities of injustices normally hidden from society's view. His reporting of these events has always been distinguished by his tenaciously researched facts - especially facts that governments and powerful interests would prefer to keep secret - and by his unerring and always compassionate pursuit of the truth.

Hidden Agendas

Revealing the truth behind many facets of contemporary politics, John Pilger’s powerful book exposes the dangers and deceptions of power.

Pilger is the closest we have to the greatest correspondents of the 1930s... The truth in his hands is a weapon, to be picked up and brandished and used in the struggle against evil and injustice

Pilger's strength is his gift for finding the image, the instant, that reveals all - he is a photographer using words instead of a camera

A modern interpretation of world affairs in a cynical age

In this powerful book, journalist and film maker John Pilger strips away the layers of deception, dissembling language and omission that prevent us from understanding how the world really works. 
 
From the invisible corners of Tony Blair's Britain to Burma, Vietnam, Australia, South Africa and the illusions of the 'media age', power, he argues, has its own agenda. Unchallenged, it operates to protect its interests with a cynical disregard for people - shaping, and often devastating, millions of lives. 
 
By unravelling the hidden histories of contemporary events, Pilger allows us to read between the lines. He also celebrates the eloquent defiance and courage of those who resist oppression and give us hope for the future. Tenaciously researched and written with passion and wit, Hidden Agendas will change the way you see the world.

Distant Voices

A collection of the highest quality journalism from one of our best long-form writers. Insightful, thought-provoking and vivid.

A moral interpretation of world affairs in a cynical age

Pilger is the closest we have to the great correspondents of the 1930s... The Truth in his hands is a weapon, to be picked up and brandished and used in the struggle against evil and injustice

Pilger's strength is his gift for finding the image, the instant, that reveals all: he is a photographer using words instead of a camera

Throughout his distinguished career as a journalist and film-maker, John Pilger has looked behind the 'official' versions of events to report the real stories of our time. 
 
The centrepiece of this new, expanded edition of his bestselling Distant Voices is Pilger's reporting from East Timor, which he entered secretly in 1993 and where a third of the population has died as a result of Indonesia's genocidal policies. This edition also contains more new material as well as all the original essays - from the myth-making of the Gulf War to the surreal pleasures of Disneyland. Breaking through the consensual silence, Pilger pays tribute to those dissenting voices we are seldom permitted to hear.

A Secret Country

In print for over twenty years, this remains one of the best and most revealing portraits of John Pilger's homeland, Australia.

Reminiscent of a sabre-toothed, unexpurgated Dickens

A moving account of the abuse of human rights in Australia, all the more valuable because it is written by an Australian writer

Pilger is a first-rate dissident journalist... Presents a harsh narrative of class, race and power; of the oppression and resistance, the betrayal and amnesia, that lie behind the sunny illustions of the Australian self-image

This is a patriotic book in the best sense, written in the belief that Australia deserves not old bromides and stereotypes, but the respect of critical appraisal... A necessary book for those of us who believe in the redeeming power of truth

Pilger's Australia is so different from the image conveyed abroad by films and TV soap operas, so different indeed from the way many Australians see themselves, as to be another country...but none of it alters one starkly apparent fact - he still loves the place.

Expatriate journalist and film-maker John Pilger writes about his homeland with life-long affection and a passionately critical eye. In this fully updated edition of A Secret Country, he pays tribute to a little known Australia and tells a story of high political drama.

John Pilger

Pilger is the closest we have to the great correspondents of the 1930s... The truth in his hands is a weapon, to be picked up and brandished and used in the struggle against evil and injustice

John Pilger is the antidote to easy, comfortable thinking, to smugness, to ignorance

Pilger's gift is for finding the image, the instant, that reveals all - he is a photographer using words instead of a camera

John Pilger unearths, with steely attention to facts, the filthy truth and tells it as it is. I salute him

The array of interviews with the voiceless and abused provides an indispensable corrective to the litany of disinformation we are fed by the media, and for this achievement Pilger is surely the most outstanding journalist in the world today

An explosive read... powerful,compelling and questioning- a true reflection of the journalist himself

Compelling... provocative, argumentative and essential reading for those who wish to challenge their assumptions

What makes John Pilger a truly great journalist is his conscience and bravery

Pilger's work has truly been a beacon of light in dark times

John Pilger's determination to swim against the tide of 'mainstream' media reportage prompts him to dig deep. Freedom Next Time is no exception

John Pilger is one of the world's pre-eminent investigative journalists and documentary film-makers. His best-selling books of reportage, which include Heroes and Hidden Voices, have in the words of Noam Chomsky 'been a beacon of light in often dark times'. 
 
In Freedom Next Time he looks at five countries, in each of which a long struggle for freedom has taken place; in each the people, having shed blood and dreams, are still waiting. In Afghanistan, Iraq and South Africa there has been the promise of hope, and even an 'official' freedom, but the reality of these divided societies is that they are still waiting for real freedom. In Palestine, the cycle of violence continues with no resolution in sight. And the island of Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, is a microcosm of the ruthlessness of great powers. The island was sold by the British to the American military in the 1960s. The indigenous population, descended from slaves, were forcibly removed to the slums of Port Louis in Mauritius. They have continued to fight for the return of their homeland ever since - three years ago the High Court granted them the right of return, but this has subsequently been blocked. The island remains the US's third biggest military base; a base from which they are able to launch attacks against the Middle East. 
 
Once again John Pilger gives a voice to the people living through these momentous times and, in gripping detail, shows us the lives behind the headlines.

John Pilger

Praise for Freedom Next Time

Pilger is the closest we have to the great correspondents of the 1930s... The truth in his hands is a weapon, to be picked up and brandished and used in the struggle against evil and injustice

John Pilger is the antidote to easy, comfortable thinking, to smugness, to ignorance

Pilger's gift is for finding the image, the instant, that reveals all - he is a photographer using words instead of a camera

Pilger is the closest we have to the great correspondents of the 1930s... The truth in his hands is a weapon, to be picked up and brandished and used in the struggle against evil and injustice

John Pilger is the antidote to easy, comfortable thinking, to smugness, to ignorance

Pilger's gift is for finding the image, the instant, that reveals all - he is a photographer using words instead of a camera

Pilger is the closest we have to the great correspondents of the 1930s... The truth in his hands is a weapon, to be picked up and brandished and used in the struggle against evil and injustice

John Pilger is the antidote to easy, comfortable thinking, to smugness, to ignorance

Pilger's gift is for finding the image, the instant, that reveals all - he is a photographer using words instead of a camera

Books by John Pilger

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