The Melbourne Press Club periodically inducts journalists into its Hall of Fame. I was asked to write the profile and be interviewed about John Pilger, one of Australia’s most famous journalistic exports: During his acceptance speech for the Sydney Peace Prize in 2009, Australian journalist, author and film-maker John Pilger articulated a worldview that he…
Showing all posts tagged East Timor
Gough Whitlam was a giant but Timor is a shameful blindspot
My weekly Guardian column: After yesterday’s state memorial service, the beatification of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam is complete. His domestic policies were rightly praised for dragging the country into a more enlightened age (although the project is far from complete) but since his death in October there’s been curiously little written about his foreign…
ABCTV New24's The Drum on ISIS, terrorism and Gough Whitlam
Last night I appeared on ABCTV News24’s The Drum talking about ISIS, terrorism and Gough Whitlam’s collusion in the occupation of East Timor:
Never wholly trust foreign media not to be seduced by easy narratives
The Sydney premiere of this new documentary on East Timor, Breaking the News, will take place next week at the Antenna Film Festival:
Australia set to undermine East Timor (once occupied and now “free”)
Is there truly anybody who still believes Wikileaks is not releasing essential information to better understand our world? The revelations just keep on coming and indicate a government in Canberra that is more than willing to play the post-colonial game. From simply fighting with the big boys in Afghanistan to creating trouble themselves closer to…
Being opposed to Australia dumping refugees in East Timor
We don’t want to be a post-colonial power (more than we are already): Refugee groups have called on the Australian government to scrap its proposal to build a “regional processing centre” in Timor-Leste. “The regional processing centre proposal was always about Australia avoiding its obligations to asylum seekers under the Refugee Convention,” said Ian Rintoul,…
Standing up for a defamed reporter
I was recently asked to sign a petition regarding the case against East Timorese journalist Jose Belo: More than 80 prominent Australian, New Zealand and Pacific reporters, editors and media academics have protested over the controversial criminal defamation case against East Timorese journalist Jose Belo. Chief editor Belo has been charged followed publication of an…
Directives from the top
The confusing state of living in East Timor (courtesy of one of the growing number of bloggers in the country.)