The War You Don't See

Tue 21 Jun 2011, 10:05pm

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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.

John Pilger takes us behind the scenes of "disinformation".

thewaryoudontsee

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,” Pilger says.

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 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.