JOHN PILGER'S NEW FILM: THE WAR YOU DON'T SEE on ITV

JOHN PILGER'S NEW FILM: THE WAR YOU DON'T SEE on ITV this Tuesday 10.30 - 12.00pm ...... and threats to WIKILEAKS.

This is a must watch for all anti-war activists. Pilger's latest film explores how the media beats the drums for war.

It is particularly important now given the attack on Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, who is interviewed in the film. Assange is currently under arrest in Britain on spurious charges and is now under threat of extradition to Sweden where he may then be deported to the USA. Some politicians and right-wing commentators in America are
calling for him to be jailed for decades or even executed. The Swedish Government, as Wikileaks exposed, is deeply incriminated in George Bush's 'War on Terror'.

Over the past two years Wikileaks has proved itself repeatedly to be a true servant of democracy and an enemy of lying warmongers. All anti war activists should support it and support the campaign for its founder, Julian Assange, to be granted bail which would be normal for the type of charges brought against him.

Julian Assange next appears in court on Tuesday 14 December. The British based Stop the War Coalition has called a protest at 1.00 pm outside the Westminster Magistrates Court. It has also initiated an open letter (LINK BELOW) of support for Wikileaks and Julian Assange, signed by among others, John Pilger, former UK ambassador Craig Murray, actors Miriam Margolyes and Roger Lloyd-Pack, Salma Yaqoob, writers Iain Banks and A L Kennedy, artists David Gentlemen and Katharine Hamnett and comedians Alexei Sayle and Mark Thomas.

OPEN LETTER / PETITION SUPPORTING WIKIPEDIA
Signed by John Pilger, Craig Murray, Mark Thomas, Salma Yaqoob and many more.
READ LETTER & FULL LIST OF SIGNATORIES HERE: http://bit.ly/hkUVKS

Watch Pilger's new film on ITV this Tuesday ...... and support Wikileaks and its founder Julia Assange.

* The War You Don't See: trailer: http://bit.ly/gwzqRE
* Interview with John Pilger about the film: http://bit.ly/fQ4roG
* Cinemas in Britain where the film is showing: http://bit.ly/goNuIc

The Film Interview: John Pilger
How journalists help to promote war - and what can be done to stop it.

John Pilger is a journalist, documentary maker and New Statesman columnist. His new film, "The War You Don't See", is in cinemas from 13 December and will be broadcast on ITV1 on 14 December. More details here.

Q. The War You Don't See is about the media's role in promoting and sanitising contemporary wars. Why make this film at this particular moment?

I have been writing and making films about media and war for many years. Translating this critique to film, especially the insidious power of public relations, has been something of an ambition. Peter Fincham had just taken over as director of programmes at ITV two years ago and clearly wanted to restore some of ITV's factual legacy. He was enthusiastic about the idea; he also knew the film would be critical of ITV. That's unusual.

Since I first went to Vietnam as a young reporter, I have been aware of the rituals and undercurrents and pressures within journalism that determine the news as much as the quality of the news itself. Broadcast journalism has a powerful mysticism; the BBC pretends that it is objective and impartial in the coverage of most things, especially war. The pressure to believe and maintain this pretence is almost an article of faith. For the public, the reality is very different. The University of Wales and the montoring organisation Media Tenor conducted two studies of the TV coverage in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. Both found the BBC overwhemingly followed the government line: that its reporting of anti-war views amounted to only a few per cent. Among the major western broadcasters, only CBS in America had a worse record. The public has a right to know why.

Q. Why do you think journalists who reported on the Iraq War - a number of whom you interview in the film - are now so willing to admit they did not do their jobs properly? What prevented them from realising that at the time?

The atmosphere has changed. No one is in any doubt now that the reasons for the invasion of Iraq were fraudulent, as are the reasons for invading Afghanistan, as were the reasons for invading Vietnam. Still, the journalists who describe in my film where it all - and they - went wrong are courageous. I asked a number of others to appear, such as Andrew Marr and Jeremy Paxman, and heard nothing back. Indeed, the more famous the name, the greater an apparent unwillingness to discuss why, as Paxman told a group of students, they were "hoodwinked".

Q. Do independent online sources - Wikileaks being the most prominent example at the moment - allow the public to bypass corporate media entirely?

Yes, but remember the public's principal source of information is still television. The main BBC News programmes have enormous influence. Certainly, as Wikileaks has demonstrated, the agenda of the "mainstream" is increasingly guided by the world wide web. For me, as a journalist, the web offers the most interesting and often most reliable sources because they are shorn of the consensual bias, and a censorship by omission, that pervades broadcasting.

Q. Understandably, your focus is on war reporting. But the film also suggests that our entertainment industry plays a role in disseminating propaganda. How can that be effectively countered?

There is no propaganda machine like Hollywood. As Ken Loach pointed out recently, the great majority of movies in British cinemas are American, or British with American funding. This has led to the appropriation of both fact and fiction: of art itself. Edward Said describes the effect in his book Culture and Imperialism, pointing out that the penetration of a a corporate, imperial culture is now deeper than at any time. How do we combat it? We support independent film-makers and independent cinemas and distributors. We begin to think about journalism as a "fifth estate" in which the public plays a part and media organisations are held to account.

Q. Even when the harsh reality of war is reported truthfully and accurately, audiences can simply choose to ignore it. Are there particular techniques you pursue in your film-making to avoid this happening?

Surely, the responsibility of persuading and challenging people, of exciting their imagination, belongs to us film-makers and journalists. Blaming the public is an admission of our own inadequacy. My experience is that people will respond positively if you make the connection with their own lives, or attempt to articulate the way they worry about the world, its wars and other upheavals. If you call power to account with facts, you get the reward of support from an audience. In other words, when people realise you are their agent, not an agent of a monolith called "the media", or of other powerful interests, they give you their time and interest. That makes journalism a privilege.

END