Pilger decries 'censorship by omission'
Charlie Wilson-Clark | 05.02.2002 03:47
CONTROVERSIAL author and journalist John Pilger yesterday criticised politics, big business, the media and academics for what he called their complicity in a terrible silence.
Pilger decries silence over refugee debate
Pilger said silence had prevented society from finding out about one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century - General Suharto's rise to power in Indonesia in the mid-1960s.
Silence now shrouded the refugee debate in Australia.
Speaking at Curtin University's conference on mediating human rights, Pilger said Australia's refugee camps were concentration camps.
He said Australians were subject to censorship by omission because the people who controlled information continued to suppress it. "Such is (Prime Minister) Howard's cynicism that he has never explained to the Australian people that their country receives one of the smallest number of asylum seekers in the world: about 4000 a year," he said.
"He or (Immigration Minister) Philip Ruddock have never owned up that some 60,000 British and other Europeans have overstayed their visas and that most . . . had been given bridging visas."
He also criticised Australia's role in the war against terrorism, saying the role of Australian troops was unexplained.
He warned about the role of America in the war when at least 5000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan and not one senior member of the al-Qaida terrorist network was killed or captured.
Pilger said silence had prevented society from finding out about one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century - General Suharto's rise to power in Indonesia in the mid-1960s.
Silence now shrouded the refugee debate in Australia.
Speaking at Curtin University's conference on mediating human rights, Pilger said Australia's refugee camps were concentration camps.
He said Australians were subject to censorship by omission because the people who controlled information continued to suppress it. "Such is (Prime Minister) Howard's cynicism that he has never explained to the Australian people that their country receives one of the smallest number of asylum seekers in the world: about 4000 a year," he said.
"He or (Immigration Minister) Philip Ruddock have never owned up that some 60,000 British and other Europeans have overstayed their visas and that most . . . had been given bridging visas."
He also criticised Australia's role in the war against terrorism, saying the role of Australian troops was unexplained.
He warned about the role of America in the war when at least 5000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan and not one senior member of the al-Qaida terrorist network was killed or captured.
Charlie Wilson-Clark
Homepage:
http://mai.flora.org/
