Pilger Film and US Visit Banned

[سيف الله]

Salaam

Id like to share this, if true a very disappointing state of affairs :(

ZCom received the following open letter from John Pilger reporting very disturbing events in progress. We thought it important to make public on the site... We will update when more information becomes available.

Dear Noam...

I am writing to you and a number of other friends mostly in the US to alert you to the extraordinary banning of my film on war and media, 'The War You Don't See', and the abrupt cancellation of a major event at the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe in which David Barsamian and I were to discuss free speech, US foreign policy and censorship in the media.

Lannan invited me and David over a year ago and welcomed my proposal that they also host the US premiere of 'The War You Don't See', in which US and British broadcasters describe the often hidden part played by the media in the promotion of war, in Iraq and Afghanistan. The film has been widely acclaimed in the UK and Australia; the trailer and reviews are on my website www.johnpilger.com.

The banning and cancellation, which have shocked David and me, are on the personal orders of Patrick Lannan, whose wealth funds the Lannan Foundation as a liberal centre of discussion of politics and the arts. Some of you will have been there and will know the Lannan Foundation as a valuable supporter of liberal causes. Indeed, I was invited in 2002 to present a Lannan award to the broadcaster Amy Goodman.

What is deeply disturbing about the ban is that it happened so suddenly and inexplicably: 48 hours before David Barsamian and I were both due to depart for Santa Fe I received a brief email with a 'sorry for the inconvenience' from a Lannan official who had been telling me just a few days earlier what a 'great honour' it was to have the US premiere of my film at Lannan, with myself in attendance.

I urge you to visit the Lannan website www.lannan.org. Good people like Michael Ratner, Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald are shown as participants in discussion about freedom of speech. I am there, too, but my name is the only one with a line through it and the word, 'Cancelled'.

Neither David Barsamian nor I have been given a word of explanation. All my messages to Lannan have gone unanswered; my calls are not returned; my flights were cancelled summarily. At the urging of the New Mexican newspaper, Patrick Lannan has issued a one-sentence statement offering his regrets to the Lannan-supporting 'community' in Santa Fe. Again, he gives no reason for the ban. I have spoken to the manager of the Santa Fe cinema where 'The War You Don't See' was to be screened. He received a late-night call. Again, no reason for the ban was given, giving him barely time to cancel advertising in The New Mexican.

There is a compelling symbol of our extraordinary times in all of this. A rich and powerful individual and organisation, espousing freedom of speech, has moved ruthlessly and unaccountably to crush it.

With warm regards

John Pilger

http://www.johnpilger.com/

Short trailer if somebodys wondering what it is about

[GuestFellow]

Salaam,

Wish we had more journalists like John Pilger.

[aadil77]

US media can't handle this film, it's way too powerful and factual

[aamirsaab]

US media can't handle this film, because it's the truth

Fixed.

I <3 Mr Pilger. Hope his film gets aired around the world.

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[Ğħαrєєвαħ]

Indeed it is the right to know the truth!

The right to know that there are devils who exist in the face of humans and the right to know that innocents were and still are killed for complete no reason!

[Perseveranze]

All I can say is, you can't hide the truth forever. It will come out eventually.

"Nay, We [Allah] hurl the Truth against falsehood, and it knocks out its brain, and behold, falsehood doth perish! Ah! woe be? to you for the [false] things ye ascribe [to us]" Quran 21:18

[Ramadhan]

John Pilger has always been a very courageous investigative journalist. He reported Indonesian invasion (under encouragement and support from Henry Kissinger and the US government) of East Timor in mid 1970s had been banned from Indonesia for years.

[Trumble]

Hmm. Never heard of the Lannan Foundation before, but there's certainly some arm-twisting going on somewhere, isn't there?

[Alpha Dude]

This film needs to be shown to everyone.

[sarah85]

Salaam,

Wish we had more journalists like John Pilger.

We can...Muslims should be encouraged to join the media.

[KAding]

A rich and powerful individual and organisation, espousing freedom of speech, has moved ruthlessly and unaccountably to crush it.

While I don't know the circumstances behind this cancellation, it has to be noted that "freedom of speech" does not include an obligations for others to provide you with a platform! As a private organization, the Lannan foundation is completely free to refuse John Pilger from speaking at an event organized by them. It isn't very nice of them to cancel this without explanation, but this does not constitute "crushing" freedom of speech. His freedom is speech is not impaired, he simply has to find a different outlet to speak his mind. If need be he can even give his presentation on a soap box in front of the congress centre were he was supposed to give it in the first place!

Saying his visit/lecture/film got "banned" implies legal force being applied to prevent him from speaking. This doesn't appear to be the case here. If I were to guess, I would say that an important sponsor of the Lannan foundation disapproves of John Pilger. Hard to say though. Regardless, I don't think calling it a 'ban' is very accurate.

[سيف الله]

Salaam

Actually you have a point, that is misleaading, and I apologise for that. Its a private organisation not the actual government thats banned his video (though no doubt government elites put pressure on the organisation informally).

I dont think hes banned from entering America.

So yeah apologies about that should of been more clearer

[Who Am I?]

Still, even if it's a private company that banned it, I have never liked censorship in any form. If you don't like the message that's being said, just don't listen.

[Trumble]

Strictly speaking they didn't 'ban' Pilger or the video; they just cancelled the event they had organized. You might be obliged to 'not listen' if you don't like the messenger, but you aren't obliged to pay for their trip and buy them coffee and donuts while they deliver it!

However, considering the aims of the Foundation (although it should perhaps be noted they are cultural rather than political), though, I'd think the Board needs to take a good, long look at themselves as this clearly makes any claims of championing freedom of expression in any form look hypocritical to say the least. I doubt 'government elites' had much to do with it, I'd tend to agree it's more like a donor they couldn't afford to do without just doesn't like the guy and the plug got pulled when he/she found out about it.

[Who Am I?]

When in doubt, follow the money trail.

I think you're right on that, Trumble.

[سيف الله]

Salaam

An earlier open letter from John Pilger published a few days ago recounted cancellation of events he and others were scheduled for. This letter follows up, providing further information.



Dear Noam and friends,

Patrick Lannan has issued a statement breaking almost a week`s silence since his sudden and unprecedented cancellation of my visit to the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe for the US premiere of my film, The War You Don`t See. See the statement at www.lannan.org

The reason that Lannan gives for the cancellation is that too few seats were sold for the event on June 15 planned a year ago, in which David Barsamian and I were to be in conversation about the media, US foreign policy and freedom of speech. "In our opinion," writes Lannan, "to have Mr. Pilger travel thousands of miles from London to Santa Fe to face such a low turn-out would have been embarrassing for him."

This is specious at best, absurd in reality. On 9 June, Barbara Ventrello, Lannan`s Director of Cultural Freedom Special Projects, with whom I had been in contact on almost a daily basis in preparation for the event and the screening of my film, emailed me:



"Dear John

I have just received a call from Patrick Lannan ... Something has come up and he has asked me to cancel all events next week. He did not go into details and so I have no idea what this is about, and I apologize ... We thank you for your understanding.

With best regards



Barbara"



If Lannan was cancelling my event because of the low turn-out, the principal organiser Barbara Ventrello would have known. Instead she "has no idea what this is all about".

I replied to her and Patrick Lannan that this presented a horrendous re-organisational situation as Lannan had accepted my offer to stage the US premiere of my film in The Screen cinema in Santa Fe. In his statement, Lannan distorts this as a "request". There was no request. At the time, the reply was that it would be an "honour" to show the film.

I was later informed by the manager of the cinema that a Lannan official had called to withdraw the advertising for the film. The same official withdrew advertising from the Santa Fe New Mexican and urged the paper to "pull" the major feature it was running about the film.

In my response, I asked that the film’s screening go ahead as its national promotional campaign was linked to the premiere in Santa Fe. This is the reply I received:



"Dear John

I am very sorry, but as stated in my email to you yesterday, all events related to your visit to Santa Fe are canceled. This includes the screening of your film.

Regards



Barbara"



Again, no reason was given. Not one of my subsequent emails and phone calls were returned, and no one called me. I have not known anything like it. Like all of us, the cinema management were shocked. I was informed by groups in Santa Fe who have organised similar events that the idea that too few tickets had been sold for the Pilger/Barsamnian event is "near impossible". When I tried to buy the air ticket Lannan had arranged for me, I was told by the travel agent: "I don’t understand it. They won’t allow you to buy it, even though this ticket, when cancelled, will be worthless. I have never known anything like this."

The truth is that there was not the slightest hint from Lannan until virtually the eve of my departure that my appearance would be anything but "very popular".I don`t know why Patrick Lannan acted the way he did. At the very least, he has demonstrated that his wealth and power give him the capricious license to do what he wants to do when and how he wants to do it and without explanation, regardless of the consequences. Clearly, the tone and barely credible explanation now offered is designed to humiliate me. For him to now claim a self-regarding mantle as a patron of dissenting writers and film-makers, like myself, is disingenuous in the extreme and, again, absurd. Over 40 years an an investigative journalist and film-maker, I have faced similar action in its various guises, and it reveals itself whenever it happens. This is crude censorship however inexplicable and regardless of reputation and patronage.



Regards



John Pilger

http://www.zcommunications.org/pilge...by-john-pilger