John Pilger to break Australian silence

The world renowned journalist, author and film-maker John Pilger will be awarded the 2009 Sydney Peace Prize at a gala dinner this week on Wednesday, 4 November.

The following night, Thursday, 5 November, at the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House, he will deliver the 2009 City of Sydney Prize Lecture: Breaking the Australian Silence.

Sydney Peace Foundation Director Professor Stuart Rees comments: "John Pilger arrives in the middle of the demeaning debate in Canberra about the Tamil asylum seekers, so it's opportune that he's here. John Pilger will show that the claims about the threat from illegal migrants are false, that the war on terror is a hoax against humanity and that the massive increase in Australia's military spending fosters the illusion that people's 'security' depends on massive military expenditure.

"Since announcing John Pilger as this year's Sydney Peace Prize recipient we've been inundated with messages of thanks from people who applaud his courage in speaking out while others are silent.

"From his work uncovering undue secrecy about wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to his consistent efforts to show the realities of the decades of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, to his film Year Zero: the Silent Death of Cambodia, depicting the horrors faced by the Khmer people under the Pol Pot regime, John's career has been marked by risk taking, courage and using his superb investigative skills to break silences around the world."

The Sydney Peace Prize is Australia's only international prize for peace. Previous recipients include Nobel recipients Professor Muhammad Yunus and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, Indian author and human rights campaigner Arundhati Roy and, last year, the Aboriginal leader and 'father of reconciliation' Patrick Dodson.

John Pilger will be available for interview. For more information, contact Kath Kenny, University of Sydney Media Office, 02 9351 2261 or 0434 606 100, k.kenny@usyd.edu.au