John Richard Pilger was an Australian journalist and documentary maker. He had twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US. Based in London, he is known for his polemical campaigning style: "Secretive power loathes journalists who do their job, who push back screens, peer behind façades, lift rocks. Opprobrium from on high is their badge of honour."

Pilger had received human rights and journalism awards, as well as honorary doctorates. He was also a visiting professor at Cornell University in New York.