John Richard Pilger was an Emmy Award winning Australian journalist based in London. Pilger lived in the United Kingdom from 1962. Since his early years as a war correspondent in Vietnam, Pilger was a strong critic of American, Australian and British foreign policy, which he considered to be driven by an imperialist agenda. Pilger also criticised his native country's treatment of indigenous Australians and the practices of the mainstream media. In the British print media, he had a long association with the Daily Mirror, and wrote a fortnightly column for the New Statesman magazine.

Pilger twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, in 1967 and 1979. His documentaries, screened internationally, have gained awards in Britain and worldwide. He also received several honorary doctorates, and was a visiting professor at Cornell University.