Campaigning journalist John Pilger's stint at Reuters

Like many of his generation, the Australian campaigning journalist John Pilger, (photo), who died in London on 30 December 2023 aged 84, cut his teeth in international news with a stint at Reuters.

After four years working on Australian newspapers and briefly as a freelance in Italy, Pilger moved to Britain in 1962 working first for British United Press and then joining Reuters on its Middle East Desk.

He spent a year at 85 Fleet Street before moving to the Daily Mirror where he became chief foreign correspondent and from where he launched his career as an investigative journalist.

A fearless critic of both US and British foreign policy, Pilger was perhaps best known for this coverage of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia but his cutting edge journalism, both print and broadcast, covered a wide range, including for example the birth defects resulting from expectant mothers taking the drug Thalidomide.

Former colleagues around the world would have come across Pilger, but does anyone remember him from his Reuters days? ■