Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Photographs
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword by John Pilger
- Foreword by Gavan McCormack
- Introduction
- 1 The Atomic Plague [1945]
- 2 With Mick Griffith to the Plaine des Lacs [1941]
- 3 Who is Wingate Anyway? [1944]
- 4 The Trial of Cardinal Mindszenty [1951]
- 5 Liberty in Eastern Europe [1951]
- 6 The Microbe War [1953]
- 7 Koje Unscreened [1953]
- 8 The Ball-Point Pen Murders [1954]
- 9 South of the 17th Parallel [1955]
- 10 Front-Line Village [1959]
- 11 Welcome Home [1961]
- 12 Gagarin: The First Interview with Western Journalists [1961]
- 13 Virgin Lands [1962]
- 14 Lilac and Outer Space [1962]
- 15 War Against Trees [1963]
- 16 The Tragedy of South Vietnam's Ethnic Minorities [1964]
- 17 Interview with General Vo Nguyen Giap (April 13, 1964)
- 18 A Fortified Hamlet [1965]
- 19 Patriots & Mercenaries [1965]
- 20 At Ground Level [1966]
- 21 A Spurned Olive Branch [1967/1977]
- 22 Personal Leader [1968]
- 23 The Tet of Peace [1973/1977]
- 24 ‘Something from Nothing’ Township [1976]
- 25 Evaluating the Past [1976]
- 26 Mercenaries: British Export Model [1977]
- 27 The Geneva Conference [1978]
- 28 How to be a Good Khmer Rouge [1981]
- 29 China Prepares to Attack Vietnam [1981]
- 30 Afterword [1983]
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Photographs
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword by John Pilger
- Foreword by Gavan McCormack
- Introduction
- 1 The Atomic Plague [1945]
- 2 With Mick Griffith to the Plaine des Lacs [1941]
- 3 Who is Wingate Anyway? [1944]
- 4 The Trial of Cardinal Mindszenty [1951]
- 5 Liberty in Eastern Europe [1951]
- 6 The Microbe War [1953]
- 7 Koje Unscreened [1953]
- 8 The Ball-Point Pen Murders [1954]
- 9 South of the 17th Parallel [1955]
- 10 Front-Line Village [1959]
- 11 Welcome Home [1961]
- 12 Gagarin: The First Interview with Western Journalists [1961]
- 13 Virgin Lands [1962]
- 14 Lilac and Outer Space [1962]
- 15 War Against Trees [1963]
- 16 The Tragedy of South Vietnam's Ethnic Minorities [1964]
- 17 Interview with General Vo Nguyen Giap (April 13, 1964)
- 18 A Fortified Hamlet [1965]
- 19 Patriots & Mercenaries [1965]
- 20 At Ground Level [1966]
- 21 A Spurned Olive Branch [1967/1977]
- 22 Personal Leader [1968]
- 23 The Tet of Peace [1973/1977]
- 24 ‘Something from Nothing’ Township [1976]
- 25 Evaluating the Past [1976]
- 26 Mercenaries: British Export Model [1977]
- 27 The Geneva Conference [1978]
- 28 How to be a Good Khmer Rouge [1981]
- 29 China Prepares to Attack Vietnam [1981]
- 30 Afterword [1983]
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In the 21st century it is perhaps harder than ever to operate as a good investigative journalist. The age of ‘embedded’ correspondents and massive government and corporate advertising produces writing which is influenced or controlled to a greater or lesser extent by the powers which dominate world events. So for journalists in both the corporate and public sector it is often a case of toeing the editorial or government line or losing their jobs. Likewise, for broadcasters and newspapers it is often necessary to promote or be silent about the policies and ideology of the incumbent government and its institutional supporters or lose public funding or political advertising revenue. The internet has countered this by giving genuinely independent investigative journalists a platform, but it remains, as yet, a small one.
In this environment it is instructive to have access to a body of work from a genuinely independent reporter, one who had his own ideas and politics which were clearly expressed throughout his career. The writing of Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett looms large in any history of 20th century reportage, and not just as a result of one of the great scoops of the century, his solo journey to Hiroshima after the first bomb was dropped. Burchett covered most major world conflicts over four decades from World War II onwards, and this book attempts to represent this immense breadth of reporting by including chapters from most of his published books over the entire period of his working life.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Rebel JournalismThe Writings of Wilfred Burchett, pp. xix - xxiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007