The atrocities committed by the Indonesian forces in East Timor against the East Timorese with the complicity of the Western powers, including the British government who supplied the aircraft and weaponery while choosing to ignore the takeover, does not possess a side capable of justifying the crimes against humanity which have been perpetrated there. Too often, as he has repeatedly discovered, some stories simply don't have two sides. His approach is unique in that he bluntly and directly takes on Western administrations, exposes the hypocrisies of power and relentlessly gets to the truth without paying lip service to balance.

If you haven't a political past or an affiliation, it makes it that much more difficult to deal with you.' And do you know? I think that's what makes people uncomfortable, particularly in Britain. I've never been a member of any political party either.

I don't see myself as a campaigning journalist in that I have never been a part of any campaigning structure. Often described as a maverick and as a campaigner, he rejects both labels. Pilger enjoys making the complacent uncomfortable. His belief in the truth has brought him to the edge of muted moral outrage. For others, particularly guardians of the establishment in Britain and the US, he is an irritant, even a career complainer - the Cassandra who won't let go. For many he represents journalism at its most relevant, its most honourable and responsible. His fascination with truth as well as the abuse of power has brought him to the world's trouble zones, particularly those of South East Asia.

Journalist and film-maker John Pilger is one such witness, a highly moral commentator who describes himself as a reporter doing his job. Yet the war correspondent remains a heroic figure, the truth teller who observes history happening. Television news is faster and more visual. Now that newspapers have become more like magazines, with the old-style reporter outnumbered by columnists writing about themselves and the trivia known as trend, it is increasingly difficult to assess the real worth of journalism.

Hidden Agendas by John Pilger