REVIEW: Behind the bitter attacks and propaganda—a remarkable Cold War talent

Abstract

Review of Memoirs of a Rebel Journalist: The Autobiography of Wilfred Burchett, edited by George Burchett and Nick Shimmin. When Phillip Knightley was researching The First Casualty (1975), controversial fellow Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett was at the top of his list of war correspondents in the Pacific theatre whom he needed to interview. But he was at a loss over how to find him. Was Burchett then living in Paris, Sofia, Moscow or Beijing? Or where? Ironically, Knightley bumped into Burchett at a party in the London suburb of Battersea.

Keywords

• Cold War
• censorship
• defamation
• ethics
• media ethics
• media freedom