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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=Lvpsf@igc.org href="mailto:Lvpsf@igc.org">Steve Zeltzer</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=Undisclosed-recipients:
href="mailto:Undisclosed-recipients:">Undisclosed-recipients:</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Friday, June 17, 2011 5:40 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> John Pilger Replies On Lannan Ban On His Film</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="FONT-FAMILY: arial, sans-serif; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px">
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman"><B><FONT size=6>Crude
Censorship</FONT></B><BR><I><FONT size=6>John Pilger Replies On Lannan Ban On
His Film<BR></FONT></I><BR><B>By John Pilger</B><BR><BR><I><B>June 16 2011
"Information Clearing House" --</B> <B>An open letter to Noam Chomsky and
the general public.</B></I></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman"><I><B><A
href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28343.htm">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28343.htm</A><BR></B></I><BR>Dear
Noam and friends<BR><BR>Patrick Lannan has issued a statement breaking almost a
week`s silence since his sudden and unprecedented cancellation of my visit to
the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe for the US premiere of my film, The War You
Don`t See. See the statement at <A
href="http://www.lannan.org/">www.lannan.org</A> <BR><BR>The reason that
Lannan gives for the cancellation is that too few seats were sold for the event
on June 15 planned a year ago, in which David Barsamian and I were to be in
conversation about the media, US foreign policy and freedom of speech. "In our
opinion," writes Lannan, "to have Mr. Pilger travel thousands of miles from
London to Santa Fe to face such a low turn-out would have been embarrassing for
him."<BR><BR>This is specious at best, absurd in reality. On 9 June, Barbara
Ventrello, Lannan`s Director of Cultural Freedom Special Projects, with whom I
had been in contact on almost a daily basis in preparation for the event and the
screening of my film, emailed me:<BR><BR>"Dear John<BR><BR>I have just received
a call from Patrick Lannan ... Something has come up and he has asked me to
cancel all events next week. He did not go into details and so I have no idea
what this is about, and I apologize ... We thank you for your
understanding.<BR><BR>with best regards<BR><BR>Barbara"<BR><BR>If Lannan was
cancelling my event because of the low turn-out, the principal organiser Barbara
Ventrello would have known. Instead she "has no idea what this is all
about".<BR><BR>I replied to her and Patrick Lannan that this presented a
horrendous re-organisational situation as Lannan had accepted my offer to stage
the US premiere of my film in The Screen cinema in Santa Fe. In his statement,
Lannan distorts this as a "request". There was no request. At the time, the
reply was that it would be an "honour" to show the film.<BR>I was later informed
by the manager of the cinema that a Lannan official had called to withdraw the
advertising for the film. The same official withdrew advertising from the Santa
Fe New Mexican and urged the paper to "pull" the major feature it was running
about the film.<BR><BR>In my response, I asked that the film`s screening go
ahead as its national promotional campaign was linked to the premiere in Santa
Fe. This is the reply I received:<BR><BR>"Dear John<BR><BR>I am very sorry, but
as stated in my email to you yesterday, all events related to your visit to
Santa Fe are canceled. This includes the screening of your
film.<BR><BR>Regards<BR><BR>Barbara"<BR><BR>Again, no reason was given. Not one
of my subsequent emails and phone calls were returned, and no one called me. I
have not known anything like it. Like all of us, the cinema management were
shocked. I was informed by groups in Santa Fe who have organised similar events
that the idea that too few tickets had been sold for the Pilger/Barsamnian event
is "near impossible". When I tried to buy the air ticket Lannan had arranged for
me, I was told by the travel agent: "I don`t understand it. They won`t allow you
to buy it, even though this ticket, when cancelled, will be worthless. I have
never known anything like this."<BR><BR>The truth is that there was not the
slightest hint from Lannan until virtually the eve of my departure that my
appearance would be anything but "very popular". I don`t know why Patrick Lannan
acted the way he did. At the very least, he has demonstrated that his wealth and
power give him the capricious license to do what he wants to do when and how he
wants to do it and without explanation, regardless of the consequences. Clearly,
the tone and barely credible explanation now offered is designed to humiliate
me. For him to now claim a self-regarding mantle as a patron of dissenting
writers and film-makers, like myself, is disingenuous in the extreme and, again,
absurd. Over 40 years an an investigative journalist and film-maker, I have
faced similar action in its various guises, and it reveals itself whenever it
happens. This is crude censorship however inexplicable and regardless of
reputation and patronage.<BR><BR>Regards<BR><BR>John Pilger</FONT></P>
<P><I><B>See also:</B></I> <A
href="http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Opinion/Editorial-for-June-16--2011#disqus_thread">Lannan
credibility suffers self-injury</A></P></SPAN></BODY></HTML>