Editing John Pilger (section)

===Thai slavery story===
In 1982 Pilger authored an article for the ''Daily Mirror'' in which he wrote that he had bought an 8-year-old Thai slave girl for £85, and subsequently to have discovered her village of origin in Northern Thailand and returned her to her mother, with Pilger pledging money to support the girl's education. This story was subsequently cast into doubt by an investigation in the ''Far Eastern Economic Review'' (FEER) which uncovered that the girl and her mother had been paid to play their respective parts by a fixer working for Pilger. Pilger accused those involved at FEER of being CIA agents{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}. An article by the right-wing journalist [[Auberon Waugh]] to ''The Spectator'' cast further doubt on the story. Pilger threatened ''The Spectator'' with an action for libel. In responding to [[The Bulletin (Australian periodical)|The Bulletin]]'s coverage of the issue Pilger wrote the following on 17 August 1982:

'''I Do Not Believe I was Hoaxed'''{{Blockquote|text="I AM sorry The Bulletin published an article about me (August 3) without seeking my side of the story. The writer, Robert Darroch, quoted me but I never spoke to him: a salutary experience for  a journalist such as myself. I appreciate the opportunity to make the following facts clear. I am suing The Spectator and its writer, Auberon Waugh, for one reason and one reason only: that in the June 12 issue Waugh gave approval and credibility to a totally untrue and bogus tale from Bangkok  that I, together with the author of a United Nations report on child slavery in Thailand, a photographer and a Thai human rights official, somehow “set up”  the buying of a child..."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1444984543/view?sectionId=nla.obj-1647594092&partId=nla.obj-1445005957#page/n99/mode/1up/search/pilger |title=I do not believe I was hoaxed|publisher=[[The Bulletin (Australian periodical)|The Bulletin]] |access-date=1 February 2025}}</ref>}}Pilger went on in his letter to point out that he wasn't in Thailand on the month it was alleged to have occurred.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vol. 102 No. 5327 (17 Aug 1982) |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1444984543/view?sectionId=nla.obj-1647594092&partId=nla.obj-1445005957#page/n99/mode/1up |access-date=2025-02-07 |website=Trove |language=en}}</ref> The matter was settled out of court without any payment to Pilger.<ref name="Times obituary2">{{cite news |date=31 December 2023 |title=John Pilger, campaigning Australian journalist, dies aged 84 |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/john-pilger-dies-journalist-australia-q5jz8nc9b |access-date=4 January 2024 |work=[[The Times]]}}</ref><ref name="Waugh 19822">{{cite news |last1=Waugh |first1=Auberon |date=12 June 1982 |title=Another voice: Thai 'slave-girl' mystery |url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/12th-june-1982/4/another-voice |access-date=4 January 2024 |work=Spectator}}</ref>