Left-wing journalist John Pilger made an unusual last request that his computer and its hard drive be destroyed after his death.
Probate records reveal that Pilger, who left an estate worth £3.3million, made the stipulation in his will to ensure that nobody else could ever read his private emails.
The crusading journalist and activist who often criticised American and UK foreign policy while admiring some authoritarian regimes, did not explain the reasons for the clause which was the last entry on the final page of his will.
The clause read: ‘I further request that my son Sam ensure that my personal computer and its hard drive are destroyed so that its email record is unavailable to all.’
n-born Pilger who made more than 60 documentaries before he died aged 84 on December 30, 2023, left a net estate in the UK of £3,371,322 before payment of inheritance tax.
The bulk of his estate was left to his long term partner, magazine journalist Jane Hill, and son Sam.
Father-of-two Pilger who was a prominent supporter of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange made his mark as an investigative journalist, working in troublespots and speaking out for oppressed people around the world.
He famously entered Cambodia while working for the Daily Mirror in 1979 and exposed how Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime had murdered two million people from a population of just seven million before being overthrown by Vietnam.
His subsequent documentary about the ‘Killing Fields’ genocide called Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia, was watched in 50 countries by 150 million viewers, and won more than 30 international awards.
Pilger also won acclaim for his film Death Of A Nation in 1994 which revealed how British arms were being used by the brutal Indonesian regime to suppress an uprising after he and his producer bravely entered East Timor undercover.
In another 2004 documentary Stealing A Nation, he told how British governments of the late 1960s and early 1970s expelled the indigenous population of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to make way for the Diego Garcia military base.
But critics of Pilger claim his anti-American stance led to led him embracing dictators who hated the U.S.
His interview with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in 2007 was described by the left-wing New Statesman as ‘one of the most toe-curlingly obsequious episodes in modern cinema, putting to shame any run-of-the-mill Hollywood political toadie’.
A few months after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, Pilger wrote in the Guardian that Putin was ‘the only leader to condemn the rise of fascism in 21st-century Europe’.
Pilger had his son from his 1971 marriage to the journalist Scarth Flett which ended in divorce. He also had a daughter, Zoe, from a relationship with the journalist Yvonne Roberts.
His will stipulated that his home in Clapham, south west London, be split in three equal shares between Ms Hill and his two children.
Ms Hill, his partner of 30 years, was also left the contents of his London home, as well as a gift of £150,000, and his house in Tuscany where he reportedly displayed photographs of himself in the company of various freedom fighters and Left-wing despots.
The will also made her the literary trustee for his books, articles, films and recorded interviews.
Pilger also left £50,000 for ITV to set up a potentially annual award in his memory for campaigning documentary film makers or journalists.
Pilger stipulated his award should go to anyone judged to have ‘done most to promote an understanding of the struggles of ordinary people for their basic human rights such as freedom from poverty and preventable disease, freedom from political oppression, and freedom of speech anywhere in the world.’
He also left a number of legacies to charitable causes, including £5,000 each to the Palestine Welfare Corporation, the Street Souls charity for the homeless and Medical and Scientific Aid for Vietnam with a request that it help victims of Agent Orange.
There were also gifts of $5,000 to the left wing American anti-war organisation Codepink – Women for Peace and $10,000 to Consortium News.
Other personal legacies included £30,000 for his friend Karen Hawker, £10,000 to film editor Joe Frost who worked on his documentaries and £20,000 to Oliver Doward as a personal gift, and to help maintain his website.
The will stipulated that the residuary of his estate be shared between his son and Ms Hill.
He also requested he be cremated after a non-religious funeral ceremony which he said should include the playing of ‘the liveliest songs from the movie the Blues Brothers’ along with ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ by Sam Cooke and ‘No More Whispering’ by Glenn Skuthorpe.
Pilger’s son Sam did not respond to a request for comment.