The winner of this year's Sydney Peace Prize, John Pilger, has labelled the federal government's asylum-seeker policy "illegal and immoral".
The celebrated Australian journalist, author and filmmaker will be presented with the Sydney Peace Foundation award on Wednesday.
In announcing the award in August, Sydney Peace Foundation Professor Stuart Rees said the jury was impressed by Mr Pilger's courage as well as his skills and creativity.
"His commitment to uncovering human rights abuses shines through his numerous books, films and articles," Prof Rees said.
Examples of Mr Pilger's work include his 1979 film Year Zero: the Silent Death of Cambodia, depicting the horrors of the Pol Pot regime and the plight of the Khmer people.
His 1994 film Death of a Nation, shot undercover in East Timor, galvanised worldwide support for the East Timorese people.
Speaking to AAP on Wednesday, Mr Pilger denounced the federal government's treatment of asylum seekers.
"What the Rudd government is doing in preventing them from landing or trying to bribe Indonesia to take them or interning them in what's effectively a concentration camp on Christmas Island ... is both illegal and immoral."
Mr Pilger said the one difference between the actions of Kevin Rudd and former prime minister John Howard was "hypocrisy".
Mr Pilger noted that in an essay in The Monthly magazine published not long before Mr Rudd became prime minister, he lauded the moral principles of the good Samaritan and left no doubt that he believed refugees should not be treated the way Jews fleeing Nazi Germany were - that is, prevented from entering western countries, including Australia.
"But now Rudd says the diametric opposite: that his government would be 'tough' on 'illegal immigrants'. The term itself is a lie.
"Refugees are not illegal - international law is clear on that.
"When are Australians going to speak out against this outrage being perpetrated in our name?"
Mr Pilger will deliver his Sydney Prize Lecture, titled Breaking the Australian Silence, at the Sydney Opera House on Thursday.
The Sydney Peace Prize is Australia's only international prize for peace, and previous recipients include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, and, last year, Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson.
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