Robert Fisk, Journalist — R.I.P.

[Tom Paine 1949]

Robert Fisk (1946 – 2020) was to my mind the finest Western journalist covering the Middle East. A man of unflinching integrity and personal bravery, he lived there for four decades while maintaining both British and Irish citizenship. His reports were never just about “good guys” and “bad guys,” but always unique and usually from the front lines. He became famous for interviewing Bin Laden and reporting from Baghdad during the U.S. war, but no short orbituary could do him justice.

Here is an excerpt from The Independent, which published his stories over many years. It also reprints some of his most famous stories:

Robert Fisk was The Independent’s multi-award-winning Middle East correspondent. He lived in the Arab world for more than 40 years, covering the war in Syria and Lebanon, five Israeli invasions, the Iran-Iraq war, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Algerian civil war, Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, the Bosnian and Kosovo wars, the American invasion and occupation of Iraq and the 2011 Arab revolutions. He passed away in October 2020 aged 74.

Robert Fisk | The Independent

 

[Tom Paine 1949]

A fine article on the continuing attempts of corporate media to blacken the reputation of the finest Western journalist on the Middle East:

The Smearing of Robert Fisk...Now That He Can't Defend Himself

Something remarkable even by the usually dismal standards of the stenographic media blue-tick brigade has been happening in the past few days. Leading journalists in the corporate media have suddenly felt the urgent need not only to criticise the late, much-respected foreign correspondent Robert...

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